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Ollama Web Search

OpenClaw supports Ollama Web Search as a bundled web_search provider. It uses Ollama’s experimental web-search API and returns structured results with titles, URLs, and snippets. Unlike the Ollama model provider, this setup does not need an API key by default. It does require:
  • an Ollama host that is reachable from OpenClaw
  • ollama signin

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Setup

1

Start Ollama

Make sure Ollama is installed and running.
2

Sign in

Run:
ollama signin
3

Choose Ollama Web Search

Run:
openclaw configure --section web
Then select Ollama Web Search as the provider.
If you already use Ollama for models, Ollama Web Search reuses the same configured host.

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Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "ollama",
      },
    },
  },
}
Optional Ollama host override: 
{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434",
      },
    },
  },
}
If no explicit Ollama base URL is set, OpenClaw uses http://127.0.0.1:11434. If your Ollama host expects bearer auth, OpenClaw reuses models.providers.ollama.apiKey (or the matching env-backed provider auth) for web-search requests too.

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Notes

  • No web-search-specific API key field is required for this provider.
  • If the Ollama host is auth-protected, OpenClaw reuses the normal Ollama provider API key when present.
  • OpenClaw warns during setup if Ollama is unreachable or not signed in, but it does not block selection.
  • Runtime auto-detect can fall back to Ollama Web Search when no higher-priority credentialed provider is configured.
  • The provider uses Ollama’s experimental /api/experimental/web_search endpoint.