Search Tips by malob — AI Skill for Any LLM

Overview

Publisher	malob
Repository	`nix-config`
Skill name	`search-tips`
Stars	463
Forks	37
Bundled files	9
License	MIT
Links	Skill source Repository

Markdown instructions

A SKILL.md file the model loads on demand, so it only costs tokens when a request actually matches.

Works with any LLM

AI skills are plain Markdown, not provider-specific code, so this works with GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model.

9 bundled files

Scripts, templates, and references the model can read while it works. Files are read-only and never executed.

Open source

Published by malob on GitHub. Read the source before you install it.

Installation

Install the Search Tips AI skill in TypingMind to use it with any LLM, or drop it into another agent that reads SKILL.md.

Install in TypingMind

TypingMind installs a skill straight from its GitHub folder — it reads SKILL.md, bundles the resource files, and stores the result locally.

Open the app and go to Plugins → Skills.
Choose "Install from GitHub".
Paste the skill folder URL below and confirm.
https://github.com/malob/nix-config/tree/master/configs/claude/skills/search-tips
Enable the skill in any chat where you want it available.

Plugins → Skills → Add skill → From GitHub URL, then paste the folder URL and press Continue.

Install in another agent

Any agent that reads the Agent Skills format can use this skill — copy the folder into that agent's skills directory.

Claude Code — .claude/skills

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/malob/nix-config.git /tmp/nix-config
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/nix-config/configs/claude/skills/search-tips .claude/skills/search-tips

Restart Claude Code after copying so it picks up the new skill.

Use it in TypingMind

Enable Search Tips in any TypingMind chat and the model takes it from there. Its name and description sit in the system prompt, and the moment a request matches, the model loads the full instructions itself — you never invoke it by hand, and it costs no tokens until it is actually used.

The model loads Search Tips on its own as soon as a request matches it.

Works with any AI model

AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so Search Tips is not tied to the model it was written for. Install it once in TypingMind and use it with GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama, or a local model you run yourself — all on your own API keys.

Loaded only when it is needed

The system prompt carries just the name and description. The instructions are fetched on the first matching request, so an idle skill costs nothing.

Switch models mid-chat

Because the skill is instructions rather than code, changing model does not break it — the next model reads the same SKILL.md.

Skill instructions

This is the SKILL.md content the model loads. Read it before installing — a skill is instructions your model will follow.

Search Tips

Accumulated guidance for web research using Exa, Firecrawl CLI, and Reddit MCP tools. These are starting points, not rigid rules -- think strategically about each situation and adapt. If a different approach makes more sense for what you're trying to do, go with it. Run npx firecrawl-cli <command> --help to check available options beyond what's documented here. Reference files cover tool-specific deep dives -- see bottom of this file.

Setup

Before starting research, load the required MCP tools using ToolSearch:

Exa tools -- web_search_advanced_exa and get_code_context_exa
Reddit tools -- get_top_posts, get_post_comments, get_reddit_post, get_subreddit_info

Firecrawl CLI (npx firecrawl-cli) runs via Bash -- no MCP setup needed. Load only what the task requires.

The Research Cycle

Prefer Exa and Firecrawl over built-in WebSearch/WebFetch.

Research alternates between searching (discovering sources) and fetching (extracting content from them). Find promising leads, read the best ones, refine your understanding, search again.

Searching

Finding sources you don't have yet.

Exa search (web_search_advanced_exa) -- primary tool for web discovery. Natural language queries, add filters as needed (domains, dates, categories).
Exa code context (get_code_context_exa) -- programming topics. Worth trying before general Exa search for technical/code tasks -- surfaces repos, packages, and docs.
Firecrawl CLI search (npx firecrawl-cli search) -- Google-powered keyword search. Useful when keyword matching works better than Exa's semantic approach, for site-scoped queries (site:reddit.com {query}), and for content-type filtering (--categories research for academic, --sources news, --tbs qdr:w for time).

Default Exa search pattern: Default to enableHighlights: true and textMaxCharacters: 1. This returns quoted passages from actual page text while preventing the MCP server from flooding context with full text. Use highlightsPerUrl and highlightsNumSentences to control volume if needed.

Fetching

Extracting content from a source you've identified.

Firecrawl CLI scrape (npx firecrawl-cli scrape "<url>" --only-main-content) -- primary tool for reading a known URL. The flag strips nav/sidebars to save tokens.
Reddit MCP (get_post_comments, get_reddit_post) -- for reading Reddit threads. Firecrawl can't scrape reddit.com directly.
Firecrawl CLI map (npx firecrawl-cli map "<url>" --search "query") -- discover URLs on a site (useful when you need to find the right page, or when scrape returns empty).

Adapting the Workflow

The defaults above won't always be right. Some common deviations:

Exa full text as a scraping fallback -- some sites are blocked or inaccessible via Firecrawl (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, etc.), but Exa often has the full page text in its index. Drop both enableHighlights and textMaxCharacters: 1 to get the complete text. Be aware this can produce large responses.
--only-main-content can strip too much -- if you got empty or partial results, retry without the flag. Known to fail on Future plc sites, Blogspot, and GDPR-heavy sites. See Content Extraction below.

The reference files cover more edge cases -- scraping issues, category restrictions, and academic search.

Search Strategy

How Exa Works

Exa is a neural/semantic search engine. It uses embeddings to understand meaning.

Natural questions or statements work best -- Exa finds pages that answer them
Longer, more specific queries work BETTER -- unlike keyword-based search
Keyword lists tend to confuse the semantic model

Good: "What do professional reviewers say are the most reliable dishwasher brands in 2025?" Bad: "best dishwasher 2025 reliable"

Query Reformulation

For broad topics, Exa's additionalQueries parameter can automate this -- it bundles query variations in a single call at no extra cost (see references/exa-tips.md). For manual reformulation, try generating 3-5 query variations:

Technique	What It Does	Example
Paraphrase	Same meaning, different words	"RAG failures" -> "problems in RAG systems"
Decompose	Break into sub-questions	"Why fail?" -> "Why return irrelevant docs?"
Scope shift	Broader context or narrower specifics	"Challenges in production AI search"
Perspective shift	Different viewpoints	User vs expert vs critic view
Temporal framing	Target different time periods	"Recent 2024-2025" vs "foundational"

Domain Filtering

Try includeDomains when the authoritative site for a topic is known -- faster and less noisy than broad search. Try excludeDomains to suppress sites that keep appearing but aren't useful (e.g., exclude youtube.com when video pages crowd out needed editorial content about YouTube creators/content).

Searching by Content Type

Match your research target to the right approach. Reference files have full strategies.

Social sentiment / opinions -- Exa tweet for Twitter; site:reddit.com via Firecrawl search + Reddit MCP for discussions. See references/twitter.md, references/reddit.md.
People / companies -- Exa people or company category for discovery, then broaden. See references/people-companies.md.
Academic papers -- Exa research paper category; academic APIs for structured data. See references/academic-search.md.
Code / GitHub -- get_code_context_exa for code; gh api for repo data. See references/code-github.md.
News -- Exa news category with date filters; Firecrawl CLI search --sources news --tbs qdr:w for Google News with time filtering.
Financial reports -- Exa financial report with domain/date filtering.
Personal blogs / independent takes -- Exa personal site for practitioner opinions, blog posts, and independent analysis. Full parameter support (unlike most specialized categories). See references/personal-sites.md.

Some categories reject certain parameters (400/500 errors). See references/exa-tips.md.

Content Extraction

Always use --only-main-content by default -- it strips nav, sidebars, and footers, saving significant tokens. If you get empty or partial results, retry without the flag; it's known to strip article bodies on Future plc sites (iMore, Pocket-lint), GDPR-heavy sites (StorageReview), and Blogspot blogs -- see references/scraping-issues.md.

For even narrower extraction, use --include-tags (e.g., --include-tags "article", --include-tags ".post-content").

Scraping Issues

When Firecrawl scrape fails (policy blocks, paywalls, SPA rendering), check references/scraping-issues.md for per-site workarounds. General fallback: try Exa full text (drop enableHighlights and textMaxCharacters). For interactive pages that need clicks or form fills, escalate to npx firecrawl-cli browser (see references/firecrawl-tips.md).

Operational Notes

Parallel call failures: If any tool call in a parallel batch fails, all sibling calls fail too. Retry individually. Keep failure-prone calls (Reddit MCP) in their own batch.

Rate limits: Retry once after a short pause. If still blocked, try a different tool for the same intent before giving up -- Exa rate-limited? Try Firecrawl search. Reddit MCP throttled? Try Exa with includeDomains: ["reddit.com"]. Only note the gap and move on after both the original tool and an alternative have failed.

Reference Files

Content-type strategies

references/twitter.md -- Exa tweet category, restrictions, query tips, livecrawl
references/reddit.md -- Discovery via Firecrawl search, Reddit MCP for reading, batching gotchas, rate limits
references/people-companies.md -- Exa people/company categories, LinkedIn, multi- category approach
references/code-github.md -- Code search, GitHub repos/issues, gh api, raw URLs
references/personal-sites.md -- Independent blogs, practitioner opinions, full parameter support, portfolio exploration
references/academic-search.md -- Academic domains, free APIs, Firecrawl CLI

Tool reference

references/exa-tips.md -- Category restrictions, additionalQueries, highlights/summaries
references/firecrawl-tips.md -- CLI commands (search, scrape, map, crawl, download, browser), PDF scraping, arxiv extraction, MCP fallback notes

Troubleshooting

references/scraping-issues.md -- main-content detection fixes, paywalls, Discourse JSON, policy-blocked sites, API workarounds

Frequently asked questions

What does the Search Tips AI skill do?

This skill should be used when performing web research beyond a simple single search -- looking into topics, comparing options, investigating questions, finding recommendations, or any task where effective use of Exa, Firecrawl, and Reddit tools matters. Triggers on "research", "look into", "investigate", "compare", "find out about", "search for", "find information", "what do people think about", "what are the best", "look up", or multi-source search tasks. Also invocable explicitly by deep-research team members via the Skill tool.

Why use Search Tips on TypingMind?

Because you install it once and use it with any model. Search Tips is plain Markdown rather than provider-specific code, so the same skill runs on GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model — and you can switch model mid-chat without it breaking. TypingMind runs on your own API keys, so you pay providers directly instead of a per-seat subscription, and your skills and chats stay in your own storage.

How do I install Search Tips in TypingMind?

Open Plugins → Skills → Install from GitHub in TypingMind and paste https://github.com/malob/nix-config/tree/master/configs/claude/skills/search-tips. TypingMind reads its SKILL.md and bundles its files and installs it as a skill you can enable per chat.

Which AI models can use Search Tips?

Any model you connect in TypingMind. AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and local models can all load this skill when a request matches it.

How many AI models can I use with Search Tips?

As many as you like. As long as a model supports skills, you can use Search Tips with it — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama and more — all on TypingMind with your own API keys.

Is the Search Tips AI skill free?

Yes. It is published on GitHub by malob under the MIT license. You only pay your own AI provider for the tokens you use.

What are AI skills?

An AI skill is a reusable instruction bundle that teaches an AI model how to do one specific task. It follows the open Agent Skills format: a SKILL.md file with a name and description, plus any scripts, templates or reference files the model may need. The model reads the instructions only when your request matches the skill, so an installed skill costs nothing until it is used.

How are AI skills different from plugins or MCP servers?

A plugin or MCP server gives a model new tools to call — code that runs somewhere and returns a result. An AI skill gives the model knowledge and process instead: how to approach a task, which steps to follow, what good output looks like. Skills are plain Markdown, so they need no server, no API key and no runtime, and they work with any model.

Overview

Installation

Install in TypingMind

Install in another agent

Use it in TypingMind

Works with any AI model

Skill instructions

Search Tips

Setup

The Research Cycle

Searching

Fetching

Adapting the Workflow

Search Strategy

How Exa Works

Query Reformulation

Domain Filtering

Searching by Content Type

Content Extraction

Scraping Issues

Operational Notes

Reference Files

Content-type strategies

Tool reference

Troubleshooting

Bundled files

Frequently asked questions

Related AI Skills

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