Tavily Research

tavily research

AI-powered deep research that gathers sources, analyzes them, and produces a cited report. Takes 30-120 seconds.

Before running any command

If tvly is not found on PATH, install it first:

curl -fsSL https://cli.tavily.com/install.sh | bash && tvly login

Do not skip this step or fall back to other tools.

See tavily-cli for alternative install methods and auth options.

When to use

• You need comprehensive, multi-source analysis
• The user wants a comparison, market report, or literature review
• Quick searches aren't enough — you need synthesis with citations
• Step 5 in the workflow: search → extract → map → crawl → research

Quick start

# Basic research (waits for completion)
tvly research "competitive landscape of AI code assistants"

# Pro model for comprehensive analysis
tvly research "electric vehicle market analysis" --model pro

# Stream results in real-time
tvly research "AI agent frameworks comparison" --stream

# Save report to file
tvly research "fintech trends 2025" --model pro -o fintech-report.md

# JSON output for agents
tvly research "quantum computing breakthroughs" --json

Options

| Option | Description |

|--------|-------------|

| --model | mini, pro, or auto (default) |

| --stream | Stream results in real-time |

| --no-wait | Return request_id immediately (async) |

| --output-schema | Path to JSON schema for structured output |

| --citation-format | numbered, mla, apa, chicago |

| --poll-interval | Seconds between checks (default: 10) |

| --timeout | Max wait seconds (default: 600) |

| -o, --output | Save output to file |

| --json | Structured JSON output |

Model selection

| Model | Use for | Speed |

|-------|---------|-------|

| mini | Single-topic, targeted research | ~30s |

| pro | Comprehensive multi-angle analysis | ~60-120s |

| auto | API chooses based on complexity | Varies |

Rule of thumb: "What does X do?" → mini. "X vs Y vs Z" or "best way to..." → pro.

Async workflow

For long-running research, you can start and poll separately:

# Start without waiting
tvly research "topic" --no-wait --json    # returns request_id

# Check status
tvly research status <request_id> --json

# Wait for completion
tvly research poll <request_id> --json -o result.json

Tips

• Research takes 30-120 seconds — use --stream to see progress in real-time.
• Use --model pro for complex comparisons or multi-faceted topics.
• Use --output-schema to get structured JSON output matching a custom schema.
• For quick facts, use tvly search instead — research is for deep synthesis.
• Read from stdin: echo "query" | tvly research - --json

See also

• tavily-search — quick web search for simple lookups
• tavily-crawl — bulk extract from a site for your own analysis