openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix web_search: maxResults hardcoded to 5, should be configurable via tools.web.search.maxResults

Problem

The web_search tool hardcodes maxResults: 5 and the schema validation blocks attempts to override it via gateway config.patch:

gateway config.patch cannot change protected config paths: maxResults, timeoutSeconds

Even though tools.web.search.maxResults is documented and appears in the config schema, the value is protected and cannot be changed at runtime.

Expected Behavior

tools.web.search.maxResults should be configurable like other tool settings (e.g. apiKey, timeoutSeconds).

The schema hint already defines the field:

• Type: integer
• Range: 1-10
• But marked protected, cannot patch

Impact

• Users with self-hosted SearXNG instances (which supports 20+ results) are limited to 5 results in the native web_search tool
• The web-search-pro skill's search.mjs accepts -n parameter up to 20, proving the backend supports more results
• For research-heavy workflows, 5 results is often insufficient

Suggested Fix

Remove maxResults and timeoutSeconds from the protected config paths list, or expose them as configurable fields in the schema.

Workaround

Currently using node search.mjs -n 10 --engine searxng from the web-search-pro skill as a workaround, but this bypasses the native tool interface.