openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix web_search tool description says Brave API even when DuckDuckGo is active [3 comments, 4 participants]

Bug type

Tool metadata / provider description mismatch

Summary

In a session where Brave Search is not configured, web_search correctly uses DuckDuckGo, but the assistant-facing tooling description says:

web_search: Search the web (Brave API)

This is misleading. It caused the assistant to incorrectly answer that web_search was using Brave, even though the actual tool result showed DuckDuckGo.

Expected behavior

The tool description should either:

• reflect the resolved active provider, e.g. Search the web using DuckDuckGo, or
• use provider-neutral wording, e.g. Search the web using the configured provider.

Actual behavior

The injected tooling note says Brave API, while web_search actually reports:

{
  "provider": "duckduckgo"
}

The exposed schema also contains DuckDuckGo-specific fields such as region and safeSearch.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use OpenClaw without configuring a Brave API key.
2. Start a session with web_search available.
3. Ask the assistant which provider web_search uses.
4. Observe the tool metadata says Brave API.
5. Invoke web_search.
6. Observe the result reports provider: "duckduckgo".

Related issue

Possibly related but not identical:

• #60194 — Brave configured but web_search still falls back to DuckDuckGo.

This issue is specifically about stale or incorrect tool metadata, not Brave activation failure.

Impact

Low severity, but confusing. It can make the assistant give incorrect information about which external search provider is being used.

Suggested fix

Generate the assistant-facing web_search description from the resolved active provider, or change it to provider-neutral wording.