Google Search Block

The Google Search block searches the web using the Google Custom Search API, returning high-quality results from the entire internet or from a specific site defined by a custom search engine. Reach for it whenever a workflow needs live web data to ground answers, gather references, or feed downstream blocks with current information.

Overview

When to Use

• Fetch up-to-date web results to ground an agent's response with current, real-world information.
• Scope searches to a specific site or domain using a Google Programmable Search Engine ID.
• Collect source URLs, titles, and snippets for research or summarization pipelines.
• Verify facts or pull supporting links before generating or routing content.
• Power a "search the web" capability inside a larger multi-step automation.
• Feed search results into an Agent block or Function block for further processing.

Configuration

Search Query

Sub-block id: query | Type: long-input | Required: yes

The search terms to submit to Google. Accepts a literal string or a reference to an upstream block's output (e.g., {{start.input}}).

Custom Search Engine ID

Sub-block id: searchEngineId | Type: short-input | Required: yes

Your Google Programmable Search Engine (CSE) ID. This scopes which sites or the whole web are searched. Create and retrieve this value from https://programmablesearchengine.google.com.

API Key

Sub-block id: apiKey | Type: short-input | Required: yes | Sensitive: yes (password field)

Your Google Cloud API key with the Custom Search API enabled. Store it as an environment secret and reference it with {{GOOGLE_API_KEY}} rather than pasting it directly.

Number of Results

Sub-block id: num | Type: short-input | Required: yes

How many results to return. Defaults to 10 when left blank. The Google Custom Search API allows a maximum of 10 results per request.

Inputs & Outputs

• Inputs:

  • query (string) — Search query terms submitted to Google
  • apiKey (string) — Google API key used to authenticate the Custom Search API request
  • searchEngineId (string) — Custom Search Engine ID that defines the search scope
  • num (string) — Number of results to return (default: 10, max: 10)

• Outputs:

  • items (json) — Array of search result objects. Each item contains: title (string), link (string, full URL), snippet (string, descriptive excerpt), displayLink (string, display URL, optional), and pagemap (object, additional page metadata, optional).
  • searchInformation (json) — Metadata about the search execution. Contains: totalResults (string, estimated count of all matching results), searchTime (number, seconds taken), formattedSearchTime (string, human-readable search time), formattedTotalResults (string, human-readable total count).

Tools

Google Search (google_search) — Calls https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1 with the provided query, cx (searchEngineId), and key (apiKey) parameters via a GET request. Returns the parsed items array and searchInformation object from the Google Custom Search API response.

YAML Example

google_search_1:
  type: google_search
  name: "Google Search"
  inputs:
    query: "{{start.input}}"
    searchEngineId: "your-custom-search-engine-id"
    apiKey: "{{GOOGLE_API_KEY}}"
    num: "10"
  connections:
    outgoing:
      - target: next-block-id