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Version: 2.31

You.com Search

haystack_integrations.components.websearch.youcom.youcom_websearch​

YouComError​

Bases: ComponentError

An error occurred while querying the You.com Search API.

YouComWebSearch​

A component that uses the You.com Search API to search the web and return results as Haystack Documents.

Works with zero configuration: when no API key is available, searches use You.com's keyless free tier (rate limited per IP), so getting-started pipelines run without any setup. Set the YOUDOTCOM_API_KEY environment variable (or pass api_key) to use the keyed You.com Search API with higher limits.

Pass keyless_fallback=False to require a key and fail fast instead of degrading to the keyless tier — useful in production pipelines where a missing key should surface as an error.

Usage example​

python
from haystack_integrations.components.websearch.youcom import YouComWebSearch

websearch = YouComWebSearch(top_k=5)  # no API key needed to get started
result = websearch.run(query="What is Haystack by deepset?")
documents = result["documents"]
links = result["links"]

init​

python
__init__(
    api_key: Secret = Secret.from_env_var(API_KEY_ENV_VAR, strict=False),
    keyless_fallback: bool = True,
    top_k: int | None = 10,
    freshness: str | None = None,
    country: str | None = None,
    search_lang: str | None = None,
    safesearch: str | None = None,
    extra_params: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
    timeout: int = 10,
    max_retries: int = 3,
) -> None

Initialize the YouComWebSearch component.

Parameters:

  • api_key (Secret) – You.com API key. Defaults to the YOUDOTCOM_API_KEY environment variable. Resolved leniently, so an unset key is not an error — see keyless_fallback for what happens then.
  • keyless_fallback (bool) – What to do when no API key resolves. When True (the default), search the keyless free tier, which needs no credentials but is rate limited per IP; the component logs which endpoint it selected. When False, raise YouComError instead, so a missing key fails fast rather than silently degrading.
  • top_k (int | None) – Maximum number of results to return per section (web, news). Maps to the count parameter in the You.com API (1-100).
  • freshness (str | None) – Only return results from within the given window: "day", "week", "month", "year", or a date range in the format "YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD".
  • country (str | None) – 2-letter country code determining the geographical focus of web results (e.g. "US", "DE").
  • search_lang (str | None) – Language of the returned web results in BCP 47 format (e.g. "EN", "PT-BR"). Maps to the language parameter in the You.com API.
  • safesearch (str | None) – Content moderation level: "off", "moderate", or "strict".
  • extra_params (dict[str, Any] | None) – Additional query parameters passed directly to the You.com Search API (e.g. {"include_domains": "nytimes.com,bbc.com"}).
  • timeout (int) – Timeout in seconds for the HTTP request. Defaults to 10.
  • max_retries (int) – Maximum number of retry attempts on transient failures. Defaults to 3.

run​

python
run(query: str, top_k: int | None = None) -> dict[str, Any]

Search the web using the You.com Search API and return results as Documents.

Parameters:

  • query (str) – Search query string.
  • top_k (int | None) – Optional per-run override of the maximum number of results. If not provided, the init-time top_k is used.

Returns:

  • dict[str, Any] – A dictionary with:
  • documents: List of Documents containing search result content.
  • links: List of URLs from the search results.

Raises:

  • YouComError – If the You.com Search API request fails.

run_async​

python
run_async(query: str, top_k: int | None = None) -> dict[str, Any]

Asynchronously search the web using the You.com Search API and return results as Documents.

Parameters:

  • query (str) – Search query string.
  • top_k (int | None) – Optional per-run override of the maximum number of results. If not provided, the init-time top_k is used.

Returns:

  • dict[str, Any] – A dictionary with:
  • documents: List of Documents containing search result content.
  • links: List of URLs from the search results.

Raises:

  • YouComError – If the You.com Search API request fails.