Perplexity

The Perplexity plugin provides web search capabilities through the Perplexity Search API or Perplexity Sonar via OpenRouter.

Note

This page is the Perplexity provider setup. For the Perplexity tool (how the agent uses it), see Perplexity tool.

Property	Value
Type	Web search provider (not a model provider)
Auth	PERPLEXITY_API_KEY (direct) or OPENROUTER_API_KEY (via OpenRouter)
Config path	plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey

Getting started

1. Set the API key

   Run the interactive web-search configuration flow:

   openclaw configure --section web

   Or set the key directly:

   openclaw config set plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey "pplx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

2. Start searching

   The agent will automatically use Perplexity for web searches once the key is configured. No additional steps are required.

Search modes

The plugin auto-selects the transport based on API key prefix:

Native Perplexity API (pplx-)OpenRouter / Sonar (sk-or-)

When your key starts with pplx-, OpenClaw uses the native Perplexity Search API. This transport returns structured results and supports domain, language, and date filters (see filtering options below).

When your key starts with sk-or-, OpenClaw routes through OpenRouter using the Perplexity Sonar model. This transport returns AI-synthesized answers with citations.

Key prefix	Transport	Features
pplx-	Native Perplexity Search API	Structured results, domain/language/date filters
sk-or-	OpenRouter (Sonar)	AI-synthesized answers with citations

Native API filtering

Note

Filtering options are only available when using the native Perplexity API (pplx- key). OpenRouter/Sonar searches do not support these parameters.

When using the native Perplexity API, searches support the following filters:

Filter	Description	Example
Country	2-letter country code	us, de, jp
Language	ISO 639-1 language code	en, fr, zh
Date range	Recency window	day, week, month, year
Domain filters	Allowlist or denylist (max 20 domains)	example.com
Content budget	Token limits per response / per page	max_tokens, max_tokens_per_page

Advanced configuration

Environment variable for daemon processes

If the OpenClaw Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is available to that process.

Warning

A key exported only in an interactive shell will not be visible to a launchd/systemd daemon unless that environment is explicitly imported. Set the key in ~/.openclaw/.env or via env.shellEnv to ensure the gateway process can read it.

OpenRouter proxy setup

If you prefer to route Perplexity searches through OpenRouter, set an OPENROUTER_API_KEY (prefix sk-or-) instead of a native Perplexity key. OpenClaw will detect the prefix and switch to the Sonar transport automatically.

Tip

The OpenRouter transport is useful if you already have an OpenRouter account and want consolidated billing across multiple providers.

Related

Perplexity search tool

How the agent invokes Perplexity searches and interprets results.

Configuration reference

Full configuration reference including plugin entries.