Perform custom search

Custom search is a topic-level tool that your agent can use to perform a search, based on an input query. The search is grounded on a customized set of data sources. The tool returns raw, unsummarized results as an output variable. You can process the results and use them in downstream tasks.

When to use custom search

Use Custom search when you want to have full control to process the search output. For example, you can use the search results to filter out sensitive information before summarizing the results.

Add a custom search tool

1. Select the Add node icon below the node under which you want your agent to perform a custom search.

2. Select Add a tool and New tool (custom search).

   

   A Custom search node appears on the canvas.

   

Configure custom search tool

1. Under Input, enter the search query. The query can include variables, formulas, and plain text. To use the user message as input, set input to the System variable Activity.text.

2. Under Output, select a variable to store the search results.

3. Under Data sources, select Edit to specify knowledge sources and search properties. The Custom search properties pane appears.

   

   The Custom search properties pane provides you with several options to customize the search:

   • Select the Search only selected sources toggle to limit the search to only the selected knowledge sources.
   • Select Add knowledge to add a new knowledge source.
   • Select the Web search toggle to enable web search. This option lets the custom search tool query the web for additional information, in addition to the configured knowledge sources.
   • Select the Content moderation level checkbox to configure the content moderation level for the search query.
   • Select the Latency Message checkbox to configure a latency message.