Configuring Research Sources

Your research reports are only as good as your sources. In this lesson, you'll connect OpenClaw to search APIs, news feeds, and academic databases so the pipeline has high-quality data to work with.

Prerequisites

Understanding the Source Architecture

  Source Layer
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │                                             │
  │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐    │
  │  │  Web     │  │  News   │  │ Academic│    │
  │  │  Search  │  │  APIs   │  │ DBs     │    │
  │  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘    │
  │       │            │            │          │
  │       └────────────┼────────────┘          │
  │                    │                       │
  │              Source Router                  │
  │         (picks sources per topic)           │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Source Router analyzes your research request and decides which sources to query. A market analysis request hits financial APIs; an academic topic queries Semantic Scholar. You configure which sources are available — OpenClaw decides when to use them.

Add a Web Search Source

Open your OpenClaw configuration and add a web search provider. Brave Search is recommended for its generous free tier.

openclaw.config.yaml

Add a News Source

News sources keep your reports current. Add NewsAPI or an RSS aggregator.

openclaw.config.yaml

RSS as a Free Alternative

If you don't have a NewsAPI key, you can add RSS feeds from industry publications. OpenClaw will parse them as a news source:

- name: tech-news-rss
  type: rss
  feeds:
    - https://techcrunch.com/feed/
    - https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index
  max_items: 20

Add an Academic Source (Optional)

For research that needs peer-reviewed data, connect Semantic Scholar.

openclaw.config.yaml

Semantic Scholar's API is free without a key (100 requests/5 min). An API key bumps that to 1,000 requests/5 min.

Set Source Priorities

Tell OpenClaw which sources to prefer for different research categories.

openclaw.config.yaml

Test Your Configuration

Verify everything is connected with a quick test.

Terminal

openclaw research test-sources

Expected output:

Source Test Results

You can add any REST API as a research source. Define the endpoint, headers, and a response mapping so OpenClaw knows how to extract results.

openclaw.config.yaml

Set global rate limits to prevent runaway API costs.

openclaw.config.yaml

OpenClaw tracks usage and will fall back to secondary sources if a primary source hits its limit.

Knowledge Check

Why does OpenClaw use a Source Router instead of querying all sources for every request?