How to Use Perplexity Sonar in Openclaw

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Quick Start

Perplexity Sonar brings real-time web search with citations directly into Openclaw. This guide shows you how to configure it in under 5 minutes.

Get Your API Key

Visit Perplexity API settings and create an account
Generate a new API key (starts with pplx-)

Configuration Options

Option A: CLI Wizard (Recommended)

Run the interactive configuration wizard:

Openclaw configure --section web

This saves your key to ~/.Openclaw/Openclaw.json under tools.web.search.perplexity.apiKey.

Option B: Environment Variable

Set PERPLEXITY_API_KEY in your Gateway environment. For daemon installs, add to ~/.Openclaw/.env:

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."

Option C: Manual Configuration

Edit ~/.Openclaw/Openclaw.json directly:

{
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "provider": "perplexity",
        "perplexity": {
          "apiKey": "pplx-..."
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For more web search options, check out our guide on Firecrawl Web Scraping or learn about Elevated Mode Openclaw for advanced permissions.

Test Your Setup

Once configured, test Perplexity search:

"Search for the latest OpenAI model releases using Perplexity"

Troubleshooting

Key not recognized: Verify the key starts with pplx- and is saved correctly
Search fails: Check your API key has available quota in Perplexity dashboard
Gateway restart required: After config changes, run Openclaw gateway restart

Pro tip: Perplexity Sonar provides cited sources with every response—perfect for research tasks requiring verified information.