valyu-best-practices

What this skill does

# Valyu Best Practices

This skill provides instructions for using the Valyu API to perform search, content extraction, AI-powered answers, and deep research tasks.

## Quick Reference: Choosing the Right API

Use this decision tree to select the appropriate Valyu API:

```
What do you need?

├─ Find information across multiple sources
│  └─ Use Search API
│
├─ Extract content from specific URLs
│  └─ Use Contents API
│
├─ Get an AI-synthesized answer with citations
│  └─ Use Answer API
│
├─ Generate a comprehensive research report
│  └─ Use DeepResearch API
│
└─ Discover available data sources
   └─ Use Datasources API
```

---

## ⚠️ MANDATORY: Use Official Valyu SDK Libraries

**CRITICAL: When writing code that uses the Valyu API, you MUST use the official SDK libraries. NEVER make raw HTTP/fetch calls to the Valyu API endpoints.**

### JavaScript/TypeScript: `valyu-js`

```bash
npm install valyu-js
# or
pnpm add valyu-js
```

```typescript
import { Valyu } from 'valyu-js';

const valyu = new Valyu(process.env.VALYU_API_KEY);

// Now use valyu.search(), valyu.contents(), valyu.answer(), valyu.deepResearch
```

### Python: `valyu`

```bash
pip install valyu
# or
uv add valyu
```

```python
from valyu import Valyu

valyu = Valyu(api_key=os.environ.get("VALYU_API_KEY"))

# Now use valyu.search(), valyu.contents(), valyu.answer(), valyu.deep_research
```

### Why SDK Over Raw API Calls?

1. **Type safety** - Full TypeScript/Python type hints for all parameters and responses
2. **Automatic retries** - Built-in retry logic for transient failures
3. **Streaming support** - Proper async iterator support for streaming responses
4. **Error handling** - Structured error types with helpful messages
5. **Future compatibility** - SDK updates handle API changes automatically

### ❌ NEVER Do This

```typescript
// DON'T make raw fetch calls
const response = await fetch('https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'x-api-key': apiKey,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ query: '...' })
});
```

### ✅ Always Do This

```typescript
// DO use the SDK
import { Valyu } from 'valyu-js';

const valyu = new Valyu(process.env.VALYU_API_KEY);
const response = await valyu.search({ query: '...' });
```

---

## 1. Search API

**Purpose:** Find information across web, academic, medical, transportation, financial, news, and proprietary sources.

### When to Use

- Finding recent information on any topic
- Academic research (arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, medRxiv)
- Financial data (SEC filings, earnings reports, stock data)
- News monitoring and current events
- Healthcare data (clinical trials, drug labels)
- Prediction markets (Polymarket, Kalshi)
- Transportation (UK National Rail, Global Shipping)

### Basic Usage

```typescript
const response = await valyu.search({
  query: "transformer architecture attention mechanism 2024",
  searchType: "all",
  maxNumResults: 10
});
```

### Search Types

| Type | Use For |
|------|---------|
| `all` | Everything - web, academic, financial, proprietary |
| `web` | General internet content only |
| `proprietary` | Licensed academic papers and research |
| `news` | News articles and current events |

### Key Parameters

| Parameter (TS/JS) | Parameter (Python) | Purpose | Example |
|-------------------|-------------------|---------|---------|
| `query` | `query` | Search query (under 400 chars) | `"CRISPR gene editing 2024"` |
| `searchType` | `search_type` | Source scope | `"all"`, `"web"`, `"proprietary"`, `"news"` |
| `maxNumResults` | `max_num_results` | Number of results (1-20) | `10` |
| `includedSources` | `included_sources` | Limit to specific sources | `["valyu/valyu-arxiv", "valyu/valyu-pubmed"]` |
| `startDate` / `endDate` | `start_date` / `end_date` | Date filtering | `"2024-01-01"` |
| `relevanceThreshold` | `relevance_threshold` | Minimum relevance (0-1) | `0.7` |

### Domain-Specific Search Patterns

**Academic Research:**
```typescript
await valyu.search({
  query: "CRISPR therapeutic applications clinical trials",
  searchType: "proprietary",
  includedSources: ["valyu/valyu-arxiv", "valyu/valyu-pubmed", "valyu/valyu-biorxiv"],
  startDate: "2024-01-01"
});
```

**Financial Analysis:**
```typescript
await valyu.search({
  query: "Apple revenue Q4 2024 earnings",
  searchType: "all",
  includedSources: ["valyu/valyu-sec-filings", "valyu/valyu-earnings-US"]
});
```

**News Monitoring:**
```typescript
await valyu.search({
  query: "AI regulation EU",
  searchType: "news",
  startDate: "2024-06-01",
  countryCode: "EU"
});
```

### Search Recipes

For detailed patterns, see:
- [Basic Search Patterns](references/search-recipes/basic-search-all.md)
- [Academic Search](references/search-recipes/academic-search.md)
- [Finance Search](references/search-recipes/finance-search.md)
- [News Search](references/search-recipes/news-search.md)
- [Healthcare Search](references/search-recipes/healthcare-and-bio-search.md)

---

## 2. Contents API

**Purpose:** Extract clean, structured content from web pages optimized for LLM processing.

### When to Use

- Converting web pages to clean markdown
- Extracting article text for summarization
- Parsing documentation for RAG systems
- Structured data extraction from product pages
- Processing academic papers

### Basic Usage

```typescript
const response = await valyu.contents({
  urls: ["https://example.com/article"]
});
```

### With Summarization

```typescript
const response = await valyu.contents({
  urls: ["https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345"],
  summary: "Extract key findings in 3 bullet points"
});
```

### Structured Extraction (JSON Schema)

```typescript
const response = await valyu.contents({
  urls: ["https://example.com/product"],
  summary: {
    type: "object",
    properties: {
      product_name: { type: "string" },
      price: { type: "number" },
      features: { type: "array", items: { type: "string" } }
    },
    required: ["product_name", "price"]
  }
});
```

### Key Parameters

| Parameter (TS/JS) | Parameter (Python) | Purpose | Example |
|-------------------|-------------------|---------|---------|
| `urls` | `urls` | URLs to process (1-10) | `["https://example.com"]` |
| `responseLength` | `response_length` | Content length | `"short"`, `"medium"`, `"large"`, `"max"` |
| `extractEffort` | `extract_effort` | Extraction quality | `"normal"`, `"high"`, `"auto"` |
| `summary` | `summary` | AI summarization | `true`, `"instructions"`, or JSON schema |
| `screenshot` | `screenshot` | Capture screenshots | `true` |

### Content Recipes

For detailed patterns, see:
- [Basic Content Extraction](references/content-recipes/basic-content-extraction-from-web.md)
- [Extraction with Summary](references/content-recipes/basic-content-extraction-from-web-with-summary.md)
- [Structured Extraction](references/content-recipes/structured-content-extraction-from-web.md)
- [Research Paper Extraction](references/content-recipes/extract-content-from-research-paper.md)

---

## 3. Answer API

**Purpose:** Get AI-powered answers grounded in real-time search results with citations.

### When to Use

- Questions requiring current information synthesis
- Multi-source fact verification
- Technical documentation questions
- Research requiring cited sources
- Structured data extraction from search results

### Basic Usage

```typescript
const response = await valyu.answer({
  query: "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"
});
```

### With Fast Mode (Lower Latency)

```typescript
const response = await valyu.answer({
  query: "Current Bitcoin price and 24h change",
  fastMode: true
});
```

### With Custom Instructions

```typescript
const response = await valyu.answer({
  query: "Compare React and Vue for enterprise applications",
  systemInstructions: "Provide a balanced comparison with pros and cons. Format as a comparison table."
});
```

### With Streaming

```typescript
const stream = await valyu.answer({
  query: "Explain t