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GitHub Agentic Workflows

Using Web Search

This guide shows how to add web search to workflows using the Tavily MCP server, an AI-optimized search provider designed for LLM applications. While alternatives exist (Exa, SerpAPI, Brave Search), this guide focuses on Tavily configuration.

Section titled “Tavily Search”

Tavily provides AI-optimized search with structured JSON responses, news search capability, and fast response times through the @tavily/mcp-server MCP server.

---
on: issues
engine: copilot
mcp-servers:
  tavily:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@tavily/mcp-server"]
    env:
      TAVILY_API_KEY: "${{ secrets.TAVILY_API_KEY }}"
    allowed: ["search", "search_news"]
---


# Search and Respond


Search the web for information about: ${{ github.event.issue.title }}


Use the tavily search tool to find recent information.

Setup:

  1. Sign up at tavily.com
  2. Get your API key from the dashboard
  3. Add as repository secret: gh secret set TAVILY_API_KEY -a actions --body "<your-api-key>"

Terms of Service: Tavily Terms

MCP Server Configuration

Section titled “MCP Server Configuration”

Configure the Tavily MCP server with the allowed list to restrict tools, store API keys in GitHub Secrets (never commit them), and use the -y flag with npx for automatic installation:

mcp-servers:
  tavily:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@tavily/mcp-server"]
    env:
      TAVILY_API_KEY: "${{ secrets.TAVILY_API_KEY }}"
    allowed: ["search", "search_news"]

Test your configuration with gh aw mcp inspect <workflow-name>.

Tool Discovery

Section titled “Tool Discovery”

To see available tools from the Tavily MCP server:

Terminal window
# Inspect the MCP server in your workflow
gh aw mcp inspect my-workflow --server tavily


# List tools with details
gh aw mcp list-tools tavily my-workflow --verbose

Network Permissions

Section titled “Network Permissions”

Engines like Claude require explicit network permissions for MCP servers:

engine: claude
network:
  allowed:
    - defaults
    - "*.tavily.com"

The Copilot engine doesn’t require this configuration.

Section titled “Related Documentation”