#601

Global Rank · of 601 Skills

x-research AI Agent Skill

View Source: b-open-io/prompts

Medium

Installation

npx skills add b-open-io/prompts --skill x-research

88

Installs

X Research (xAI/Grok)

AI-powered research using xAI's Grok API. Returns AI summaries with citations, not raw tweet data.

Want raw tweets instead? Use these skills:

  • x-user-timeline - Raw tweets from a user
  • x-tweet-search - Raw search results
  • x-tweet-fetch - Raw single tweet
  • x-user-lookup - User profile data

These require X_BEARER_TOKEN instead of XAI_API_KEY.

When to Use

USE THIS SKILL FOR:

  • Summarized research with AI analysis
  • Current events and breaking news
  • Social sentiment ("What are developers saying about Y?")
  • X/Twitter trending topics and viral posts
  • Emerging tools/frameworks not in documentation yet
  • Community opinions on best practices

DON'T USE FOR:

  • Raw tweet data (use x-user-timeline, x-tweet-search)
  • Specific user's posts verbatim (use x-user-timeline)
  • Well-documented APIs (use WebFetch instead)

Setup Requirements

Check if the API key is set:

if [ -z "$XAI_API_KEY" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: XAI_API_KEY is not set"
  echo "1. Get API key from https://x.ai/api"
  echo "2. Add to profile: export XAI_API_KEY=\"your-key\""
  echo "3. Restart terminal and Claude Code"
  exit 1
else
  echo "XAI_API_KEY is configured"
fi

If unavailable, inform the user that XAI_API_KEY must be configured before using this skill.

API Overview

Endpoint: https://api.x.ai/v1/responses

Recommended Model: grok-4-1-fast (specifically trained for agentic search)

Available Models:

  • grok-4-1-fast - Recommended for agentic search (auto-selects reasoning mode)
  • grok-4-1-fast-reasoning - Explicit reasoning for complex research
  • grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning - Faster responses, simpler queries

Available Search Tools:

  • web_search - Searches the internet and browses web pages
  • x_search - Semantic and keyword search across X posts

Basic Usage

Simple Query with Search Tools

curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "[YOUR QUERY]"}],
    "tools": [{"type": "web_search"}, {"type": "x_search"}]
  }' | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Query with Usage Tracking (Recommended)

RESPONSE=$(curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "[YOUR QUERY]"}],
    "tools": [{"type": "web_search"}, {"type": "x_search"}]
  }')

# Extract usage stats
TOOL_CALLS=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.usage.num_server_side_tools_used // 0')
COST_TICKS=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.usage.cost_in_usd_ticks // 0')
COST_USD=$(echo "scale=4; $COST_TICKS / 1000000000" | bc)
echo "Tool calls: $TOOL_CALLS | Estimated cost: \$$COST_USD"
echo ""
echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Search Tool Parameters

Web Search Options

"tools": [{
  "type": "web_search",
  "allowed_domains": ["github.com", "stackoverflow.com"],
  "excluded_domains": ["pinterest.com"],
  "enable_image_understanding": true
}]
  • allowed_domains - Restrict to these domains only (max 5)
  • excluded_domains - Exclude these domains (max 5)
  • enable_image_understanding - Analyze images found during search

X Search Options

"tools": [{
  "type": "x_search",
  "allowed_x_handles": ["elikimonimus", "anthropaboris"],
  "excluded_x_handles": ["spambot"],
  "from_date": "2025-01-01",
  "to_date": "2025-01-16",
  "enable_image_understanding": true,
  "enable_video_understanding": true
}]
  • allowed_x_handles - Only include posts from these accounts (max 10)
  • excluded_x_handles - Exclude posts from these accounts (max 10)
  • from_date / to_date - ISO8601 date range (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • enable_image_understanding - Analyze images in posts
  • enable_video_understanding - Analyze videos in posts

Examples

X/Twitter Trending Topics

curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is currently trending on X? Include viral posts and major discussions."}],
    "tools": [{"type": "x_search"}]
  }' | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Developer Sentiment on a Topic

curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "What are developers saying about [TOPIC] on X? Include recent discussions and opinions."}],
    "tools": [{"type": "x_search"}, {"type": "web_search"}]
  }' | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

News and Web Research

curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "Latest news and developments about [TOPIC]"}],
    "tools": [{"type": "web_search"}]
  }' | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Research with Date Range

curl -s "https://api.x.ai/v1/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
    "input": [{"role": "user", "content": "What happened with [TOPIC] last week?"}],
    "tools": [{
      "type": "x_search",
      "from_date": "2025-01-09",
      "to_date": "2025-01-16"
    }, {
      "type": "web_search"
    }]
  }' | jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Response Structure

The response contains:

{
  "output": [
    {"type": "web_search_call", "status": "completed", ...},
    {"type": "custom_tool_call", "name": "x_semantic_search", ...},
    {
      "type": "message",
      "content": [{
        "type": "output_text",
        "text": "The actual response with [[1]](url) inline citations",
        "annotations": [{"type": "url_citation", "url": "...", ...}]
      }]
    }
  ],
  "citations": ["url1", "url2", ...],
  "usage": {
    "input_tokens": 11408,
    "output_tokens": 2846,
    "num_server_side_tools_used": 8,
    "cost_in_usd_ticks": 429052500
  }
}

Extracting content: jq -r '.output[-1].content[0].text'

Extracting citations: jq -r '.citations[]'

Pricing

Search tools are currently FREE (promotional pricing).

Standard pricing when active:

  • Web Search, X Search: $5 per 1,000 tool invocations
  • Token costs: Varies by model (~$3-15 per 1M input tokens)

Track costs via response.usage.cost_in_usd_ticks (divide by 1,000,000,000 for USD).

Error Handling

If the API returns an error:

  1. Check XAI_API_KEY is set and valid
  2. Verify model name is correct (use grok-4-1-fast)
  3. Check rate limits haven't been exceeded
  4. Ensure tools array is properly formatted
  5. Report the error to the user with the API response

Common errors:

  • "Internal error" - Usually wrong model name or malformed request
  • Timeout - Request took too long (rare with agentic API)

Migration Notes

DEPRECATED (January 12, 2026): The old Live Search API using search_parameters is being deprecated. This skill uses the new agentic tool calling API which is faster and more capable.

Old format (deprecated):

{
  "model": "grok-4-latest",
  "messages": [...],
  "search_parameters": {"mode": "on"}
}

New format (use this):

{
  "model": "grok-4-1-fast",
  "input": [...],
  "tools": [{"type": "web_search"}, {"type": "x_search"}]
}

References

Installs

Installs 88
Global Rank #601 of 601

Security Audit

ath Safe
socket Safe
Alerts: 0 Score: 90
snyk Medium
EU EU-Hosted Inference API

Power your AI Agents with the best open-source models.

Drop-in OpenAI-compatible API. No data leaves Europe.

Explore Inference API

GLM

GLM 5

$1.00 / $3.20

per M tokens

Kimi

Kimi K2.5

$0.60 / $2.80

per M tokens

MiniMax

MiniMax M2.5

$0.30 / $1.20

per M tokens

Qwen

Qwen3.5 122B

$0.40 / $3.00

per M tokens

How to use this skill

1

Install x-research by running npx skills add b-open-io/prompts --skill x-research in your project directory. Run the install command above in your project directory. The skill file will be downloaded from GitHub and placed in your project.

2

No configuration needed. Your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) automatically detects installed skills and uses them as context when generating code.

3

The skill enhances your agent's understanding of x-research, helping it follow established patterns, avoid common mistakes, and produce production-ready output.

What you get

Skills are plain-text instruction files — not executable code. They encode expert knowledge about frameworks, languages, or tools that your AI agent reads to improve its output. This means zero runtime overhead, no dependency conflicts, and full transparency: you can read and review every instruction before installing.

Compatibility

This skill works with any AI coding agent that supports the skills.sh format, including Claude Code (Anthropic), Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Aider, and other tools that read project-level context files. Skills are framework-agnostic at the transport level — the content inside determines which language or framework it applies to.

Data sourced from the skills.sh registry and GitHub. Install counts and security audits are updated regularly.

EU Made in Europe

Chat with 100+ AI Models in one App.

Use Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini alongside with EU-Hosted Models like Deepseek, GLM-5, Kimi K2.5 and many more.

Start for free View pricing

Get the App:

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play
Customer Support