The Problem
AI agents rely on web search tools to ground their responses, but those tools fail silently more often than teams realize. A timeout returns an empty result, the agent interprets emptiness as no information available, and it either hallucinates a response or tells the user it cannot help. There is no retry, no fallback, no alert. The failure mode is invisible because the agent still produces output, it just produces wrong output. Teams only discover the issue when a user reports a confidently wrong answer weeks later, and the root cause trail is cold.
The Scavio Solution
Scavio returns structured error responses with explicit status codes and retry-after headers instead of silent empty payloads. A timeout is a timeout, not an empty result set. Your agent framework can catch the distinction and retry, fall back to a cached result, or surface the uncertainty to the user. The median response time is under two seconds, and the 99th percentile stays below five, so timeouts are rare to begin with. When they do happen, the signal is unambiguous.
Before
Before Scavio, agents treated empty responses as no results found and hallucinated answers. Teams had no visibility into which tool calls succeeded versus silently failed.
After
After Scavio, every response carries an explicit status. Agents retry on transient failures, surface uncertainty on persistent ones, and never mistake a timeout for an empty result set.
Who It Is For
Agent developers building production systems where silent tool failures cascade into hallucinated answers. If your agent framework uses search as a grounding tool and you have no visibility into failure rates, this is for you.
Key Benefits
- Explicit error codes distinguish no-results from tool failures
- Sub-two-second median response eliminates most timeout scenarios
- Retry-after headers let agents implement intelligent backoff
- Structured status field integrates directly into ReAct error handling
- Zero silent failures means agents never hallucinate from missing data
Python Example
import requests
import time
API_KEY = "your_scavio_api_key"
def reliable_search(query: str, retries: int = 3) -> dict:
for attempt in range(retries):
try:
res = requests.post(
"https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search",
headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY},
json={"platform": "google", "query": query},
timeout=10,
)
if res.status_code == 429:
wait = int(res.headers.get("retry-after", 2))
time.sleep(wait)
continue
res.raise_for_status()
data = res.json()
if data.get("organic"):
return data
return {"status": "no_results", "query": query}
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
if attempt < retries - 1:
time.sleep(2 ** attempt)
continue
return {"status": "timeout", "query": query}
return {"status": "exhausted_retries", "query": query}
result = reliable_search("latest openai api changes 2026")
if result.get("status"):
print(f"Search issue: {result['status']}")
else:
print(f"Got {len(result['organic'])} results")JavaScript Example
const API_KEY = "your_scavio_api_key";
async function reliableSearch(query, retries = 3) {
for (let attempt = 0; attempt < retries; attempt++) {
try {
const controller = new AbortController();
const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 10000);
const res = await fetch("https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY, "content-type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ platform: "google", query }),
signal: controller.signal,
});
clearTimeout(timeout);
if (res.status === 429) {
const wait = parseInt(res.headers.get("retry-after") ?? "2", 10);
await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, wait * 1000));
continue;
}
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`scavio ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
if (data.organic?.length) return data;
return { status: "no_results", query };
} catch (err) {
if (err.name === "AbortError" && attempt < retries - 1) {
await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2 ** attempt * 1000));
continue;
}
return { status: "timeout", query };
}
}
return { status: "exhausted_retries", query };
}
const result = await reliableSearch("latest openai api changes 2026");
console.log(result.status ? `Issue: ${result.status}` : `Got ${result.organic.length} results`);Platforms Used
Web search with knowledge graph, PAA, and AI overviews
YouTube
Video search with transcripts and metadata
Amazon
Product search with prices, ratings, and reviews
Walmart
Product search with pricing and fulfillment data
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