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Vercel AI SDK Plugin for You.com

Give your AI applications real-time access to the web through the hosted You.com MCP server. This package exposes an async createYouClient() helper that connects to https://api.you.com/mcp and returns the underlying AI SDK MCP client. By default, await client.tools() resolves to the default hosted tool set: you-search, you-contents, you-balance, and you-discover.

Features

Build AI applications that can:

  • Search the web in real-time - Access current information with advanced filtering (dates, sites, file types)
  • Research - Comprehensive answers with cited sources, configurable effort (lite to exhaustive)
  • Extract any webpage - Pull full content in markdown or HTML format
  • Zero configuration - Works with any AI SDK model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and more)
  • Hosted MCP transport - Connects directly to the You.com hosted MCP server
  • Type-safe - Full TypeScript support for async tool initialization
  • Production-ready - Built on You.com's enterprise search API

AI Agent Skills

For AI SDK Integration: Use the ydc-ai-sdk-integration skill to quickly integrate You.com tools with your Vercel AI SDK applications.

# Install the AI SDK integration skill
npx skills add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills --skill ydc-ai-sdk-integration

Once installed, ask your AI agent: "Integrate Vercel AI SDK with You.com tools"

Supported AI agents: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cody, Continue, and more.

See Skill Documentation for complete integration guide.

Getting started

Get up and running in 4 quick steps:

1. Get your API key

Visit you.com/platform/api-keys to get your You.com API key. Keep this key secure - you'll need it for configuration.

2. Install the package (NPM, Bun, or Yarn)

Choose your package manager:

# NPM
npm install @youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin ai

# Bun
bun add @youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin ai

# Yarn
yarn add @youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin ai

3. Add tools to your application

Import createYouClient(), await the MCP-backed client, then resolve tools from that client for your AI SDK call:

import { createAnthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai';
import { createYouClient } from '@youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin';

// Create your AI model provider
const anthropic = createAnthropic({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY,
});

const client = await createYouClient({
  apiKey: process.env.YDC_API_KEY,
});

try {
  const tools = await client.tools();

  const result = await generateText({
    model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
    tools,
    stopWhen: stepCountIs(5),  // Required for tool result processing
    prompt: 'Search for the latest developments in quantum computing',
  });

  console.log(result.text);
} finally {
  await client.close();
}

createYouClient() returns the underlying MCP client. Call await client.tools() to resolve the default hosted tool set (you-search, you-contents, you-balance, and you-discover) unless you scope it with tools, and call await client.close() when finished.

Set your You.com API key as an environment variable:

export YDC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

Set your model provider credentials separately for whichever provider you use.

4. Test your setup

Ask your AI something that needs real-time information:

  • "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"
  • "Find recent articles about sustainable energy and summarize the key trends"
  • "Extract and analyze the content from https://anthropic.com"

Your AI will automatically choose the right tool and return up-to-date, accurate answers.

What you can build

Your AI can now handle requests like these:

Research & information

Current events:

  • "What's trending in AI research this week?"
  • "Find the latest news about climate policy from the past month"

Comparative research:

  • "Compare the features of the top 3 CRM platforms"
  • "What are developers saying about the new React version?"

Technical documentation:

  • "Search for TypeScript best practices on the official docs"
  • "Find examples of using WebAssembly in production"

Content analysis & extraction

Documentation analysis:

Multi-page research:

  • "Extract content from these 3 blog posts and compare their approaches"
  • "Pull the documentation from these URLs and create a summary"

Real-time workflows

Market intelligence:

  • "What's the current status of the stock market?"
  • "Find recent funding announcements in the AI space"

Competitive analysis:

  • "Search for recent product launches by our competitors"
  • "Extract feature comparisons from competitor websites"

Configuration

The plugin works out of the box with environment variables:

export YDC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
Advanced configuration options

Passing configuration directly

You can override the API key, request a specific hosted MCP profile, or scope the request to specific tool ids:

import { createYouClient } from '@youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin';

const client = await createYouClient({
  apiKey: 'your-api-key-here',
  tools: ['you-search', 'you-contents'],
});

const tools = await client.tools();

you-finance and you-research are not included in the default tool set. Request them explicitly with tools.

Lead with the smallest explicit form when you only want finance:

const client = await createYouClient({
  tools: 'you-finance',
});

const financeTools = await client.tools();

If you want the default tools plus finance, request all of them explicitly:

const client = await createYouClient({
  tools: ['you-search', 'you-contents', 'you-balance', 'you-discover', 'you-finance', 'you-research'],
});

const tools = await client.tools();

Use profile when you want the hosted server to resolve tools through a named profile instead:

const client = await createYouClient({
  profile: 'free',
});

const tools = await client.tools();

Configuration type

export type YouClientConfig = {
  apiKey?: string;           // Defaults to YDC_API_KEY
  tools?: string | string[]; // Added as ?tools=...
  profile?: string;          // Added as ?profile=...
};

Tool selection

The package always connects to https://api.you.com/mcp.

The default hosted tool set is:

  • you-search
  • you-contents
  • you-balance
  • you-discover

Optional tools:

  • you-finance
  • you-research

you-finance and you-research are not included in the default tool set. Request them explicitly with tools.

tools scopes the visible tool set.

profile selects a hosted server profile. tools scopes which tools are visible. If profile is provided, it takes precedence over tools.

Today, profile: 'free' is a keyless mode. It overrides tools and exposes you-search and you-discover.

Using different model providers

This plugin works with any AI SDK compatible model provider:

import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai';

// Anthropic Claude
import { createAnthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';

const anthropic = createAnthropic({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY,
});

const client = await createYouClient();
const tools = await client.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

// OpenAI
import { createOpenAI } from '@ai-sdk/openai';

const openai = createOpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
});

const searchClient = await createYouClient({
  tools: 'you-search',
});
const searchTools = await searchClient.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: openai('gpt-4'),
  tools: searchTools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

// Google Gemini
import { createGoogleGenerativeAI } from '@ai-sdk/google';

const google = createGoogleGenerativeAI({
  apiKey: process.env.GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY,
});

const googleClient = await createYouClient({
  tools: 'you-search',
});
const googleTools = await googleClient.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: google('gemini-2.0-flash-exp'),
  tools: googleTools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

Available tools

Default tools:

  • you-search
  • you-contents
  • you-balance
  • you-discover

Optional tools:

  • you-finance
  • you-research

Note: Your AI automatically selects the right tool based on the user's request. Use stopWhen: stepCountIs(n) to enable multi-step tool execution, and your AI handles the orchestration.

Examples

The examples/ directory contains complete working examples demonstrating all features:

  • basic-search.ts - Web search with filters and parameters
  • streaming-text.ts - Real-time streaming responses
  • agent-response.ts - AI reasoning with web context
  • content-extraction.ts - Extract and analyze webpages
  • error-handling.ts - Production-ready error handling

Quick start:

  1. Set up your environment variables (see examples/README.md for 3 setup options)
  2. Run an example:
# Using the example script (easiest)
bun run example              # Runs basic-search (default)
bun run example agent        # Runs agent-response
bun run example help         # Shows all available examples

# Or run directly
cd packages/ai-sdk-plugin
bun examples/basic-search.ts

All examples include:

  • Environment variable validation with helpful error messages
  • Explicit provider pattern matching integration tests
  • Error handling best practices

For complete setup instructions, environment variable options, and troubleshooting, see examples/README.md

Troubleshooting

Problem: "YDC_API_KEY is required" error

Solution: Set your API key as an environment variable:

export YDC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
# Then restart your application

Or pass it directly when creating tools:

const client = await createYouClient({ apiKey: 'your-api-key-here' });
const tools = await client.tools();

Problem: AI isn't using the tools

Solution: Make sure you're using stopWhen to enable multi-step tool execution:

import { createAnthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai';

const anthropic = createAnthropic({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY,
});

const client = await createYouClient();
const tools = await client.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),  // Required: enables tool result processing
  prompt: 'Search for recent AI news',
});

Problem: Tools execute but response is empty

Symptoms: You see tool calls in result.steps but result.text is empty or minimal.

Solution: Replace maxSteps with stopWhen: stepCountIs(n):

import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai';

// ❌ WRONG - tools execute but results aren't integrated
const client = await createYouClient();
const tools = await client.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  maxSteps: 5,  // Don't use this!
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

// ✅ CORRECT - tool results properly integrated
const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),  // Use this instead
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

Why this happens: maxSteps doesn't properly integrate tool results into the response generation. The stopWhen pattern ensures the AI processes tool outputs before stopping.

Problem: Getting 401 authentication errors

Solution: Verify your API key is correct and properly set:

# Check if environment variable is set
echo $YDC_API_KEY

# If empty, set it
export YDC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

Get a new API key at you.com/platform/api-keys if needed.

Problem: Getting rate limit errors (429)

Solution: You've hit the API rate limit. Wait a few minutes before retrying, or check your API usage at you.com/platform/api-keys.

Problem: Tool execution failing silently

Solution: Check the AI SDK's tool results for error details:

import { createAnthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';

const anthropic = createAnthropic({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY,
});

const client = await createYouClient();
const tools = await client.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  prompt: 'Search for AI news',
});

// Inspect tool results for errors
console.log(result.toolResults);

Need more help?

For contributors

Interested in contributing? We'd love your help!

Development setup: See AGENTS.md for complete development guide, architecture overview, code patterns, and testing guidelines.

Quick contribution steps:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch following CONTRIBUTING.md conventions
  3. Follow code style guidelines (Biome enforced)
  4. Write tests for your changes
  5. Run quality checks: bun run check && bun test
  6. Submit a pull request with a clear description

We appreciate contributions of all kinds:

  • Bug fixes and improvements
  • New features and enhancements
  • Documentation improvements
  • Test coverage improvements
  • Performance optimizations

License: MIT - see LICENSE for details

Author: You.com (https://you.com)

About

Vercel AI SDK tools for the hosted You.com MCP server.

you.com/docs/welcome

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aiai-sdkbunmcpsearchtypescriptvercel-ai-sdkweb-searchyou-com

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