🔍 Perplexity Search

A powerful Python tool for performing technical searches using the Perplexity API, optimized for retrieving precise facts, code examples, and numerical data.

📋 Table of Contents

Overview • Features • Installation • Usage • Configuration • Requirements • Error Handling • Contributing • FAQ • License

🌟 Overview

Perplexity Search is a command-line tool and Python library that leverages the power of Perplexity AI to provide accurate, technical search results. It's designed for developers, researchers, and technical users who need quick access to precise information, code examples, and technical documentation. It also includes an interactive mode for multi-turn conversations.

✨ Features

• Interactive Mode: Engage in a conversational interface where you can ask multiple queries in sequence.
• Conversation Context: Maintain context across multiple turns in interactive mode.
• Markdown Output: Save conversation history to a markdown file.
• Perform searches using different LLaMA models (small, large, huge)
• Configurable API key support via environment variable or direct input
• Command-line interface for easy usage
• Focused on retrieving technical information with code examples
• Returns responses formatted in markdown
• Optimized for factual and numerical data
• Debug logging

Installation

pip install plexsearch

Usage

As a Python Module

from perplexity_search import perform_search

# Using environment variable for API key
result = perform_search("What is Python's time complexity for list operations?")

# Or passing API key directly
result = perform_search("What are the differences between Python 3.11 and 3.12?", api_key="your-api-key")

# Specify a different model
result = perform_search("Show me example code for Python async/await", model="llama-3.1-sonar-huge-128k-online")

Command Line Interface

Interactive Mode

To enter interactive mode, simply run the command without any query arguments:

plexsearch

In interactive mode, you can type your queries one by one. Type exit or press Ctrl-D to quit the interactive session.

# Basic search
plexsearch "What is Python's time complexity for list operations?"

# Specify model
plexsearch --model llama-3.1-sonar-huge-128k-online "What are the differences between Python 3.11 and 3.12?"

# Use specific API key
plexsearch --api-key your-api-key "Show me example code for Python async/await"

# Multi-word queries work naturally
plexsearch tell me about frogs

# Disable streaming output
plexsearch --no-stream "tell me about frogs"

# Show numbered citations at the bottom of the response
plexsearch --citations "tell me about Python's GIL"

Note: Streaming is automatically disabled when running inside Aider to prevent
filling up the context window.

Configuration

API Key

Set your Perplexity API key in one of these ways:

1. Environment variable:

   export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your-api-key
   # Or add to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for persistence
   echo 'export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your-api-key' >> ~/.bashrc
   

2. Pass directly in code or CLI: --api-key your-api-key

Available Models

The following models can be specified using the --model parameter:

• llama-3.1-sonar-small-128k-online (Faster, lighter model)
• llama-3.1-sonar-large-128k-online (Default, balanced model)
• llama-3.1-sonar-huge-128k-online (Most capable model)

Conversation Logging

You can log your conversation to a file using the --log-file parameter.

Markdown Output

You can save your conversation to a markdown file using the --markdown-file parameter.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• requests library
• rich library
• feedparser library
• Perplexity API key (obtain from Perplexity API)

Error Handling

The tool includes error handling for:

• Missing API keys
• Invalid API responses
• Network issues
• Invalid model selections

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our CONTRIBUTING.md for more details on how to contribute to this project. Check our CHANGELOG.md for recent updates and changes.

FAQ

Q: How do I get an API key for Perplexity?

A: You can obtain an API key by signing up on the Perplexity API website.

Q: What models are available for search?

A: The available models are small, large, and huge.

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details