[Integration] zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp - You.com Search API provider

[mouse-value-add]

Target Repository URL

https://github.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp

You.com API(s)

• search

Estimated Complexity

small

Integration Description

Add an optional You.com Search API provider to the repo's existing search-provider abstraction. The provider supports web and news search, keeps the default DuckDuckGo fallback unchanged, and stays opt-in through SEARCH_PROVIDER=youcom plus YDC_API_KEY.

Target Repo Contributing Guidelines

https://github.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

Planned Approach

• Implement search.Provider in internal/search/youcom.go.
• Wire the provider into internal/search/provider.go and internal/config/config.go.
• Add focused provider tests plus the small config/factory coverage needed for the new name.
• Update the provider docs and env examples so the integration stays discoverable.

Status Checklist

• Claimed this integration (self-assign)
• Filed issue or opened discussion in target repo
• Opened PR in target repo
• You.com API calls send the standard integration User-Agent (youdotcom-integration/<owner>-<repo>)
• You.com links in contributed docs carry the standard UTM parameters (utm_source=<owner>-<repo>&utm_medium=oss_integration&utm_campaign=YYYY-MM-<initiative>)
• PR merged or rejected

Links

Target repo issue: not needed for this repo
Target repo PR: mouse-value-add/web-researcher-mcp#1
Implementation branch: https://github.com/mouse-value-add/web-researcher-mcp/tree/feat/youcom-search-integration
Tracking issue: #218

Additional Notes

Candidate comparison:

• zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp is the best fit: Go, active, and already built around pluggable search providers.
• Drakonis96/nodus is also active, but the Zotero / knowledge-graph focus makes the integration less direct.
• vilmire/adhdev is active too, but search is not as central to its architecture.

Validation performed:

• go test ./internal/search ./internal/config
• go test ./...

Fallback and error behavior:

• Missing YDC_API_KEY only matters when SEARCH_PROVIDER=youcom is selected.
• The default behavior remains DuckDuckGo when no provider key is configured.
• Unsupported image search returns empty results rather than an error, so router fallback still behaves normally.

[mouse-value-add]

Correction: the previous run opened the PR against the fork (mouse-value-add/web-researcher-mcp#1) instead of upstream — that fork PR is now closed. The real PR is now zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp#709: zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp#709

• Branch: mouse-value-add:feat/youcom-search-provider, rebased onto upstream main @ b6934bb (v1.49.2)
• go build and go test ./internal/search/ pass locally with Go 1.25 (the youcom provider + provider registry/config coverage all green; pre-existing internal/config test failures reproduce on clean upstream main and are unrelated)
• Target repo active (pushed 2026-08-25, 53 stars)

Supersedes the fork PR recorded earlier.

[mouse-value-add]

2026-08-31: maintainer (repo owner) reviewed PR zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp#709 with concrete requests — (1) live integration test per the repo's //go:build live pattern, (2) remove vendor-tracking User-Agent, (3) question about whether review feedback is being read. All three addressed in commit f1a1af6: added youcom_live_test.go (skips without YDC_API_KEY, runs via make test-live), UA switched to the project-standard web-researcher-mcp/1.0 (search provider), and replied on the PR confirming a person is engaging with review. Also verified endpoint/params/response fields against You.com's official API docs and a live 402 probe. Maintainer gave a one-week response deadline — met. Awaiting re-review. Note: maintainer described the volume of similar PRs across repos as 'worth being upfront about' — flagged here in case the team wants to adjust outreach pace on fresh repos.