sakibsadmanshajib · Aug 24, 2026 · Aug 24, 2026 · Aug 24, 2026 · Aug 24, 2026
@@ -479,10 +479,12 @@ OWUI_DEFAULT_FUNCTION_CALLING=legacy
 # Leave unset to accept the compose default.
 OWUI_PICKER_HIDDEN_ALIASES=hive-embedding-default,hive-stt,hive-tts
 OWUI_E2E_MODE=false
-# Open WebUI web search. Off by default -- this env var is shared with the
-# enterprise profile, which must not silently make live outbound search
-# calls. Set ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH=true + WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE=duckduckgo for a
-# local/demo instance (duckduckgo needs no API key).
+# Open WebUI web search. Off by default here because this env file is shared
+# with the enterprise profile, which must not silently make live outbound
+# search calls. The demo box deployment enables these in
+# .github/workflows/deploy-demo-box.yml instead (workflow env overrides the
+# env-file during compose interpolation). For any other instance set
+# ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH=true + WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE=duckduckgo (needs no API key).
 ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH=false
 WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE=
 BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER=false

@@ -159,6 +159,20 @@ env:
     --profile chat
     --profile monitoring
     --profile selfhost
+  # Web search in chat, enabled for this deployment only. The compose
+  # passthrough (deploy/docker/docker-compose.yml open-webui service) keeps its
+  # opt-in defaults off because that file is shared with the enterprise
+  # profile, which must not silently inherit live outbound search calls; the
+  # box's own .env is untracked, so this workflow is the versioned place where
+  # the demo deployment turns the feature on. Shell env overrides --env-file
+  # during interpolation, so these four values win over anything the box's
+  # .env carries for them. duckduckgo needs no API key or account signup.
+  # Both bypass flags keep search snippet-only, decoupled from the RAG
+  # embedding path.
+  ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH: "true"
+  WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "duckduckgo"
+  BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER: "true"
+  BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_EMBEDDING_AND_RETRIEVAL: "true"
 
 jobs:
   # ------------------------------------------------------------------

@@ -214,6 +214,11 @@ RUN python3 /tmp/apply_rag_env_config_patch.py \
     && grep -q 'hive: reconciled Open WebUI config from env' /app/backend/open_webui/config.py \
     && python3 -c "import ast, pathlib; ast.parse(pathlib.Path('/app/backend/open_webui/config.py').read_text())"
 
+COPY deploy/docker/owui-patches/apply_web_search_ratelimit_patch.py /tmp/apply_web_search_ratelimit_patch.py
+RUN python3 /tmp/apply_web_search_ratelimit_patch.py \
+    && grep -q 'a rate limit is an error, not an empty result set' /app/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/duckduckgo.py \
+    && python3 -c "import ast, pathlib; ast.parse(pathlib.Path('/app/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/duckduckgo.py').read_text())"
+
 # #772: remove the stock Open WebUI surfaces that have no Hive counterpart --
 # Workspace > Models (a second, instance-wide model registry that duplicates
 # the Hive catalog), Workspace > Prompts, Workspace > Tools, the Playground,

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+"""Build-time splice: make DuckDuckGo rate limits loud.
+
+The pinned image's search_duckduckgo catches RatelimitException, logs it, and
+returns an empty list, so a rate-limited search is indistinguishable from "the
+web has nothing": the native search_web builtin hands the model `[]`, and the
+model answers "no results" with no signal that search itself is unavailable.
+The legacy forced-search path swallows the same exception into its
+"No search results found" status, which reads as a legitimate empty result set
+rather than an outage.
+
+Re-raising lands the exception in the two handlers that DO surface it:
+the search_web builtin returns {'error': ...} to the model (which can then
+tell the user search is unavailable), and the legacy path's except branch
+emits its visible "An error occurred while searching the web" status event.
+
+Asserts the exact pinned literals so a future digest bump whose engine wrapper
+shifted breaks the build loudly instead of silently reverting to the silent
+swallow.
+"""
+
+import ast
+import pathlib
+
+TARGET = pathlib.Path("/app/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/duckduckgo.py")
+
+OLD = """        except RatelimitException as e:
+            log.error(f'RatelimitException: {e}')
+            search_results = []
+"""
+
+NEW = """        except RatelimitException:
+            # hive: a rate limit is an error, not an empty result set. The
+            # swallow above made a rate-limited search indistinguishable from
+            # "the web has nothing": the native search_web builtin returned []
+            # and the model answered "no results" with no signal that search
+            # itself was unavailable. Re-raise so the builtin's except returns
+            # an error payload the model can see and relay, and so the legacy
+            # forced-search path lands in its own except branch, which emits a
+            # visible "An error occurred while searching the web" status.
+            raise
+"""
+
+text = TARGET.read_text()
+
+assert text.count(OLD) == 1, (
+    "the RatelimitException swallow block is not present exactly once -- "
+    "upstream open-webui source shifted, patch needs updating"
+)
+
+patched = text.replace(OLD, NEW, 1)
+ast.parse(patched)  # never write an engine module that cannot be imported
+TARGET.write_text(patched)
@@ -80,6 +80,12 @@
     # and the database has outranked the environment ever since. Setting the
     # compose variable alone would have been another silent no-op.
     "ui.enable_login_form": "ENABLE_LOGIN_FORM",
+    # Added 2026-08-24 for web search in chat. The engine is a string key, so
+    # it rides the string dict: a blank WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE (what compose
+    # resolves on the enterprise profile and local dev, where the feature is
+    # off) yields no entry and never clobbers a persisted engine, while the
+    # demo's workflow env supplies "duckduckgo".
+    "web.search.engine": "WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE",
 }
 
 # Same idea, boolean-valued.
@@ -119,6 +125,22 @@
     # unambiguously SSO only, so this flag turns the behaviour on rather than
     # forcing it.
     "oauth.auto_redirect": "OAUTH_AUTO_REDIRECT",
+    # Added 2026-08-24 for web search in chat. Same first-boot-wins trap,
+    # confirmed against the demo box's own database before writing this: the
+    # box's config table has carried web.search.enable = false (and an empty
+    # engine) since its first boot, so the compose passthrough from #414 and
+    # the workflow-env flip in deploy-demo-box.yml would both have been silent
+    # no-ops in production. These three follow the container environment for
+    # the same reason the product-surface flags above do: the deployment's
+    # posture (search on or off, which engine) is a deployment decision, not
+    # an Open WebUI admin setting. The demo turns search on via workflow env;
+    # the enterprise profile keeps its compose defaults off, and its opt-in
+    # ruling stands.
+    "web.search.enable": "ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH",
+    "web.search.bypass_web_loader": "BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER",
+    "web.search.bypass_embedding_and_retrieval": (
+        "BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_EMBEDDING_AND_RETRIEVAL"
+    ),
 }
 
 # Keys Open WebUI stores as a JSON boolean rather than a string. The value has

@@ -0,0 +1,219 @@
+# Web search in chat, demo enablement: live capture log
+
+Branch: feat/web-search-chat
+Date: 2026-08-24
+Capture environment: throwaway compose stack on the development box
+(websearch-stub-llm + websearch-open-webui, project `websearch`), image built
+from this branch's tree (`hive-open-webui:websearch-proof`).
+
+## Enablement mechanism, resolved-config evidence
+
+`docker compose config` against the exact demo flag set
+(`-f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.override.yml -f docker-compose.enterprise.yml --profile local --profile chat --profile monitoring --profile selfhost`), run from deploy/docker of this worktree:
+
+Without the workflow env values:
+
+```
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_EMBEDDING_AND_RETRIEVAL: "false"
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER: "false"
+ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH: "false"
+WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: ""
+```
+
+With the workflow env values exported:
+
+```
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_EMBEDDING_AND_RETRIEVAL: "true"
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER: "true"
+ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH: "true"
+WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: duckduckgo
+```
+
+## Live stack checks
+
+All commands run against http://localhost:13104 after `docker compose up -d`.
+
+### 1. Container env
+
+```
+$ docker exec websearch-open-webui printenv | grep WEB_SEARCH
+ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH=true
+WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE=duckduckgo
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_WEB_LOADER=true
+BYPASS_WEB_SEARCH_EMBEDDING_AND_RETRIEVAL=true
+```
+
+### 2. Config API
+
+```
+$ curl -s localhost:13104/api/config | python3 -m json.tool | grep -A2 web_search
+    "enable_web_search": true,
+    "enable_web_search_confirmation": false,
+```
+
+### 3. Live DuckDuckGo retrieval
+
+```
+$ TOKEN=...  # admin session token minted via POST /api/v1/auths/signup
+$ curl -s localhost:13104/api/v1/retrieval/process/web/search \
+    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
+    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+    -d '{"queries":["latest AI news August 2026"],"collection_name":""}' | head -c 600
+
+{"status":true,"collection_name":null,"filenames":[
+ "https://kraviona.com/blog/latest-ai-news-august-2026",
+ "https://imfounder.com/science-tech/ai/ai-updates-august-2026-openai-astra-deepmind/",
+ "https://local-ai-zone.github.io/blog/ai-updates-august-2026.html"],
+ "items":[{"link":"https://kraviona.com/blog/latest-ai-news-august-2026",
+   "title":"AI News August 2026: OpenAI Astra, ChatGPT 1B Users & Price Cuts",
+   "snippet":"Latest AI news August 2026: OpenAI Astra solves 10 math problems,
+   ChatGPT crosses 1B users, GPT-5.6 Luna drops 80% in price. Updated August 14."},
+ ...]}
+```
+
+Container log confirms the engine path:
+```
+| httpx._client:_send_single_request:1025 - HTTP Request:
+POST https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/ "HTTP/2 200 OK"
+```
+
+### 4. In-chat end to end (native tool loop)
+
+Headless Chromium (Playwright) drove the real UI: signed in, opened the
+composer integrations menu, enabled the Web Search toggle, sent "What are the
+latest AI news headlines this week?". The outgoing completion payload carried
+`features.web_search: true` (captured by a request listener in the driver
+script). The pinned backend then injected its builtin `search_web` tool, the
+model called it, and the backend executed the DuckDuckGo search server side.
+
+Container logs during the turn:
+```
+| ddgs.base:search:117 - response:
+https://grokipedia.com/api/typeahead?query=What+latest+news+headlines+this+week&limit=1 200
+| ddgs.base:search:117 - response:
+https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&profile=fuzzy&limit=1&search=What%20latest%20news%20headlines%20this%20week 200
+| ddgs.base:search:110 - response:
+https://yandex.com/search/site/?text=What+latest+news+headlines+this+week&web=1 200
+```
+
+The reply rendered with a "View Result from search_web" citation row and a
+"3 Sources" chip; the composer shows the active Web Search globe pill.
+Screenshots: `shot-1-reply.png`, `shot-2-menu.png`, posted to the PR through
+scripts/post-pr-visual-proof.sh.
+
+Mechanism note discovered during verification: the pinned backend's forced
+RAG-style search path only fires when `params.function_calling == 'legacy'`.
+With the default native function-calling mode the backend instead injects the
+builtin `search_web` + `fetch_url` tools and the model calls them. Both paths
+are gated on the same `ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH` env this change sets, so pure-env
+enablement covers both. Models served through the gateway that support tool
+calling get the native path; the stub LLM used in this proof implements the
+tool-call round trip to exercise it end to end.
+
+No credentials appear anywhere on this page; the throwaway stack uses a
+local-only signup and its token is not recorded.
+
+## Rev 2: the persisted-config trap on the demo box
+
+The pinned image's config model is DB-backed per-key storage whose
+`Config.seed_defaults` inserts only absent keys, so "Existing DB values take
+precedence over defaults": env flips after first boot are silent no-ops. The
+demo box's chat database confirmed it read-only before any code was written:
+
+```
+$ ssh <box> docker exec hive-open-webui-1 python3 -c "<sqlite read-only>"
+web.search.enable = "false"
+web.search.engine = ""
+web.search.bypass_web_loader = "false"
+web.search.bypass_embedding_and_retrieval = "false"
+(61 web.search rows total, all seeded at the box's first boot)
+```
+
+The rev 1 enablement (workflow env alone) would have been a silent no-op in
+production. The fix rides the existing #722 reconcile
+(owui-patches/hive_rag_env_config.py): the four keys follow the container
+environment when it names them, so the demo's workflow env writes
+true/duckduckgo/true/true over the stale rows on the next boot of the
+reconcile-carrying image.
+
+Reconcile unit check (overrides() against the four env values):
+
+```
+with env:    {'web.search.engine': 'duckduckgo', 'web.search.enable': True,
+              'web.search.bypass_web_loader': True,
+              'web.search.bypass_embedding_and_retrieval': True}
+without env: {}
+```
+
+## Manual step on the demo box, 2026-08-24
+
+The reconcile ships in this branch's image; the box runs main's image until
+merge. To make the feature live for the demo without merging, the same effect
+was applied by hand, with a DB backup taken first:
+
+1. `docker compose stop open-webui` (deploy flag set, chat profile)
+2. backup: `cp webui.db webui.db.bak-websearch-<ts>` on the volume
+3. update the four rows to true / duckduckgo / true / true
+4. `docker compose up -d open-webui` with the four env vars exported
+   (identical to the workflow env the PR adds to deploy-demo-box.yml)
+
+The next merged deploy rebuilds the image with the reconcile and re-asserts
+the same four values from workflow env, and the manual state and the PR end
+state agree.
+
+### Reconcile proven against a seeded stale DB
+
+A throwaway boot of the patched image against a hand-seeded webui.db whose
+config table carried the box's exact stale rows (false / empty / false /
+false), with the four env values exported, produced at boot:
+
+```
+| open_webui.config:seed_registered_defaults:52 - hive: reconciled Open WebUI
+config from env: automations.enable=False, calendar.enable=False,
+memories.enable=False, notes.enable=False,
+rag.embedding_model=sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2,
+web.search.bypass_embedding_and_retrieval=True, web.search.bypass_web_loader=True,
+web.search.enable=True, web.search.engine=duckduckgo
+```
+
+and a read-back of the seeded rows showed all four flipped:
+
+```
+web.search.enable = true
+web.search.engine = "duckduckgo"
+web.search.bypass_web_loader = true
+web.search.bypass_embedding_and_retrieval = true
+```
+
+The rate-limit patch is present in the built image (grep count 1 for the
+patch comment in retrieval/web/duckduckgo.py, with `raise` replacing the
+swallow).
+
+## Live on the demo box, 2026-08-24 (through chat-hive.scubed.co)
+
+After the manual step above, verified against the real deployment:
+
+1. Authenticated `/api/config` through chat-hive.scubed.co reports
+   `enable_web_search: True`.
+2. `POST /api/v1/retrieval/process/web/search` from the box returned live
+   DuckDuckGo results for a current-events query (Bangladesh technology news,
+   August 2026: thedailystar.net, dailybanglapost.com, digibanglatech.news).
+3. In the real Hive-branded chat UI on the box (deepseek-v4-flash selected):
+   the composer shows the Web Search globe pill active, the turn ran, and the
+   message shows "Retrieved 3 sources" from the live DuckDuckGo search
+   (screenshot shot-3-box-reply.png, posted to the PR).
+
+Honest limitation recorded: the completion TEXT on the box errored with the
+fork's "chat session is not carrying a signed-in user token" message, because
+the verification used a throwaway locally-created chat account, and such an
+account has no stored OAuth session for hive_jwt_forward to forward to the
+gateway. Every real user signs in through Hive SSO and carries that token, so
+the search half (the feature this change enables) is fully exercised on the
+box; the completion-text half is blocked by the throwaway account's missing
+OAuth session, a pre-existing deployment auth property unrelated to web
+search. The full cited-reply loop (toggle, search_web tool call, live DDG
+results, cited answer text) is proven end to end on the throwaway stack
+running the same branch image (shot-1-reply.png).
+
+Throwaway user rows (auth + user for wsproof+box@hive-e2e.invalid) were
+deleted from the box's chat database after capture.