google-forums-search

Google Forums Search

Search Google Forums results through Frevana.

Purpose

This skill is for finding forum-style Google results from Google's Forums tab.

Inputs:

• q
• optional device
• optional hl
• optional gl
• optional start
• optional start_date
• optional end_date

Output:

• validated response JSON with Google Forums results
• the same validated JSON saved to a local file on every successful run

This skill validates that the response is JSON, saves it to disk, and returns it unchanged on stdout. Do not rewrite or reshape the returned data unless the user explicitly asks for a transformation.

What This Skill Needs

• user-provided q
• optional device
• optional hl
• optional gl
• optional start
• optional start_date
• optional end_date
• FREVANA_TOKEN in the environment variables, or an explicit --token override for the current run
• curl
• bash
• python3

Execution Order

Use this flow so the request stays simple and reliable:

1. Confirm the user has provided q or an equivalent forum search query.
2. Prefer the script over ad hoc curl commands.
3. Let the script read FREVANA_TOKEN first.
4. In interactive shell usage, if FREVANA_TOKEN is missing, the script may prompt for it.
5. In non-interactive or agent workflows, fail fast if the token is missing and tell the user to set FREVANA_TOKEN or pass --token explicitly.
6. Run the script once. It prints the validated JSON to stdout and saves the same JSON to a file.
7. Use the saved JSON file for any follow-up parsing or summarization instead of calling the search API again.
8. Return the validated response JSON, or summarize the most relevant forum results if the user does not need the full payload.

Commands

Basic forum search

bash <skill-path>/scripts/search_google_forums.sh \
  --q "best programming language"

--query is accepted as an alias for --q.

Search with country, language, and device

bash <skill-path>/scripts/search_google_forums.sh \
  --q "vibe coding" \
  --gl us \
  --hl en \
  --device mobile

Search with pagination and date bounds

bash <skill-path>/scripts/search_google_forums.sh \
  --q "vibe coding" \
  --start 10 \
  --start-date 20260101 \
  --end-date 20260525

Save response JSON to a specific file

bash <skill-path>/scripts/search_google_forums.sh \
  --q "vibe coding" \
  --output ./out/google-forums-search-result.json

Token override for the current run

bash <skill-path>/scripts/search_google_forums.sh \
  --q "vibe coding" \
  --token "your bearer token"

Fixed Request Shape

The script sends this payload shape, omitting optional fields that were not provided:

{
  "q": "vibe coding",
  "device": "mobile",
  "hl": "en",
  "gl": "us",
  "start": 10,
  "start_date": "20260101",
  "end_date": "20260525"
}

Only q is required. Do not invent device, hl, gl, start, start_date, or end_date values when the user did not provide them.

The Frevana endpoint schema currently exposes only q, device, hl, gl, start, start_date, and end_date; do not pass unsupported passthrough fields such as engine, api_key, output, no_cache, async, or zero_trace, and do not pass other unsupported Google Forums fields such as location, uule, period_unit, period_value, nfpr, filter, or tbs unless the Frevana endpoint schema is expanded first.

Response Shape

The API returns Frevana JSON. Common fields include:

• search_metadata
• search_parameters
• search_information
• organic_results
• related_searches
• pagination
• pagination

Output

• Success: the script validates that the response body is JSON, writes it to a file, prints the saved path to stderr, and prints the JSON to stdout
• Default file path: ./out/google-forums-search-<UTC timestamp>-<pid>.json
• With --output: the same JSON is written to the specified file path instead of the default path
• Failure: the script prints the response body or parsing error and exits non-zero

Notes

• Require --q or --query
• Do not call the script twice just to save and summarize results. It always saves the same JSON that it prints.
• Use --device only for desktop, mobile, or tablet
• Use --hl when the user requests a language code
• Use --gl when the user requests a country code
• Use --start when the user requests pagination by result offset
• Use --start-date and --end-date only when the user asks for a specific date-bounded search; Frevana expects YYYYMMDD date strings
• If curl is missing, stop and tell the user to install curl
• If python3 is missing, stop and tell the user to install python3
• Do not echo the Bearer token back to the user
• Summarize forum title, source/community, link, snippet, comment/answer count, date, sitelinks, and follow-up pagination when available unless the user asks for the full payload

Example Prompts

Chinese

• "Search Google Forums for vibe coding"
• "Check Google Forums with q=vibe coding, gl=us, hl=en, mobile"
• "Search Google Forums for AI coding, from 20260101 to 20260525, and save the raw JSON"

English

• "Search Google Forums for vibe coding"
• "Look up Google Forums results for vibe coding with gl=us, hl=en, and device=mobile"
• "Search Google Forums for AI coding from 20260101 to 20260525 and save the raw JSON"