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build-entity-list

Data & analytics

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Updated 10-16 06:00

About this skill

build-entity-list

Find every entity on the web that matches a natural-language description, and return one organized, deduplicated list — not a pile of search results you have to read and compile yourself.

Before running any command

If tvly is not found on PATH, see https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-cli for installation instructions.

Known issue: --output-schema currently requires API-key auth, not OAuth

TODO: remove this section once Tavily's MCP server adds output_schema support to its tavily_research tool — tracked as a gap report filed 2026-08-28.

As of 2026-08, --output-schema fails when the CLI is authenticated via tvly login (OAuth) — that path routes through Tavily's MCP server (mcp.tavily.com), which doesn't yet accept an output_schema parameter on its tavily_research tool, even though the direct REST API/SDK does. If you see Unexpected keyword argument / Internal error... call[tavily_research], this is why.

Fix: authenticate with a raw API key instead of OAuth before using this skill:

tvly login --api-key tvly-YOUR_KEY
# or: export TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-YOUR_KEY

When to use

  • You want a list of things matching a description, and you don't have a starting list yet
  • Examples: "AI startups that raised a Series A in 2026", "US states that passed a data-privacy law this year", "open-source alternatives to X"

Not this skill:

  • You already have the list and want fields added to each row → fill-missing-fields
  • You want one exhaustive report on a single, already-known entity → tavily-research

How it works

Same underlying primitive as fill-missing-fields — tavily-research's --output-schema — but shaped as a list, not a single object, and combined with multiple search angles to maximize coverage before deduplicating.

  1. Turn the user's criteria into a research query, and define a schema shaped as an array of matches.
  2. Run tvly research (often with --model pro — finding every match needs more thorough multi-source search than a single narrow lookup).
  3. Optionally, run a couple of differently-phrased queries to widen coverage, then merge and dedupe by name/URL.
  4. Return the list as a table (and optionally write it to CSV/JSON).

Quick start

1. Write a schema shaped as a list:

{
  "properties": {
    "results": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "Every distinct entity found that matches the criteria",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "name": {"type": "string", "description": "Name of the matching entity"},
          "evidence": {"type": "string", "description": "One-sentence reason it matches the criteria"},
          "source_url": {"type": "string", "description": "URL supporting this match"}
        },
        "required": ["name", "evidence", "source_url"]
      }
    }
  },
  "required": ["results"]
}

2. Run the research call:

tvly research "Find AI startups that publicly announced a Series A funding round in 2026. \
List each distinct company once, with a one-sentence reason and a supporting source URL." \
  --model pro --output-schema schema.json --json -o findall_results.json

3. (Optional) Widen coverage with a second angled query and merge/dedupe:

python3 << 'PYEOF'
import json

with open('findall_results.json') as f:
    result = json.load(f)
    content = result.get('content', {})
    r1 = json.loads(content) if isinstance(content, str) else content

# Run a second, differently-worded query the same way, save it, and load it here as r2,
# then merge both result sets before deduplicating.
all_entries = r1['results']  # + r2['results'] once you have a second angle

seen, merged = set(), []
for entry in all_entries:
    key = entry['name'].strip().lower()
    if key not in seen:
        seen.add(key)
        merged.append(entry)

for m in merged:
    print(f"- {m['name']}: {m['evidence']} ({m['source_url']})")
PYEOF

Options

Same underlying flags as tavily-research:

Option Description
--model pro recommended by default — "find all" needs broader multi-angle search than a narrow lookup; drop to mini only for tightly scoped criteria
--output-schema Schema with a top-level array field — this is what makes the output a list instead of a report
--json Required to parse the array programmatically
--citation-format Use if you need formatted citations per entity rather than raw URLs

Tips

  • Ask for "distinct"/"each once" explicitly in the query. Without it, results can repeat the same entity under slightly different phrasing.
  • Widen with multiple angled queries for anything that matters. One research call is good coverage, not guaranteed complete coverage — for a "find all" claim you're going to rely on, run 2-3 differently-worded queries and dedupe, the same multi-source pattern already used in tavily-dynamic-search.
  • Always require a source URL per entry. A finding with no source is unverifiable — treat schema fields like evidence/source_url as non-optional.
  • pro over mini for breadth. This is the one place where pro's extra time is usually worth it — the whole point is not missing matches.
  • Tell the user what was NOT covered. If you scoped the search to certain sources/time ranges, say so — silent narrowing looks like completeness when it isn't.

See also