Snow CLI

Give Snow CLI's web search a SpecStream engine: one .mjs file in ~/.snow/plugin/search_engines/ and one pick in the Search Engine: field. The websearch-search tool then gets its results from SpecStream's Search API, in place of the DuckDuckGo or Bing results page Snow CLI reads in a headless browser.

SpecStream for Snow CLICoding agents

What you need

Snow CLI, installed with npm install -g snow-ai.
A SpecStream key. Get your key on the Search API screen of your SpecStream workspace. New accounts start with $10 of credit, no card.

1
1. Put your key in the environment
The engine reads the key from SPECSTREAM_API_KEY, so the key never sits in the engine file. Add the line to your shell profile, open a new terminal, and start Snow CLI from it. On Windows, run setx SPECSTREAM_API_KEY "YOUR_SPECSTREAM_KEY" and open a new terminal.
~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
export SPECSTREAM_API_KEY="YOUR_SPECSTREAM_KEY"

2. Add the engine file

Snow CLI loads .js, .mjs and .cjs engine files from ~/.snow/plugin/search_engines/ and reloads them when a file changes, with no restart. Create the folder with mkdir -p ~/.snow/plugin/search_engines and save this file in it. If you set SNOW_CONFIG_DIR, the folder is plugin/search_engines under that directory.

The engine has the id, name and search(page, query, maxResults) that Snow CLI's loader checks for. It returns an empty list on any failure, as Snow CLI's guide asks, and writes the reason to the log.

~/.snow/plugin/search_engines/specstream.mjs
const ENDPOINT = 'https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search';

export default {
  id: 'specstream',
  name: 'SpecStream',

  // Snow CLI passes a browser page; this engine calls the Search API and leaves the page unused.
  async search(page, query, maxResults) {
    const key = process.env.SPECSTREAM_API_KEY;
    if (!key) {
      console.warn('[specstream] SPECSTREAM_API_KEY is not set');
      return [];
    }
    const limit = Math.min(Math.max(maxResults || 10, 1), 20);
    const url = new URL(ENDPOINT);
    url.searchParams.set('q', query);
    url.searchParams.set('speed', 'fast');
    url.searchParams.set('num', String(limit));
    try {
      const reply = await fetch(url, {
        headers: {Authorization: `Bearer ${key}`},
        signal: AbortSignal.timeout(30000),
      });
      if (!reply.ok) {
        console.warn('[specstream] search failed', reply.status);
        return [];
      }
      const {data} = await reply.json();
      return (data?.sources || []).slice(0, limit).map(source => ({
        title: source.title || source.url,
        url: source.url,
        snippet: source.snippet || '',
        displayUrl: source.site || new URL(source.url).hostname,
      }));
    } catch (error) {
      console.warn('[specstream] search failed', error);
      return [];
    }
  },
};

3
3. Pick SpecStream in Search Engine
Start snow, or type /home in a session to go back to the start menu, and open Proxy & Browser Settings. Move to Search Engine: with the arrow keys, press Enter, choose SpecStream, and press Ctrl+S or Esc to save and return.
Snow CLI saves the choice in ~/.snow/proxy-config.json as "searchEngine": "specstream". You can also write that line in the file yourself.

4. Ask something that needs the web

Ask a question about something recent, so the agent calls websearch-search:

In Snow CLI

Search the web for the latest Node.js LTS release and the date its support ends.

What the engine changes

Snow CLI's websearch-search tool resolves the engine saved in proxy-config.json, opens a browser page and hands the search to the engine. The built-in duckduckgo and bing engines read a results page in that browser. The SpecStream engine calls GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search with speed=fast and num set to the tool's maxResults, and maps each of data.sources to Snow CLI's result fields: title, url, snippet, and site as displayUrl.

Snow CLI then applies your blocked site rules to the results as before, and websearch-fetch still opens the page the agent picks. Snow CLI still opens its browser page before it calls an engine, so keep a Chrome or Edge it can find, or set Browser Path on the same screen.

The Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions; scores and method are on the benchmarks page.

What each search costs

The engine asks for the fast search: a search of up to 10 results is $0.001, $1 per 1,000. websearch-search asks for 10 results by default and at most 20, and a search of 20 results is $0.0022. A search that returns no results costs nothing.

Searches come out of your balance with no quote and no approval, and every call, charged or not, is in your account's request log. To cap what Snow CLI can spend, give the key a spending limit when you create it under Agents & API. Prices are on the pricing page.

If searches come back empty

Look for a [specstream] line in Snow CLI's log. SPECSTREAM_API_KEY is not set means Snow CLI started from a shell without the key: open a new terminal and start snow again.
search failed 401 means the key is wrong or revoked. Create a new one on the Search API screen.
search failed 503 means the account used its calls for the minute. Nothing is charged; the next search goes through.
If SpecStream is not in the picker, check that the file ends in .mjs and look for did not export a valid SearchEngine in the log.

Add the MCP server too

The engine gives Snow CLI search results. SpecStream's MCP server adds page reading and lists: search_web, read_pages, which reads up to 20 pages a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search, which returns every match on the live web as rows under a price you approve first.

Add it under mcpServers in ~/.snow/settings.json, or in .snow/settings.json for one project. Merge it into the file's existing mcpServers rather than replacing the file. Snow CLI fills ${SPECSTREAM_API_KEY} from the environment.

Field	Value
`type`	`http`
`url`	`https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`
`headers`	`{"Authorization": "Bearer ${SPECSTREAM_API_KEY}"}`

Go back to DuckDuckGo or Bing

Open Proxy & Browser Settings and pick DuckDuckGo or Bing in Search Engine:. If you delete specstream.mjs while it is still the saved engine, Snow CLI uses DuckDuckGo. Questions: [email protected].

SpecStream for Snow CLI covers what it does in Snow CLI on one page. Every other tool has its guide in Connect your tools. You see the most a request can cost before it starts, and the matches are paid from your balance. Billing has the details. For help, email [email protected].