# Web research

Canonical URL: https://docs.perisclaw.com/web-research

Half the questions that come up in a chat can't be answered from the chat. Someone sends a link you don't have time to open, a price needs checking, a claim needs verifying. Perisclaw goes and looks, searching the live web or reading the exact page you point it at, and comes back with the answer in the conversation you're already in.

## What you can do with it

### Get answers from the live web

When you need something current (a price, a news story, a fact, the status of a flight or an event), Perisclaw searches and answers right in the chat, citing where it got each part. It pulls what's true today, not what a model was trained on months ago.

  *"What's the latest on the RBI rate decision?"*

### Read and summarize any link

Send a URL (or point at one someone else sent) and Perisclaw fetches the page and gives you back the gist, or just the one answer you're after. Useful for the long article you saved, the terms page you should have read, the doc a client linked in a thread.

  *"Summarize the key points from this link: \[URL]"*

### Research and compare

For a decision that needs a few sources pulled together, Perisclaw does the legwork: gathering the options, comparing them, and coming back with one clear answer instead of a pile of tabs.

  *"Compare the pricing for these three tools and tell me which is cheapest at
  20 seats."*

![A Perisclaw research summary in chat, with bullet-point findings and cited source links]

### Feed research into other work

A lookup is rarely the whole job. Perisclaw can take what it finds and keep going: logging the numbers into a [Sheet](/drive-and-sheets), folding them into a message it's drafting, or using them inside an [automation](/automations) that runs every morning.

  *"Every morning at 7am, summarize the top news on \[topic] and send it to
  me."*

## What it can't do

  Perisclaw **reads** the web; it doesn't drive it. It can't log in to a site, fill in or submit a form, click through a checkout, or work through a multi-step flow on your behalf. Pages behind a login or a paywall are out of reach, and so are videos: if it can't open the content, it tells you so rather than guessing at what's in it.

  For actions in another product (creating a ticket, ordering something, updating a record), [connect the app](/connecting-apps) instead. That's a proper integration, not a browser pretending to be you.

  Anything Perisclaw finds worth keeping can go straight into your [personal
  wiki](/personal-wiki): react 📎 to its reply and it's filed, sources and
  all.

### [Keep what you find](/personal-wiki)

React with a paperclip and research results are filed, sources and all.

### [Act in other products](/connecting-apps)

For creating tickets or updating records, connect the app directly.

### [Research on a schedule](/automations)

Get a morning summary of the topics you care about, every day.