What's New
🟣 Perplexity Sonar — Web-Grounded Research Provider (#22)
Adds Perplexity as a 5th AI provider for live web search during research workflows. When PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is set, discover/probe phases automatically include a web-grounded research agent that searches the live internet and returns results with source citations.
Setup:
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."
# Get key at https://www.perplexity.ai/settings/apiWhat changes:
probe_discover()adds a🟣 Web Researchagent that queries the live web- Results include source URLs and publication dates via Perplexity's citation API
- Zero behavioral changes when the key is not set — fully backwards compatible
Models:
| Agent Type | Model | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
perplexity
| sonar-pro
| Deep web research (default) |
perplexity-fast
| sonar
| Fast web search |
Integration points:
- Setup wizard (
/octo:setup): Perplexity configuration instructions - Provider detection (
detect-providers): Shows🟣 Perplexity: Configured ✓or optional hint - Doctor (
/octo:doctor): Reports Perplexity status in providers & auth checks - Cost tracking: Perplexity API costs shown in workflow cost estimates
- Security: Trust markers, environment isolation, command whitelist
- State manager:
perplexityinprovider_usagemetrics - Documentation: 🟣 indicator in CLAUDE.md, flow-discover.md, embrace.md
Configuration:
| Env Var | Purpose |
|---|---|
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY
| Required — enables Perplexity provider |
OCTOPUS_PERPLEXITY_MODEL
| Optional — override default model |
Testing: 35 new integration tests across 8 categories. All 23 existing test suites pass (59/59).