Perplexity AI Search - security-hardened version (bash-based)

Perplexity AI Search (Safe Edition)

Overview

This skill provides access to the Perplexity API for web-grounded AI search. It combines large language models with real-time web search, providing accurate, up-to-date answers with source citations.

This is a security-hardened version that fixes command injection vulnerabilities found in the original perplexity-bash skill.

When to Use Perplexity vs. Built-in Search

Use Perplexity when:

Use built-in web search when:

Model Selection Guide

| Model | Use Case | Cost | |-------|----------|------| | sonar | Default search, most queries | Low | | sonar-pro | Advanced search, deeper understanding | Medium | | sonar-reasoning | Complex multi-step reasoning | Medium | | sonar-reasoning-pro | Advanced reasoning with deep content | High |

Quick Start

Basic Search

# Simple query (uses sonar by default)
scripts/perplexity_search.sh "What is the capital of Germany?"
With a different model
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -m sonar-pro "Latest AI developments"
Markdown format with citations
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -f markdown "Tesla stock analysis"

Advanced Usage

# High context for comprehensive results
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -m sonar-reasoning -c high -f markdown \
  "Compare AI models performance benchmarks"
With custom system prompt
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -s "You are a technology analyst." \
  "Analyze current tech trends"

Options

| Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | -m, --model | Model to use | sonar | | -t, --max-tokens | Maximum tokens (1-4096) | 4096 | | --temperature | Sampling temperature (0.0-1.0) | 0.0 | | -c, --context | Search context: low/medium/high | medium | | -s, --system | System prompt | (none) | | -f, --format | Output: text/markdown/json | text | | --list-models | List available models | |

Search Context Size

Setup Requirements

API Key Configuration

Option 1: Config file (recommended) Create config.json in the skill directory:

{
  "apiKey": "pplx-your-key-here"
}

Option 2: Environment variable

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Priority: Config file > environment variable.

Dependencies

Security Notes

This version addresses the following vulnerabilities found in the original:

1. No command injection - User input is passed to Python via environment variables, never interpolated into code strings 2. Input validation - All parameters are validated (numeric ranges, allowed model names, allowed context values) 3. API key protection - The Authorization header is passed to curl via a temporary config file (curl -K, mode 600) and the request body via stdin (--data @-), so neither the API key nor the body appear in process listings (ps aux) 4. Query length limit - Queries are capped at 8000 characters to prevent denial-of-wallet attacks 5. Strict model allowlist - Only known valid models are accepted

Cost Awareness

Perplexity API is not free. Be mindful of usage:

Troubleshooting

Basic Search

# Simple query (uses sonar by default)
scripts/perplexity_search.sh "What is the capital of Germany?"
With a different model
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -m sonar-pro "Latest AI developments"
Markdown format with citations
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -f markdown "Tesla stock analysis"

Advanced Usage

# High context for comprehensive results
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -m sonar-reasoning -c high -f markdown \
  "Compare AI models performance benchmarks"
With custom system prompt
scripts/perplexity_search.sh -s "You are a technology analyst." \
  "Analyze current tech trends"

| Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | -m, --model | Model to use | sonar | | -t, --max-tokens | Maximum tokens (1-4096) | 4096 | | --temperature | Sampling temperature (0.0-1.0) | 0.0 | | -c, --context | Search context: low/medium/high | medium | | -s, --system | System prompt | (none) | | -f, --format | Output: text/markdown/json | text | | --list-models | List available models | |