Design Philosophy

Valyu is built on a simple idea: AI systems need access to authoritative knowledge to give reliable answers. This page explains how we’ve designed Valyu and what it’s best at.

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Design Principles

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1. Built for AI

Valyu is designed for AI agents and LLMs, not adapted from a traditional search engine. What this means:

• Semantic understanding, not keyword matching
• Structured JSON responses ready for LLMs
• Embedding-powered retrieval that understands context
• RAG-optimised formatting with citations and metadata

Why it matters: Traditional search APIs return links for humans to click. Valyu returns structured data that AI can use directly—reducing hallucinations and improving accuracy.

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2. One API, Many Sources

Valyu unifies multiple authoritative data sources into a single search interface. What you can search:

• Real-time web - Current events and trending topics
• Academic papers - Research-backed insights
• Books and literature - Domain knowledge
• Financial data - Real-time market information
• Proprietary datasets - Specialised industry data

Why we did this: AI agents need diverse, authoritative sources. Rather than integrating multiple APIs yourself, you get one comprehensive retrieval layer that spans the knowledge spectrum.

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3. Transparent Pricing

Every search has predictable, granular pricing with limits you control. How it works:

• Pay-per-use CPM pricing - No subscriptions
• Max price controls - Set spending limits per query
• Relevance thresholds - Filter out low-quality results
• Source-specific pricing - Premium sources cost more, but you choose when to use them

Our philosophy: You should have complete control over costs without sacrificing quality.

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What Valyu Is Good At

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Ideal Use Cases

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• Grounding LLM responses with authoritative sources
• Reducing hallucinations
• Providing citations

AI Research Assistants

• Literature reviews
• Cross-referencing sources
• Finding recent research

Knowledge-Heavy Chatbots

• Educational assistants
• Professional services (legal, medical, financial)

Real-Time Information

• News and current events
• Market data
• Time-sensitive decisions

Specialised Search

• Academic research
• Financial analysis
• Technical documentation

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What Valyu Isn’t For

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Less Suitable Use Cases

Direct User Search

• Users querying the API directly (not through an LLM)

Social Media Monitoring

• Twitter/X trends
• Sentiment analysis
• Viral content

E-commerce

• Shopping comparisons
• Product reviews
• Inventory checks

Local Search

• Restaurant recommendations
• Local services
• Location-based queries

Creative Content

• Image generation prompts
• Creative writing
• Entertainment recommendations

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Build on Top of Valyu

Rather than trying to solve every search use case, Valyu provides precise, comprehensive search that you can compose into your own workflows.

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What’s Next

Valyu is evolving based on developer feedback:

• Better precision - Especially for fuzzy queries and exact document matching
• Agentic search framework - Build your own search workflows
• Multimodal search - Images and documents
• Custom sources - Private data connectivity
• Advanced filtering - More granular controls

Feedback? Reach out at contact@valyu.ai

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