From 37d784b0fea0f1839b149b6e152a96e2cacb2827 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Xiangzhe <bakryun0718@proton.me>
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:18:25 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] fix(search): prefer the configured search connection over
 duckduckgo-free

When no explicit provider is requested and the auto-selected cheapest
provider has no credentials, executeWebSearch ran the fallbackOnly loop
first. duckduckgo-free (costPerQuery 0, authType none) always won there
with an empty credentials object, so a configured paid connection such as
serper-search was silently ignored and the caller got success:true with
zero results.

Move the sweep for other credentialed regular providers ahead of the
fallbackOnly loop (and exclude fallbackOnly ids from it, so a free
last-resort provider never outranks a configured one on cost). The
fallbackOnly loop stays as the true last resort.

The chat path only appeared correct because duckduckgo-free happened to
fail there and handleSearch retried the alternate provider; on
/v1/responses it "succeeded" with no results.

Closes #11524
---
 src/lib/search/executeWebSearch.ts | 42 +++++++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/lib/search/executeWebSearch.ts b/src/lib/search/executeWebSearch.ts
index 6e2af547f0..03f895a036 100644
--- a/src/lib/search/executeWebSearch.ts
+++ b/src/lib/search/executeWebSearch.ts
@@ -182,6 +182,30 @@ export async function executeWebSearch(
   } else {
     credentials = await resolveSearchCredentials(providerConfig.id);
 
+    if (!credentials) {
+      // A CONFIGURED provider always wins over a free `fallbackOnly` one (issue #11524):
+      // sweep every regular provider for real credentials BEFORE considering the
+      // last-resort ones. Running the fallbackOnly loop first made `duckduckgo-free`
+      // (costPerQuery 0, no credentials required) win unconditionally, so an operator's
+      // paid search connection was silently ignored whenever the cheapest auto-selected
+      // provider happened to have no credentials.
+      const sortedIds = Object.values(SEARCH_PROVIDERS)
+        .filter((provider) => !provider.fallbackOnly && supportsSearchType(provider, searchType))
+        .sort((a, b) => a.costPerQuery - b.costPerQuery)
+        .map((provider) => provider.id);
+
+      for (const providerId of sortedIds) {
+        if (providerId === providerConfig.id) continue;
+        const altConfig = getSearchProvider(providerId);
+        const altCreds = await resolveSearchCredentials(providerId);
+        if (altConfig && altCreds) {
+          providerConfig = altConfig;
+          credentials = altCreds;
+          break;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     if (!credentials) {
       const fallbackProviders = Object.values(SEARCH_PROVIDERS)
         .filter((provider) => provider.fallbackOnly && supportsSearchType(provider, searchType))
@@ -201,24 +225,6 @@ export async function executeWebSearch(
       }
     }
 
-    if (!credentials) {
-      const sortedIds = Object.values(SEARCH_PROVIDERS)
-        .filter((provider) => supportsSearchType(provider, searchType))
-        .sort((a, b) => a.costPerQuery - b.costPerQuery)
-        .map((provider) => provider.id);
-
-      for (const providerId of sortedIds) {
-        if (providerId === providerConfig.id) continue;
-        const altConfig = getSearchProvider(providerId);
-        const altCreds = await resolveSearchCredentials(providerId);
-        if (altConfig && altCreds) {
-          providerConfig = altConfig;
-          credentials = altCreds;
-          break;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-
     if (!credentials) {
       throw new WebSearchExecutionError(
         `No credentials configured for any search provider. Add an API key for a search provider (${Object.keys(