Empty results for search with large (+100) include_domains/exclude_domains lists

TL;DR

Search with large (+100) includedomains/excludedomains lists returns empty results; shrinking the list brings results back. No documented limit found.

Steps

1. Collaborator maitarasher: Tavily imposes no hard limit, but very long domain lists can lead to suboptimal or empty results - keep the lists as short as possible. For exclude_domains, a 150-domain deny list can also simply leave no relevant results for the query. Lesson: prefer short, targeted domain lists.

When to use

You are seeing this: Search with large (+100) includedomains/excludedomains lists returns empty results; shrinking the list brings results back. Use this skill when you run into "Empty results for search with large (+100) includedomains/excludedomains lists".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

In gh:tavily-ai/tavily-python#83 (https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-python/issues/83), the question was: Search with large (+100) includedomains/excludedomains lists returns empty results; shrinking the list brings results back. No documented limit found. The verified resolution: Collaborator maitarasher: Tavily imposes no hard limit, but very long domain lists can lead to suboptimal or empty results - keep the lists as short as possible. For exclude_domains, a 150-domain deny list can also simply leave no relevant results for the query.