Perplexity Provider Guide

Web-search-augmented generation via Perplexity's Sonar models

Overview

Perplexity hosts a family of LLMs (Sonar, Sonar Pro, Sonar Reasoning) that pair the model with a live web search backend; responses include citations to the documents the model relied on.

Key Facts

Protocol: OpenAI-compatible (/chat/completions)
Default base URL: https://api.perplexity.ai
Default model: sonar
Citations: Returned via citations field on the response
Streaming: Yes
Tool calling: No

Quick Start

1. Get an API Key

https://www.perplexity.ai/settings/api

2. Configure

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-your-key
PERPLEXITY_MODEL=sonar

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY also configures decisions. The same variable configures the Perplexity Decisions provider (perplexity-decider, which serves decide()). So setting it for Sonar also lets NeuroLink's built-in features send decision requests to Perplexity when no TypeSafe, Laya or XOR provider is configured, and context compaction needs no other opt-in to do so. To avoid that, pass the key through the SDK as credentials.perplexity.apiKey instead of the environment, and keep it out of .env too: the SDK and the CLI load that file into the environment, so a PERPLEXITY_API_KEY line like the one above would still configure decisions. (That the text provider reads this slice is taken from the code and has not been run against the live API.) See What is sent to Perplexity and One key, two providers.

3. Generate

import { NeuroLink } from "@juspay/neurolink";
const ai = new NeuroLink();
const result = await ai.generate({
  provider: "perplexity",
  input: { text: "What did the Fed announce yesterday?" },
});
console.log(result.content);

Supported Models

Model ID	Notes
`sonar`	Default; fast search-augmented chat
`sonar-pro`	Larger context, deeper search
`sonar-reasoning`	Chain-of-thought reasoning

CLI Usage

pnpm run cli generate "What were today's tech-stock movers?" --provider perplexity

Provider Aliases

Alias	Example
`perplexity`	`--provider perplexity`

Configuration Reference

Environment Variable	Required	Default
`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`	Yes	—
`PERPLEXITY_MODEL`	No	`sonar`
`PERPLEXITY_BASE_URL`	No	`https://api.perplexity.ai`

Feature Support Matrix

Feature	Support
Text generation	Yes
Streaming	Yes
Tool calling	No
Structured output	Limited
Web search	Yes (native)
Citations	Yes

Overview​

Key Facts​

Quick Start​

1. Get an API Key​

2. Configure​

3. Generate​

Supported Models​

CLI Usage​

Provider Aliases​

Configuration Reference​

Feature Support Matrix​

See Also​