[BUG] DuckDuckGo Search Provider Dead — 19 Failures + Tool Spirals, No Fallback Search

[Da-Mikey]

Summary

DuckDuckGo search (DDGS) is returning "No results found" on every query — 19 occurrences in the last week. The agent enters a tool spiral on web_search failure, retrying 3-6 times with the same failing result (documented in error.log lines 88-115).

Symptoms

1. "DDGS search error: No results found" — every call returns empty
2. Agent retries 3-6 consecutive identical calls (same search spiral pattern as the terminal spiral in [BLOCKER] Agent Terminal Spiral — 37 Consecutive Terminal Calls Without Diversion #432)
3. No fallback search provider configured — agent has no alternative
4. Spiral detection triggers on same_tool but not on repeated_exact_failure with identical arguments

Root Cause

• DuckDuckGo blocks automated / bulk search queries (known behavior change in 2026)
• No alternative search provider configured in the web_search tool
• The tool spiral loop guard only detects same-tool calls, not identical query repetition
• No "dead provider" circuit-breaker — every call receives a fresh attempt

Recommended Fix

1. Replace or supplement DDGS with a working search provider (Brave Search API, Bing, or local SearXNG instance)
2. Add identical-query detection to loop_guard (same arguments in consecutive web_search calls → suggest alternative wording or different provider)
3. Circuit-breaker: after N consecutive DDGS failures, mark provider dead for the session
4. Return a structured error the agent can act on ("provider_dead", not "No results found")

Recurrence

• Total occurrences: 19 (all log files)
• Sessions affected: ≥2 documented
• Severity: Medium — blocks web search capability, causes tool spirals