Brave Search now features its AI-powered CodeLLM for programming-related queries

Today, Brave Search added its newly built CodeLLM to its search engine. CodeLLM is aimed at queries that involve programming, and combines the depth and quality of search results with the summarization and explainability power of large language models (LLMs). CodeLLM offers programmers an option to get AI code snippets grounded in search results, with step-by-step explanations and citations of the sources for reference and validation. CodeLLM is free and is integrated in Brave Search so users do not have to switch apps or compromise on privacy.

Figure 1: Query “kill all processes listening to port 80”

CodeLLM  is available to all Brave Search users, on desktop and mobile. To access it, head to privacy-preserving Brave Search and try it out with your favorite programming query:

• If Brave Search is your default search engine, simply start a search in your browser’s address bar
• If Brave Search isn’t your default, visit search.brave.com and start your search that way

CodeLLM automatically detects programming-related queries, so there’s no need to generate a special search. On top of the search results, if an answer is possible there will be a widget to trigger the CodeLLM response. The detection of programming queries happens outside of the LLM, by other search components (similar to the ones able to detect queries about the weather, queries that lend themselves well to be summarized, queries about stock prices, etc).

How we built CodeLLM

The underlying technology is built on top of Mixtral, a large language model that can use text prompts to generate code, and it is further equipped to answer questions by tapping into our unique capabilities as a search engine, in real-time. As the models get more accessible, and more affordable to run, the value-add is the context we’re able to provide to them. This highlights how vertical search engines can be easily replicated, and also emphasizes how important it is to be independent and to own the whole stack, like Brave Search.

Figure 2: query “install fzf mac”

We are excited to release CodeLLM in Brave Search, and are already considering a number of improvements and additions to its capabilities. CodeLLM results will also be offered via the Brave Search API in the near future. See something you like? Wish it could do more? Tell us! Simply click the Feedback button at the bottom of the CodeLLM window to share feedback.

About Brave Search

Brave Search is the only independent, global-scale search engine outside Big Tech. It’s the default search engine for many of the Brave browser’s over 60 million users, and is available on any browser at search.brave.com. Since its launch two years ago, Brave Search has grown to serve an average of 25 million queries per day.

Rather than adding layers on top of third party APIs and services, Brave Search is truly innovating in the search space. From Goggles (which allows community-driven alternative rankings) to AI summarizer (which offers AI-powered answers at the top of SERP, similar to the Leo experience in the browser), and more, Brave offers novel ways to search the Web and engage with its content. All this while maintaining Brave’s user-first promise: Brave Search does not track users, their queries, or their clicks.

The power of Brave Search is also now available to businesses. Brave Search Ads allow advertisers to reach Brave’s global audience in a way that still respects their privacy.

Its index, meanwhile, is powered not just by simple crawlers, but also by the Web Discovery Project (WDP). This mechanism allows users to anonymously contribute data about searches and page visits, thus ensuring the index is constantly refreshed with the content real humans are searching for and engaging with. The index comprises more than 20 billion quality pages, with 700 million pages indexed each day, 15% of which are new. This index is now available to power other search and AI applications, train models, and more with the Brave Search API.