> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tako.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

> Tako is the knowledge layer for agents, grounding your AI with the most accurate proprietary data and web content.

Tako grounds your agent in two kinds of knowledge at once: **proprietary structured data** from trusted providers, and **full web search**. One API returns typed values with named sources when curated data exists, and agent-ready web results and page text for everything else. That combination is the point. A pure data API misses most questions, and a pure web search API makes your agent do the reading.

Traditional search APIs stop at a ranked list of links. Your agent still has to open each page, parse it, reconcile numbers that disagree, and hope nothing went stale. That works for reading the news. It breaks down when the answer has to be right.

Ask Tako a question and you get a synthesized, source-attributed answer, or dispatch a deep-research agent. Both are grounded in [knowledge cards](/documentation/getting-started/what-is-tako/knowledge-cards): typed data with named sources and methodology, pulled straight from providers across finance, macroeconomics, geopolitics, sports, and weather. When the answer lives on the open web instead, the same call covers it: web results in [Search](/documentation/integrating-tako/search/overview), blended into [Answer](/documentation/integrating-tako/answer/overview), and full page text through [Contents](/documentation/integrating-tako/contents/overview). Your agent never crawls a page.

<Tip>
  **Structured data** has a defined shape: typed fields, values, and units (think rows and columns, or JSON), each with named sources attached, so your model can read it directly. *Unstructured* data is the opposite: raw web pages and text your model has to crawl, parse, and interpret before it can trust a single number.
</Tip>

## Tako vs. traditional search APIs

The same question, asked both ways.

<div className="not-prose my-8 overflow-hidden rounded-2xl border border-gray-200 dark:border-white/10">
  <div className="flex items-center justify-center border-b border-gray-200 px-5 py-4 dark:border-white/10">
    <span className="inline-flex items-center gap-2 rounded-full border border-gray-200 bg-gray-50 px-4 py-1.5 dark:border-white/10 dark:bg-white/5">
      <span className="text-xs font-medium uppercase tracking-wide text-gray-400 dark:text-gray-500">Example query</span>
      <span className="text-gray-300 dark:text-gray-600">·</span>
      <span className="text-sm font-medium text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-100">Who will win the 2026 FIFA World Cup?</span>
    </span>
  </div>

  <div className="divide-y divide-gray-200 dark:divide-white/10">
    <div className="p-6">
      <div className="mb-4 flex items-center gap-2">
        <span className="text-sm font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-100">Tako</span>
        <span className="rounded-full bg-emerald-50 px-2 py-0.5 text-xs font-medium text-emerald-700 dark:bg-emerald-500/10 dark:text-emerald-300">curated data + live web</span>
      </div>

      <iframe width="100%" style={{minHeight: '510px', backgroundColor: '#ffffff'}} src="https://tako.com/embed/YR8r8yLaFl-hK0c2KyWw/?dark_mode=false" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" className="rounded-lg dark:hidden" />

      <iframe width="100%" style={{minHeight: '510px', backgroundColor: '#1A1D1F'}} src="https://tako.com/embed/YR8r8yLaFl-hK0c2KyWw/?dark_mode=true" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" className="hidden rounded-lg dark:block" />

      <p className="mt-4 text-sm text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">One <a href="/documentation/getting-started/what-is-tako/knowledge-cards" className="underline decoration-gray-300 underline-offset-2 hover:decoration-gray-500 dark:decoration-gray-600">knowledge card</a>: live win probabilities with their named source and methodology. Your agent reads the values directly, or embeds the chart as is.</p>
    </div>

    <div className="p-6">
      <div className="mb-4 flex items-center gap-2">
        <span className="text-sm font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-100">Traditional search & LLM-search APIs</span>
        <span className="rounded-full bg-gray-100 px-2 py-0.5 text-xs font-medium text-gray-600 dark:bg-white/10 dark:text-gray-300">raw web text</span>
      </div>

      <div className="rounded-lg border border-gray-200 bg-gray-50 p-5 dark:border-white/10 dark:bg-white/5">
        <div className="grid gap-x-8 gap-y-4 sm:grid-cols-2">
          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">espn.com › soccer › fifa-world-cup</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">2026 World Cup: Latest odds and favorites to win</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Updated odds and expert predictions for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the leading contenders and dark horses.</p>
          </div>

          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">oddschecker.com › football › world-cup › winner</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">World Cup 2026 Winner Odds & Betting</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Compare 2026 World Cup outright winner odds across bookmakers, refreshed throughout the tournament.</p>
          </div>

          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">bbc.com › sport › football › world-cup</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">World Cup 2026 predictions: Who will lift the trophy?</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">BBC Sport pundits give their picks for the 2026 World Cup and rate every contender's chances.</p>
          </div>

          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">sportingnews.com › soccer › world-cup-2026</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">World Cup 2026 favorites: Ranking the contenders</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Ranking the teams most likely to win the 2026 World Cup, from clear favorites to long shots.</p>
          </div>

          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">forbes.com › betting › world-cup-2026-odds</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">2026 FIFA World Cup Odds: France and Argentina lead</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">A look at the current title odds for the 2026 World Cup and where the betting value lies.</p>
          </div>

          <div>
            <div className="text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">goal.com › en-us › world-cup</div>
            <span className="text-sm font-medium text-blue-600 dark:text-blue-400">World Cup 2026: Who are the favorites to win?</span>
            <p className="mt-0.5 text-xs text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Everything you need to know about the 2026 World Cup favorites, contenders, and outsiders.</p>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>

      <p className="mt-4 text-sm text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400"><em>Your agent still has to open each link, parse the page, reconcile numbers that disagree, and hope they're current. Every step is glue code you write, run, and spend tokens on.</em></p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

| | Tako | Traditional search & LLM-search APIs |
| - | - | - |
| **What comes back** | Typed, structured data: values, units, and time series | Cleaned web text: links, snippets, or page chunks |
| **Source attribution** | A named data provider and methodology, per value | A URL the text was scraped from |
| **Coverage** | Proprietary data providers plus full web search | Ranked open web only |
| **Output** | An interactive knowledge card, ready to render | Raw text your model still has to parse |
| **Post-processing** | None. Data arrives typed and structured | Crawl, parse, dedupe, and reconcile it yourself |
| **Correctness** | Authoritative by named source | Ranked by relevance. You verify it |

Want the deeper comparison, with benchmarks against the major web search APIs? Read [Tako vs. web search APIs](https://tako.com/tako-vs-web-search-apis/).

## How Tako works

<Card title="Trusted knowledge, directly indexed" icon="handshake" href="/documentation/getting-started/what-is-tako/data-sources">
  Tako pulls high-quality, structured data across domains like finance, macroeconomics, geopolitics, sports, and weather. Much of it changes fast and can't be crawled reliably, so we go straight to the source.
</Card>

<br />

<Card title="Full web search, agent ready" icon="globe" href="/documentation/integrating-tako/contents/overview">
  When the answer lives on the open web, Tako searches it for you and returns results and full page text your model can use directly. No crawler, no parser, no glue code.
</Card>

<br />

<Card title="Knowledge cards, interactive and shareable" icon="cards-blank" href="/documentation/getting-started/what-is-tako/knowledge-cards">
  Results come back as knowledge cards: visual, interactive representations of the retrieved data. Each card is built from the meaning of your query and drops straight into stories, apps, or workflows.
</Card>

<br />

<Card title="Search, built for analysts and agents" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/documentation/integrating-tako/search/overview">
  Ask in natural language and get the relevant cards back. Embed the engine in your application and your users get real-time, trusted data without leaving it.
</Card>

<br />

## Who it's for

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="For users" icon="user">
    We remove the grunt work required to turn your questions into persuasive, evidence-backed answers.
  </Card>

  <Card title="For AI developers" icon="code">
    We make your results more accurate, real-time, citable, and engaging.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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