How to Debug AI Agent Internet Access with Agent Reach Doctor

Jun 16, 2026

Problem

After installing Agent Reach, my AI agent said it couldn’t access Twitter. Was the tool not installed? Not configured? Blocked? I needed a way to see what was actually working.

What Agent Reach Doctor Does

agent-reach doctor is a built-in diagnostic that checks every platform channel and reports:

✅ Working — tool is installed and ready
⚠️ Needs config — installed but missing credentials
❌ Not installed — tool is missing

It probes each backend by actually executing commands, not just checking if binaries exist.

agent-reach doctor

agent-reach doctor --json

Sample Output

✅ 装好即用：
  ✅ GitHub repos and code — public repos readable and searchable
  ✅ YouTube video subtitles — yt-dlp
  ✅ RSS/Atom feeds — feedparser
  ✅ Web pages (any URL) — Jina Reader API
  ✅ B站视频、字幕和搜索 — bili-cli 可用（当前后端：bili-cli）

🔧 可配置：
  ⬜ Twitter/X 推文 — Twitter CLI 未安装
  ⬜ Reddit posts and comments — needs login

Channels are organized by setup complexity:

Tier	Description	Examples
Tier 0	Zero-config, work immediately	Web, YouTube, GitHub, RSS, V2EX
Tier 1	Needs free key or login	Twitter, Bilibili, XiaoHongShu, Reddit, Exa Search
Tier 2	Needs more involved setup	Xiaoyuzhou (Groq key), Xueqiu (cookie)

Fix Prescriptions

When a channel is broken, doctor output includes specific fix commands. If twitter-cli is not installed, it shows the install command. If xiaohongshu-mcp is running but not connected to mcporter, it shows how to add the connection.

Active Backend Display

For platforms with multiple backends, doctor shows which one is active:

✅ B站视频、字幕和搜索 — bili-cli 可用（当前后端：bili-cli）

This makes routing transparent. You always know which tool your agent is using.

Scheduled Health Checks

agent-reach watch

This silently checks channel health every day and only notifies you when something breaks. It catches platform changes before they cause problems.

How It Works Under the Hood

From agent_reach/doctor.py:

check_all(config) iterates all channels and calls each channel’s check() method
Per-channel exceptions are caught individually — one misbehaving channel never takes down the full report
format_report() groups channels by tier

# Each channel is checked independently
for channel in channels:
    try:
        status, message = channel.check(config)
    except Exception:
        status = "error"
        message = "Probe raised an exception"

Summary

In this post, I showed how agent-reach doctor helps debug AI agent internet access. The key point is that it probes each platform with real command execution, reports status organized by tier, and includes fix prescriptions for broken channels. Run it after installation, after updates, and scheduled daily to catch problems early.

Final Words + More Resources

My intention with this article was to help others share my knowledge and experience. If you want to contact me, you can contact by email: Email me

Here are also the most important links from this article along with some further resources that will help you in this scope:

👨‍💻 Agent Reach GitHub Repository
👨‍💻 Agent Reach Install Guide

Oh, and if you found these resources useful, don’t forget to support me by starring the repo on GitHub!