Perplexity Performance Tuning

Overview

Optimize Perplexity Sonar API for research automation and fact-checking workflows. Focus on query caching for repeated searches, citation deduplication, streaming for long research queries, and model selection between speed and depth.

Prerequisites

• Perplexity API key (sonar access)
• Understanding of Perplexity model tiers
• Cache layer for search result deduplication
• Monitoring for token usage and costs

Instructions

Step 1: Model Selection for Speed vs Depth

import OpenAI from 'openai';

const perplexity = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY,
  baseURL: 'https://api.perplexity.ai',
});

// Model tiers:
// sonar:             Fast, basic search (cheapest)
// sonar-pro:         Deeper search, more citations
// sonar-reasoning:   Multi-step reasoning with search

async function quickSearch(query: string) {
  return perplexity.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'sonar',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: query }],
    max_tokens: 512,  # 512 bytes
  });
}

async function deepResearch(query: string) {
  return perplexity.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'sonar-pro',
    messages: [
      { role: 'system', content: 'Provide comprehensive research with citations.' },
      { role: 'user', content: query },
    ],
    max_tokens: 2048,  # 2048: 2 KB
  });
}

Step 2: Cache Search Results by Query Hash

import { LRUCache } from 'lru-cache';
import { createHash } from 'crypto';

const searchCache = new LRUCache<string, any>({
  max: 1000,  # 1000: 1 second in ms
  ttl: 1000 * 60 * 60, // 1 hour - search results age  # 1 second in ms
});

function queryHash(query: string, model: string): string {
  return createHash('sha256')
    .update(`${model}:${query.toLowerCase().trim()}`)
    .digest('hex');
}

async function cachedSearch(query: string, model = 'sonar') {
  const key = queryHash(query, model);
  const cached = searchCache.get(key);
  if (cached) return cached;

  const result = await perplexity.chat.completions.create({
    model,
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: query }],
  });

  searchCache.set(key, result);
  return result;
}

Step 3: Stream Long Research Queries

async function streamResearch(
  query: string,
  onChunk: (text: string) => void
) {
  const stream = await perplexity.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'sonar-pro',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: query }],
    stream: true,
    max_tokens: 4096,  # 4096: 4 KB
  });

  let fullText = '';
  for await (const chunk of stream) {
    const text = chunk.choices[0]?.delta?.content || '';
    fullText += text;
    onChunk(text);
  }
  return { text: fullText, citations: extractCitations(fullText) };
}

function extractCitations(text: string): string[] {
  const urlRegex = /https?:\/\/[^\s\]]+/g;
  return [...new Set(text.match(urlRegex) || [])];
}

Step 4: Parallel Research with Deduplication

async function parallelResearch(
  queries: string[],
  concurrency = 3
) {
  const results: Map<string, any> = new Map();

  for (let i = 0; i < queries.length; i += concurrency) {
    const batch = queries.slice(i, i + concurrency);
    const batchResults = await Promise.all(
      batch.map(q => cachedSearch(q, 'sonar'))
    );

    batch.forEach((q, idx) => results.set(q, batchResults[idx]));

    if (i + concurrency < queries.length) {
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 500));  # HTTP 500 Internal Server Error
    }
  }
  return results;
}

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Rate limit 429	Exceeding RPM quota	Reduce concurrency, add delays
Stale citations	Cache TTL too long	Reduce to 30 min for time-sensitive queries
Incomplete citations	Using sonar basic	Upgrade to sonar-pro for more sources
High token cost	Using sonar-pro for simple queries	Route simple queries to sonar basic

Examples

Fact-Checking Pipeline

async function factCheck(claims: string[]) {
  const results = await parallelResearch(
    claims.map(c => `Verify this claim with sources: ${c}`)
  );

  return claims.map(claim => ({
    claim,
    analysis: results.get(`Verify this claim with sources: ${claim}`),
  }));
}

Resources

• Perplexity API Docs
• Perplexity Model Guide

Output

• Configuration files or code changes applied to the project
• Validation report confirming correct implementation
• Summary of changes made and their rationale