Skip to content

minimax-ai/searxng-search

v1.0.0MIT

Search the web through your own self-hosted SearXNG instance: categories, engines, time range, language and safe-search filters via a zero-dependency Python script, with bearer/basic auth and TOML or JSON config. The script contacts only the configured SearXNG instance (HTTPS by default; HTTP only for loopback or explicit opt-in); the instance then forwards the query, language, and categories to its own configured upstream engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc., as enabled by the instance operator). No telemetry, no third-party services run by this script.

GitHub

searxng-search

Search the web through your own self-hosted SearXNG instance with a zero-dependency Python script: categories, engines, time range, language and safe-search filters, plus bearer/basic auth and TOML or JSON config.

The problem

Web search inside an agent usually means a vendor API with credentials and quotas. If you already run SearXNG (a privacy-respecting metasearch engine), this skill gives the agent a first-class search tool against it — one config file, no vendor SDK, no tracking.

Try it

Install from /plugins → Local, configure your instance, then ask:

search the web for the latest SearXNG documentation

Expected result: a formatted list of results (title, URL, snippet) from your SearXNG instance, filtered by the requested category / time range / language.

Direct usage:

python3 scripts/search.py -c news -t day "latest tech news"
python3 scripts/search.py -e google,duckduckgo -p 2 "rust programming"
python3 scripts/search.py -l zh-CN -n 10 "开源搜索引擎"

Requirements

  • A self-hosted SearXNG instance reachable over HTTP(S) — you provide it; no public instance is bundled.
  • Python 3.11+ (TOML config; legacy JSON config works on older Python).
  • A config file at ~/.config/agents/searxng.toml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME); see skills/searxng-search/references/configuration.md for all fields.

Data and network

This skill has two levels of network destinations; the difference matters.

Direct destination (the script itself)

The script makes a single HTTPS (or loopback HTTP) request to your configured SearXNG instance — the base_url in your config. The script does not contact any other host. It never follows HTTP redirects: a 30x response is an error, because following a redirect could forward the Authorization header to an unexpected host. Point base_url directly at the final endpoint.

Downstream destinations (the SearXNG instance, not the script)

Your SearXNG instance then forwards the query string, language code, and selected categories to the upstream engines it has been configured with (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Baidu, etc., as enabled by the instance operator). Those engines receive the request content from your instance — the script does not see or control that hop.

Practical implication: anything you put in the search query (personal context, project names, internal jargon) reaches the engines your instance is configured to use. This is true of any SearXNG client, not something this skill introduces. If that is a concern, configure your instance to use only engines you trust, or self-host engines locally.

Credentials and config

  • Credentials for your instance (bearer token / basic auth, if any) live in your local config file. They are sent only to your instance — the script never sends them anywhere else.
  • Use $ENV_VAR references in the config instead of writing tokens in plaintext, and chmod 600 the file on POSIX systems. See skills/searxng-search/references/configuration.md.
  • No telemetry, no third-party services run by this script.

License

MIT