SearXNG Search

Local web search using SearXNG metasearch engine. No external API keys required.

Prerequisites

• SearXNG instance running locally (default: http://localhost:8080 ) or accessible via network

• Node.js 18+ installed

Quick SearXNG Setup

The JSON API must be enabled in SearXNG settings (it's disabled by default). This skill includes a pre-configured settings.yml that enables it.

Using Docker (recommended) - mount the included settings to enable JSON API

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name searxng
-v {baseDir}/searxng/settings.yml:/etc/searxng/settings.yml:ro
searxng/searxng

Or see https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation.html

Note: The default SearXNG image only enables HTML format. Without the custom settings, the JSON API will return HTTP 403 Forbidden.

Setup

Before first use, install dependencies:

cd {baseDir} && npm install

Environment

The skill auto-detects whether it's running locally or in Docker:

Environment Default URL How detected

Local http://localhost:8080

No /.dockerenv file

Docker http://searxng:8080

/.dockerenv exists

Override with SEARXNG_URL environment variable if needed.

Search

{baseDir}/scripts/search.js "query" # Basic search (5 results) {baseDir}/scripts/search.js "query" -n 10 # More results {baseDir}/scripts/search.js "query" --content # Include page content as markdown {baseDir}/scripts/search.js "query" -n 3 --content # Combined

Examples

Search for documentation

{baseDir}/scripts/search.js "typescript generics tutorial"

Research with content extraction

{baseDir}/scripts/search.js "react server components" -n 5 --content

Find API references

{baseDir}/scripts/search.js "site:docs.github.com REST API" -n 3

Extract Page Content

Fetch a URL and extract readable content as markdown:

{baseDir}/scripts/content.js https://example.com/article

Examples

Extract documentation page

{baseDir}/scripts/content.js https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/classes.html

Extract blog post

{baseDir}/scripts/content.js https://blog.example.com/some-article

Output Format

Search Results

--- Result 1 --- Title: Page Title Link: https://example.com/page Snippet: Description from search results Content: (if --content flag used) Markdown content extracted from the page...

--- Result 2 --- ...

Content Extraction

Title: Article Title URL: https://example.com/article

--- Content --- Markdown content of the page...

Advantages

• ✅ No API keys required

• ✅ No rate limits

• ✅ Privacy-preserving (local instance)

• ✅ Aggregates results from multiple search engines

• ✅ Fast and reliable

• ✅ Works locally and in Docker containers

When to Use

• Searching for documentation or API references

• Looking up facts or current information

• Researching libraries, frameworks, or tools

• Fetching content from specific URLs

• Any task requiring web search without external dependencies

Troubleshooting

Connection refused

SearXNG is not running. Start it with:

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name searxng
-v {baseDir}/searxng/settings.yml:/etc/searxng/settings.yml:ro
searxng/searxng

HTTP 403 Forbidden

The JSON API is not enabled. The default SearXNG only allows HTML format. Ensure you mount the included settings.yml when starting the container:

docker stop searxng && docker rm searxng docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name searxng
-v {baseDir}/searxng/settings.yml:/etc/searxng/settings.yml:ro
searxng/searxng

Custom SearXNG URL

Set the environment variable:

export SEARXNG_URL=http://your-searxng-host:8080