SearXNG

What is mcp-searxng?

mcp-searxng is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server designed to integrate the SearXNG API, enabling AI models and applications to perform web searches. It acts as a bridge, allowing AI agents to leverage SearXNG's search functionalities.

How to use mcp-searxng?

mcp-searxng can be used by setting up the SEARXNG_URL environment variable to point to a SearXNG instance (either public or local). Authentication can be configured using AUTH_USERNAME and AUTH_PASSWORD for protected instances. It can be installed and used via Smithery, NPX, NPM, or Docker, with detailed instructions provided for each method, including configuration examples for claude_desktop_config.json.

Key Features of mcp-searxng

Web Search: Supports general queries, news, and articles with pagination.
Pagination: Allows control over the search results page number.
Time Filtering: Filters results by time range (day, month, year).
Language Selection: Filters results by preferred language.
Safe Search: Provides content filtering levels for search results.
Tools: Includes searxng_web_search for executing web searches and web_url_read for reading and converting URL content to markdown.

Use Cases of mcp-searxng

AI Agent Web Search: Enables AI models and agents to perform real-time web searches for information retrieval.
Contextual Information: Provides AI with up-to-date information from the web to enhance responses and decision-making.
Automated Data Collection: Facilitates automated collection of web content for analysis or further processing by AI.

FAQ about mcp-searxng

Q: What is SearXNG? A: SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases.

Q: Do I need my own SearXNG instance to use mcp-searxng? A: No, you can use a public SearXNG instance from searx.space or set up your own local instance.

Q: How do I configure authentication for a protected SearXNG instance? A: You can set the AUTH_USERNAME and AUTH_PASSWORD environment variables with your credentials.

Q: What is the web_url_read tool used for? A: The web_url_read tool is used to fetch content from a given URL and convert it into markdown format, which can be useful for AI models to process web page content.

SearXNG MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that integrates the SearXNG API, providing web search capabilities.

Features

Web Search: General queries, news, articles, with pagination.
Pagination: Control which page of results to retrieve.
Time Filtering: Filter results by time range (day, month, year).
Language Selection: Filter results by preferred language.
Safe Search: Control content filtering level for search results.

Tools

searxng_web_search
- Execute web searches with pagination
- Inputs:
  - query (string): The search query. This string is passed to external search services.
  - pageno (number, optional): Search page number, starts at 1 (default 1)
  - time_range (string, optional): Filter results by time range - one of: "day", "month", "year" (default: none)
  - language (string, optional): Language code for results (e.g., "en", "fr", "de") or "all" (default: "all")
  - safesearch (number, optional): Safe search filter level (0: None, 1: Moderate, 2: Strict) (default: instance setting)
web_url_read
- Read and convert the content from a URL to markdown
- Inputs:
  - url (string): The URL to fetch and process

Configuration

Setting the SEARXNG_URL

Choose a SearxNG instance from the list of public instances or use your local environment.
Set the SEARXNG_URL environment variable to the instance URL.
The default SEARXNG_URL value is http://localhost:8080.

Using Authentication

If you are using a password protected SearxNG instance you can set a username and password for HTTP Basic Auth:

Set the AUTH_USERNAME environmental variable to your username
Set the AUTH_PASSWORD environmental variable to your password

Usage with Claude Desktop

Installing via Smithery

To install SearxNG Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @ihor-sokoliuk/server-searxng --client claude

NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-searxng"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

NPM

npm install -g mcp-searxng

And then in your MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "mcp-searxng",
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

Using Pre-built Image from Docker Hub

docker pull isokoliuk/mcp-searxng:latest

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "SEARXNG_URL",
        "isokoliuk/mcp-searxng:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

Build Locally

docker build -t mcp-searxng:latest -f Dockerfile .

Use