Private Web Search (SearXNG)

Privacy-respecting, self-hosted metasearch engine for AI agents.

Quick Setup

# If container exists but stopped:
docker start searxng

# Or fresh start:
docker run -d --name searxng -p 8080:8080 -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/ --restart unless-stopped searxng/searxng

# Enable JSON API (only needed once)
docker exec searxng sed -i 's/  formats:/  formats:\n    - json/' /etc/searxng/settings.yml
docker restart searxng

# Verify
curl -s "http://localhost:8080/search?q=test&format=json&engines=bing&num_results=1" | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f\"Results: {d.get('number_of_results',0)}\")"

## Usage

### Basic Search

```bash
curl -sL "http://localhost:8080/search?q=YOUR_QUERY&format=json" | jq '.results[:10]'

Using the Helper Script

./scripts/search.sh "openclaw ai" 5

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
SEARXNG_PORT	8080	Container port
SEARXNG_HOST	localhost	Server host
BASE_URL	http://localhost:8080	Public URL

Working Engines (Tested June 2026)

85 engines enabled by default, but most major engines are blocked or rate-limited:

Engine	Status	Results	Notes
Bing	Working	10-30	Most reliable, 282K+ total
GitHub	Working	30	Package/repo search
Stack Overflow	Working	10	Q&A search
Wikipedia	Sometimes	1	Varies by query
Google	Blocked	0	CAPTCHA, "access denied"
DuckDuckGo	Blocked	0	Rate limited
Startpage	Blocked	0	CAPTCHA
Qwant	Blocked	0	Rate limited

Multi-Engine Queries (Recommended)

Combine multiple working engines for best results:

# Get combined results from Bing + GitHub + Stack Overflow
curl -s "http://localhost:8080/search?q=python&format=json&engines=bing,github,stackoverflow&num_results=10"

This returns 40+ results with diverse sources (web, code, Q&A).

Why Most Engines Fail

• Google/DuckDuckGo: Detect automated traffic, return CAPTCHA/403 errors
• Public instances: Get IP-banned quickly due to high volume
• Self-hosted: Slightly better but still rate-limited
• Bing: Most permissive, works reliably

Note: Engine status changes frequently. Test with &num_results=5 to verify before heavy use.

Management

docker start searxng   # Start
docker stop searxng    # Stop
docker logs searxng    # View logs
docker rm searxng -f   # Remove

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
No results	Check docker logs searxng
403 Forbidden	Enable JSON format (step 2)
Connection refused	Run docker start searxng
"container name already in use"	Container stopped, run docker start searxng
Most engines return 0	Engine rate-limiting — use Bing