search-web

SearXNG Public

by pwilkin

SearXNG Public offers secure, private web searches with time-range filters, similar to DuckDuckGo browser and DuckDuck G

Queries public SearXNG instances to extract structured search results with time-range filtering and fallback mechanisms for reliable web search capabilities

github stars

30

No API key neededWorks with public SearXNG instancesAutomatic fallback mechanism

best for

  • / Developers needing web search without API keys
  • / Applications requiring structured web search data
  • / Building search features with privacy-focused engines

capabilities

  • / Search web content through SearXNG instances
  • / Parse HTML search results into JSON format
  • / Filter results by time ranges
  • / Switch between fallback servers automatically
  • / Generate reports on accessible SearXNG instances
  • / Configure language preferences for searches

what it does

Searches the web through public SearXNG instances by scraping and parsing HTML results into structured JSON data. Includes fallback servers for reliability when main instances are unavailable.

about

SearXNG Public is a community-built MCP server published by pwilkin that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. SearXNG Public offers secure, private web searches with time-range filters, similar to DuckDuckGo browser and DuckDuck G It is categorized under search web.

how to install

You can install SearXNG Public in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.

license

MIT

SearXNG Public is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.

readme

mcp-searxng-public

An MCP server that queries public SearXNG instances, parsing HTML contents into a JSON result

<a href="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@pwilkin/mcp-searxng-public"> <img width="380" height="200" src="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@pwilkin/mcp-searxng-public/badge" alt="SearXNG Server MCP server" /> </a>

Rationale

All the MCP servers for SearXNG that I've seen use "json" as the output format. While that is certainly a faster way to code a SearXNG MCP server, it will make it fail on virtually all public servers since they don't expose the JSON format.

This server will read from up to three public SearXNG servers (using one as main and the others as fallback) and will parse the results into JSON.

Installation

Install via npm install mcp-searxng-public.

If the server is installed, the run configuration is (for Cursor or Cursor-compatible clients) as follows:

{
  "SearXNGScraper": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["mcp-searxng-public"],
    "capabilities": {
      "tool-calls": true
    },
    "env": {
      "SEARXNG_BASE_URL": "https://metacat.online;https://nyc1.sx.ggtyler.dev;https://ooglester.com;https://search.080609.xyz;https://search.canine.tools;https://search.catboy.house;https://search.citw.lgbt;https://search.einfachzocken.eu;https://search.federicociro.com;https://search.hbubli.cc;https://search.im-in.space;https://search.indst.eu",
      "DEFAULT_LANGUAGE": "en"
    }
  }
}

Note: You may need to adjust the env variables, particularly SEARXNG_BASE_URL, to point to your preferred SearXNG instances. The DEFAULT_LANGUAGE can also be set as needed. You can run the report task to get a report on good (accessible) SearXNG instances which you can put in the URLs line.

Add MCP Server sear-xng-scraper to LM Studio

Usage

The server exposes one endpoint: search. The endpoint takes four arguments:

  • query - the search query
  • time_range (optional) - which takes a time range parameter according to the https://docs.searxng.org/dev/search_api.html spec (day, month or year).
  • language (optional) - the language code for the search (e.g., en, es, fr). If not provided, it defaults to the value of the DEFAULT_LANGUAGE environment variable. If neither is set, no language parameter is sent to SearXNG.
  • detailed (optional) - if set to "true", performs a more thorough search by querying up to 3 servers and fetching multiple pages of results (pages 1, 2, and 3) from each server, then merging and deduplicating the results.

Returned is an array of objects:

[
      {
        "url": "https://github.com/searxng/searxng",
        "summary": "You can start SearXNG using make run in the terminal or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+B"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://searx.bndkt.io/",
        "summary": "Powered by searxng - 2025.3.22+5986629c6 — a privacy-respecting, open metasearch engine Source code | Issue tracker | Engine stats | Public instances | Contact instance maintainer"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://docs.searxng.org/"
        "summary": "SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from up to 243 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, SearXNG can be used over Tor …"
      }
      {
        "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SearXNG",
        "summary": "SearXNG is federated, and as such is hosted by several instances, public and private. Private instances are hosted on a local network, or run on the user&#x27;s desktop computer itself, and are …"
      }
]

FAQ

What is the SearXNG Public MCP server?
SearXNG Public is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server profile on explainx.ai. MCP lets AI hosts (e.g. Claude Desktop, Cursor) call tools and resources through a standard interface; this page summarizes categories, install hints, and community ratings.
How do MCP servers relate to agent skills?
Skills are reusable instruction packages (often SKILL.md); MCP servers expose live capabilities. Teams frequently combine both—skills for workflows, MCP for APIs and data. See explainx.ai/skills and explainx.ai/mcp-servers for parallel directories.
How are reviews shown for SearXNG Public?
This profile displays 56 aggregated ratings (sample rows for discoverability plus signed-in user reviews). Average score is about 4.5 out of 5—verify behavior in your own environment before production use.
MCP server reviews

Ratings

4.556 reviews
  • Dhruvi Jain· Dec 16, 2024

    I recommend SearXNG Public for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.

  • Emma Iyer· Dec 16, 2024

    SearXNG Public is among the better-indexed MCP projects we tried; the explainx.ai summary tracks the official description.

  • Soo Sethi· Dec 8, 2024

    According to our notes, SearXNG Public benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.

  • Emma Bhatia· Dec 8, 2024

    SearXNG Public is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.

  • Omar Thomas· Dec 8, 2024

    Strong directory entry: SearXNG Public surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.

  • Nia Lopez· Dec 4, 2024

    SearXNG Public has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.

  • Soo Taylor· Nov 27, 2024

    SearXNG Public has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.

  • Soo Choi· Nov 27, 2024

    I recommend SearXNG Public for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.

  • Aditi Thompson· Nov 23, 2024

    According to our notes, SearXNG Public benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.

  • Soo Kim· Nov 19, 2024

    Useful MCP listing: SearXNG Public is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.

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