DuckDuckGo Web Search

Web search without an API key using DuckDuckGo Lite via web_fetch. Use as a fallback when web_search fails with missing_brave_api_key error, or whenever you...

Security Scan

The skill is internally consistent with its stated purpose (performing DuckDuckGo Lite searches via web_fetch) and requests no credentials or installs, though using web_fetch to follow arbitrary links has the usual remote‑fetch privacy/SSRF considerations.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the instructions: it uses DuckDuckGo Lite via web_fetch as a no‑API‑key fallback. No unexplained binaries, env vars, or installs are requested.

Instruction Scope

Instructions are narrowly focused on forming the DDG Lite query and using web_fetch to retrieve results and then follow selected URLs. They do not ask the agent to read local files or environment variables. Caveat: the guidance allows following arbitrary result URLs with web_fetch (no domain whitelist), which is expected for a web‑search skill but can be abused to fetch internal or sensitive endpoints (SSRF/exfiltration) depending on how the platform implements web_fetch and what network access the agent has.

Install Mechanism

Instruction‑only skill with no install steps and no code files — lowest install risk.

Credentials

The skill declares no required environment variables, credentials, or config paths. This is proportionate to a simple web search fallback.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and autonomous invocation is allowed (platform default). Nothing requests permanent system presence or modification of other skills/configs.

Assessment

This skill appears to do exactly what it says: run DuckDuckGo Lite searches via the platform web_fetch tool and optionally fetch result pages. It asks for no credentials and does not install code. Before installing, confirm how your platform's web_fetch behaves (does it send cookies/authorization headers? what network access does it have?), because following arbitrary URLs can expose the agent's outbound IP or be used to access internal services (SSRF). Use it as a fallback only if you trust web_fetch's sandboxing and consider limiting which domains the agent may fetch or monitoring outgoing requests.

DuckDuckGo Search via web_fetch

Search the web using DuckDuckGo Lite's HTML interface, parsed via web_fetch. No API key or package install required.

How to Search

web_fetch(url="https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=QUERY", extractMode="text", maxChars=8000)

• URL-encode the query — use + for spaces
• Use extractMode="text" (not markdown) for clean results
• Increase maxChars for more results

Region Filtering

Append &kl=REGION for regional results:

• au-en — Australia
• us-en — United States
• uk-en — United Kingdom
• de-de — Germany
• fr-fr — France

Full list: https://duckduckgo.com/params

Example — Australian search

web_fetch(url="https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=best+coffee+melbourne&kl=au-en", extractMode="text", maxChars=8000)

Reading Results

Results appear as numbered items with title, snippet, and URL. Skip entries marked "Sponsored link" (ads) — organic results follow.

Search-then-Fetch Pattern

1. Search — query DDG Lite for a list of results
2. Pick — identify the most relevant URLs
3. Fetch — use web_fetch on those URLs to read full content

Tips

• First 1-2 results may be ads — skip to organic results
• For exact phrases, wrap in quotes: q=%22exact+phrase%22
• Add specific terms to narrow results (site name, year, location)

Limitations

• No time/date filtering (DDG Lite doesn't support &df= reliably via fetch)
• Text results only — no images or videos
• Results sourced from Bing (may differ from Google)
• Google search does NOT work via web_fetch (captcha blocked)