duckduckgo web search V2

Web search without an API key V2 using DuckDuckGo Lite via web_fetch. Use as a fallback when web_search fails with missing_brave_api_key error, or whenever y...

Security Scan

The skill's instructions, requirements, and behavior are coherent with its stated purpose (performing DuckDuckGo Lite searches via the built-in web_fetch tool) and it does not request unrelated credentials or installs.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the runtime instructions: it describes performing searches via DuckDuckGo Lite and the SKILL.md gives explicit web_fetch calls and parameters. No unrelated binaries, env vars, or installs are requested.

Instruction Scope

Instructions stay on-topic (how to call web_fetch, URL encoding, region filtering, skipping ads, and a search-then-fetch pattern). Note: the recommended 'search-then-fetch' pattern instructs the agent to fetch arbitrary result URLs — this is expected for a web-search skill but means the agent will make outbound requests to third-party sites (including results that may require auth or contain sensitive data).

Install Mechanism

No install spec or code files — instruction-only skill. This is the lowest-risk install posture and matches the described zero-dependency approach.

Credentials

No environment variables, credentials, or config paths are requested. The declared requirements are minimal and proportional to the described function.

Persistence & Privilege

Defaults are used (not always: true). The skill can be invoked autonomously by the agent (normal for skills) but does not request elevated persistence or modify other skills or system-wide settings.

Assessment

This skill is coherent and appears safe in that it only instructs the agent how to use the built-in web_fetch tool to query DuckDuckGo Lite. Before installing, confirm that you are comfortable with the agent making outbound HTTP requests to arbitrary result URLs (which may contact third-party sites or internal addresses reachable from the agent), and verify the properties of your environment's web_fetch implementation (headers forwarded, credential handling, internal network access, rate limits). If you have sensitive credentials or internal-only resources, avoid using web_fetch on those URLs or restrict the agent's network access.

DuckDuckGo Search via web_fetch Staj

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)