Private Web Search Searchxng

Self-hosted private web search using SearXNG. Use when privacy is important, external APIs are blocked, you need search without tracking, or want to avoid paid search APIs.

Private Web Search (SearXNG)

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

Quick Setup

# 1. Start container
docker run -d --name searxng -p 8080:8080 -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/ searxng/searxng

# 2. Enable JSON API
docker exec searxng sed -i 's/  formats:/  formats:\n    - json/' /etc/searxng/settings.yml
docker restart searxng

# 3. Verify
curl -sL "http://localhost:8080/search?q=test&format=json" | jq '.results[0]'

Usage

Basic Search

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

Available Engines

Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Startpage, Wikipedia, and more.

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