SearXNG MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that equips AI agents with privacy-friendly web search capabilities using the SearXNG metasearch engine.

Features

This server provides the following main features:

• Web search via multiple search engines
• Supports various search categories (general, images, news, etc.)
• Customizable search engine selection
• Language filtering
• Time range filtering
• Control over the number of search results

Available Tools

• web_search - Perform web search using SearXNG
  • Required parameters:
    • query (string): The search query
  • Optional parameters:
    • categories (array): Search categories, e.g. ['general', 'images', 'news']
    • engines (array): Search engines, e.g. ['google', 'bing', 'duckduckgo']
    • language (string): Language code for search, default is "en"
    • max_results (integer): Maximum number of results, default is 10 (1-100)
    • time_range (string): Time range filter ('day', 'week', 'month', 'year')

If a search cannot be completed (the instance is unreachable, rate-limits the request, or returns a malformed response), the tool returns an error result describing the failure rather than an empty result list.

Search Limits

Each server process admits up to eight concurrent searches. Further calls return an error immediately and can be retried later. --timeout bounds the complete network operation, including streaming the response; cancellation closes the active request. Responses are limited to 2 MiB before JSON parsing.

The configured instance must serve /search directly: redirects are rejected. The client requests Accept-Encoding: identity and rejects compressed responses to prevent unbounded decompression. Result fields are also truncated to their existing limits. Missing or non-list results and upstream error objects are reported as failures, while a valid empty list remains a successful search.

Application logs omit search queries and upstream exception text. The CLI keeps HTTP dependency logging at WARNING even when --log-level=DEBUG is selected.

Privacy Policy

This software does not operate a hosted search service and does not send search queries to its maintainer. It runs on the user's device or infrastructure and sends each query, selected engines, categories, language, time range, and safe search setting directly to the configured SearXNG instance. Search results are returned to the connected MCP client.

The software does not persist queries or results, use analytics or advertising trackers, create user profiles, or share data with the maintainer. Operational logs record result counts and errors but omit query text and upstream exception details. In-memory request and result data is discarded after the request.

The selected SearXNG instance and the search engines it contacts are independent third parties. Their collection, use, sharing, and retention practices are governed by their own privacy policies. Before sending sensitive queries, users should review the selected instance's privacy notice or operate an instance they trust. The default CLI instance is https://searx.party; its policy is at https://searx.party/info/en/privacy.

Privacy questions and requests can be filed at https://github.com/danchev/searXNG/issues.

Command Line Options

... View full README on GitHub