SearXNG MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to perform web searches using SearXNG, a privacy-respecting metasearch engine. Works out-of-the-box with zero additional deployment by automatically selecting a random instance from SearX.space, while also supporting private instances with basic authentication.

This project is deprecated. Its successor is searxNcrawl at https://github.com/DasDigitaleMomentum/searxNcrawl

Deprecated

This repository is deprecated in favor of searxNcrawl. The successor currently does not include round-robin instance selection (it is usually unreliable). If you file a suitable defect report, it can be added.

Features

• Zero-configuration setup: Works immediately by using a random public instance from SearX.space
• Private instance support: Connect to your own SearXNG instance with optional basic authentication
• Perform web searches with customizable parameters
• Support for multiple search engines
• Privacy-focused search results
• Markdown-formatted search results
• Sensible default values for all parameters

CAVEAT - Public Instances might be unavailabe for this purpose and return "Request failed with status code 429"

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• npm (v7 or higher)
• Access to a SearXNG instance (self-hosted or public)

Install from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tisDDM/searxng-mcp.git
cd searxng-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Configuration

The SearXNG MCP server can be configured with the following environment variables:

• SEARXNG_URL (optional): The URL of your SearXNG instance (e.g., https://searx.example.com). If not provided, a random public instance from SearX.space will be automatically selected, making the server usable with zero additional deployment.
• USE_RANDOM_INSTANCE (optional): Set to "false" to disable random instance selection when no URL is provided. Default is "true".
• SEARXNG_USERNAME (optional): Username for basic authentication when connecting to a private instance
• SEARXNG_PASSWORD (optional): Password for basic authentication when connecting to a private instance

You can set these environment variables in a .env file in the root directory of the project:

SEARXNG_URL=https://searx.example.com
SEARXNG_USERNAME=your_username
SEARXNG_PASSWORD=your_password

Usage

Running the server

# If installed globally
searxngmcp

# If installed from source
node build/index.js

Integrating with Claude Desktop

1. Open Claude Desktop
2. Go to Settings > MCP Servers
3. Add a new MCP server with the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "searxngmcp": {
         "command": "searxngmcp",
         "env": {
           // Optional: If not provided, a random public instance will be used
           "SEARXNG_URL": "https://searx.example.com",
           // Optional: Only needed for private instances with authentication
           "SEARXNG_USERNAME": "your_username",
           "SEARXNG_PASSWORD": "your_password"
         },
         "disabled": false,
         "autoApprove": []
       }
     }
   }
   

Integrating with Claude in VSCode

1. Open VSCode
2. Go to Settings > Extensions > Claude > MCP Settings
3. Add a new MCP server with the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "searxngmcp": {
         "command": "node",
         "args": ["/path/to/searxng-mcp/build/index.js"],
         "env": {
           // Optional: If not provided, a random public instance will be used
           "SEARXNG_URL": "https://searx.example.com",
           // Optional: Only needed for private instanc
   

... View full README on GitHub