searxng-search

searxng-search is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from NousResearch/hermes-agent. It costs 18 tokens per session (1,850 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A privacy-focused search tool that combines results from many search engines through SearXNG, an open-source search aggregator. It can use a public instance or one you host yourself, without an API key.

In plain words
What is it for?
Searching the web for information, comparing results from multiple engines, and using a self-hosted search service.
Why use it?
It provides a search option when the main web-search service is unavailable or unconfigured, while reducing reliance on one search provider.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Which agent this was written for is unclear — built for hermes-agent. Also seen: built for hermes-agent.

Good fit Searching the web for information, comparing results from multiple engines, and using a self-hosted search service.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search
About the project

Hermes Agent is an AI assistant that learns from its use by creating and improving skills, retaining knowledge, searching past conversations, and adapting to its users. It is for people who want to run an agent through a terminal or messaging platforms while connecting it to different AI models and scheduled tasks.

NousResearch/hermes-agent · 244,603 stars · on GitHub · hermes-agent.nousresearch.com

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add NousResearch/hermes-agent --skill searxng-search
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for searxng-search

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for searxng-search

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nousresearch/hermes-agent/searxng-search.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 18 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,850 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • Snyk warn 7 Sept 2026
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to high

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • high Supply Chain · line 83
    Remote code is downloaded and executed. This bypasses code review and could introduce malicious code.
    Fix: Avoid downloading and executing remote scripts. Use trusted packages from PyPI/npm. If remote fetch is required, verify checksums and use HTTPS.
  • medium MCP Rug Pull · line 133
    Docker image references without a specific tag (:latest is implicit) or digest (@sha256:...) can be silently replaced by a malicious image.
    Fix: Pin the image: image:tag or image@sha256:abc123
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00018 $0.01850
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.00925
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00370
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00185

Measured 9d ago against content hash 263b151f4277, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

searxng-search scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/searxng.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -s --max-time 5 "${SEARXNG_URL}/search?q=test&format=json" | head -c 200
Origin

Copies of this mod

6 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

optional-skills/research/searxng-search/SKILL.md · 196 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 196 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Free meta-search using SearXNG — a privacy-respecting, self-hosted search aggregator that queries 70+ search engines simultaneously.

No API key required when using a public instance. Can also be self-hosted for full control. Automatically appears as a fallback when the main web search toolset (FIRECRAWL_API_KEY) is not configured.

Configuration

SearXNG requires a SEARXNG_URL environment variable pointing to your SearXNG instance:

# Public instances (no setup required)
SEARXNG_URL=https://searxng.example.com

# Self-hosted SearXNG
SEARXNG_URL=http://localhost:8888

If no instance is configured, this skill is unavailable and the agent falls back to other search options.

Detection Flow

Check what is actually available before choosing an approach:

# Check if SEARXNG_URL is set and the instance is reachable
curl -s --max-time 5 "${SEARXNG_URL}/search?q=test&format=json" | head -c 200

Decision tree:

  1. If SEARXNG_URL is set and the instance responds, use SearXNG
  2. If SEARXNG_URL is unset or unreachable, fall back to other available search tools
  3. If the user wants SearXNG specifically, help them set up an instance or find a public one

Method 1: CLI via curl (Preferred)

Use curl via terminal to call the SearXNG JSON API. This avoids assuming any particular Python package is installed.

# Text search (JSON output)
curl -s --max-time 10 \
  "${SEARXNG_URL}/search?q=python+async+programming&format=json&engines=google,bing&limit=10"

# With Safesearch off
curl -s --max-time 10 \
  "${SEARXNG_URL}/search?q=example&format=json&safesearch=0"

# Specific categories (general, news, science, etc.)
curl -s --max-time 10 \
  "${SEARXNG_URL}/search?q=AI+news&format=json&categories=news"

Common CLI Flags

Flag Description Example
q Query string (URL-encoded) q=python+async
format Output format: json, csv, rss format=json
engines Comma-separated engine names engines=google,bing,ddg
limit Max results per engine (default 10) limit=5
categories Filter by category categories=news,science
safesearch 0=none, 1=moderate, 2=strict safesearch=0
time_range Filter: day, week, month, year time_range=week

Read the full file on GitHub · 196 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 196 lines · 18 tokens per session scan A 263b151f4277

Subscribe to this mod's changes

searxng-search is a skill published in the GitHub repository NousResearch/hermes-agent (244,603 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 18 tokens to every session and 1,850 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

rubyllm

Build and maintain Ruby or Rails applications with the RubyLLM AI framework. Use for chats, agents, tools, structured output, media generation, transcription, OCR, moderation, embeddings, reranking, Rails integration, and RubyLLM upgrades; not for contributing to the framework itself.

crmne/ruby_llm · 61 tokens

rust-patterns

Idiomatic Rust patterns, ownership, error handling, traits, concurrency, and best practices for building safe, performant applications.

affaan-m/ECC · 28 tokens

claude-api

Reference for the Claude API / Anthropic SDK — model ids, pricing, params, streaming, tool use, MCP, agents, caching, token counting, model migration. TRIGGER — read BEFORE opening the target file; don't skip because it "looks like a one-liner" — whenever: the prompt names Claude/Anthropic in any form (Claude…

asgeirtj/system_prompts_leaks · 294 tokens

deep-research

Multi-source deep research using firecrawl and exa MCPs. Searches the web, synthesizes findings, and delivers cited reports with source attribution. Use when the user wants thorough research on any topic with evidence and citations.

affaan-m/ECC · 48 tokens

golang-patterns

Go-specific design patterns and best practices including functional options, small interfaces, dependency injection, concurrency patterns, error handling, and package organization. Use when working with Go code to apply idiomatic Go patterns.

affaan-m/ECC · 45 tokens

verification-loop

A comprehensive verification system for Claude Code sessions. Use when verifying a Claude Code session's work before claiming it is complete.

affaan-m/ECC · 27 tokens