searxng

SearXNG — Privacy-Respecting Web Search

SearXNG is a self-hosted metasearch engine that aggregates results from 70+ search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) without tracking or profiling. It provides a JSON API that works well for agent research loops.

Usage Posture

When using SearXNG for research:

• Start with a focused query. Narrow beats broad. "rust async runtime comparison 2026" beats "rust async".
• Fetch 5–10 results per query. More than 10 rarely adds signal. Use jq '.results[:5]' or [:10].
• Use categories to cut noise. categories=it for tech, categories=news for recency, categories=science for academic sources.
• Use time_range for freshness. time_range=week or time_range=month when recency matters. Omit it for evergreen topics.
• Paginate only when the first page is promising but incomplete. Add pageno=2 if you see relevant results but need more.
• Handle zero or poor results by reformulating. Try synonyms, drop qualifiers, or switch categories before concluding nothing exists.
• Combine multiple targeted searches over one broad search. Two precise queries ("SearXNG docker setup" + "SearXNG JSON API") beat one vague query ("SearXNG").

Installation

Docker (recommended)

docker run -d \
  --name searxng \
  --restart always \
  -p 8888:8080 \
  searxng/searxng:latest

This runs SearXNG on http://localhost:8888. The --restart always flag ensures it starts on boot.

Docker Compose (alternative)

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    container_name: searxng
    ports:
      - "8888:8080"
    restart: always

docker compose up -d

Enable JSON Output

By default, SearXNG may not have JSON format enabled. To enable it:

# Find the settings file inside the container
docker exec searxng cat /etc/searxng/settings.yml | grep -A5 formats

# If json is not listed, override settings:
docker cp searxng:/etc/searxng/settings.yml ./settings.yml
# Edit settings.yml: under 'search:', add 'formats: [html, json, csv, rss]'
docker cp ./settings.yml searxng:/etc/searxng/settings.yml
docker restart searxng