What is Mcp Server Searxng

mcp-server-searxng is an MCP server implementation that integrates with SearXNG, providing privacy-focused meta search capabilities. It allows users to perform searches across multiple search engines while ensuring their privacy.

Use cases

Use cases for mcp-server-searxng include private web searching, academic research, news aggregation, and content discovery across various media types without compromising user privacy.

How to use

To use mcp-server-searxng, install it globally using npm with the command ‘npm install -g @kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng’. You can run it directly with ‘mcp-server-searxng’ or configure it with Dive Desktop by adding it as an MCP server with the specified JSON configuration.

Key features

Key features include meta search capabilities combining results from various search engines, a focus on user privacy with no tracking or profiling, support for multiple search categories, language options, time range filtering, safe search levels, and fallback support with multiple SearXNG instances.

Where to use

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SearXNG MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that integrates with SearXNG, providing privacy-focused meta search capabilities.

Features

• Meta Search: Combines results from multiple search engines
• Privacy-Focused: No tracking, no user profiling
• Multiple Categories: Support for general, news, science, files, images, videos, and more
• Language Support: Search in specific languages or all languages
• Time Range Filtering: Filter results by day, week, month, or year
• Safe Search: Three levels of safe search filtering
• Fallback Support: Multiple SearXNG instances for reliability

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install SearXNG MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng --client claude

Manual Installation

npm install -g @kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng

Usage

Direct Run

mcp-server-searxng

With Dive Desktop

1. Click “+ Add MCP Server” in Dive Desktop
2. Copy and paste this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Click “Save” to install the MCP server

Tool Documentation

• web_search
  • Execute meta searches across multiple engines
  • Inputs:
    • query (string): Search terms
    • page (number, optional): Page number (default: 1)
    • language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., ‘en’, ‘all’, default: ‘all’)
    • categories (array, optional): Search categories (default: [‘general’])
      • Available: “general”, “news”, “science”, “files”, “images”, “videos”, “music”, “social media”, “it”
    • time_range (string, optional): Time filter (day/week/month/year)
    • safesearch (number, optional): Safe search level (0: None, 1: Moderate, 2: Strict, default: 1)

Development

git clone https://github.com/kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng.git
cd mcp-server-searxng
npm install
npm run build
npm start

License

This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Prerequisites

You need a local SearXNG instance running. To set it up:

Run SearXNG with Docker

Quick Start

# Create config directory
mkdir -p searxng

# Create config file
tee searxng/settings.yml << EOF
use_default_settings: true

server:
  bind_address: "0.0.0.0"
  secret_key: "CHANGE_THIS_TO_SOMETHING_SECURE"  # Generate a random key
  port: 8080

search:
  safe_search: 0
  formats:
    - html
    - json

engines:
  - name: google
    engine: google
    shortcut: g

  - name: duckduckgo
    engine: duckduckgo
    shortcut: d

  - name: bing
    engine: bing
    shortcut: b

server.limiter: false
EOF

# Start container
docker run -d \
  --name searxng \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v "$(pwd)/searxng:/etc/searxng" \
  searxng/searxng

Test Search Function

# Test JSON API with curl
curl -v 'http://localhost:8080/search?q=test&format=json'

# Or visit in browser
http://localhost:8080/search?q=test

Container Management

# Stop container
docker stop searxng

# Remove container
docker rm searxng

# View container logs
docker logs searxng

# Enable auto-start on boot
docker update --restart always searxng

The --restart always flag ensures that:

• Container starts automatically when Docker daemon starts
• Container restarts automatically if it crashes
• Container restarts automatically if it is stopped unless explicitly stopped by user

Custom Configuration

Edit searxng/settings.yml to:

• Modify search engine list
• Adjust security settings
• Configure UI language
• Change API limits

For detailed configuration options, see SearXNG Documentation

Environment Variables

• SEARXNG_INSTANCES: Comma-separated list of SearXNG instances URLs
  Default: http://localhost:8080

• SEARXNG_USER_AGENT: Custom User-Agent header for requests
  Default: MCP-SearXNG/1.0

• NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED: Set to ‘0’ to bypass SSL certificate verification (for development with self-signed certificates)
  Default: undefined (SSL verification enabled)

Example configuration with all options:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "name": "searxng",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_INSTANCES": "http://localhost:8080,https://searx.example.com",
        "SEARXNG_USER_AGENT": "CustomBot/1.0",
        "NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED": "0"
      }
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Warning: Disabling SSL certificate verification is not recommended in production environments.