SearXNG MCP Server

What is SearXNG MCP Server about?

SearXNG MCP Server integrates the public SearXNG search engine into the Model Context Protocol (MCP) ecosystem, allowing AI models and agents to perform web searches, retrieve results with pagination, filter by time, language, and safe‑search settings, and read content from URLs.

How to use SearXNG MCP Server?

1. Installation – install the server with npx (recommended) or via npm/docker.
2. Configuration – set the SEARXNG_URL environment variable to point to a SearXNG instance (default http://localhost:8080). Optional basic‑auth credentials can be supplied via AUTH_USERNAME and AUTH_PASSWORD.
3. MCP Integration – reference the server in your MCP configuration file (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json) using the provided command and environment settings.
4. Running – start the server through the chosen command; it will listen for MCP requests and forward them to the SearXNG API.

Key features of SearXNG MCP Server

• Web Search: General queries, news, and articles.
• Pagination: Control result pages (pageno).
• Time Filtering: day, month, or year ranges.
• Language Selection: Specify language codes or all.
• Safe Search: Levels 0 (None), 1 (Moderate), 2 (Strict).
• URL Content Reading: Convert fetched webpages to markdown.
• Flexible Deployment: npm, npx, Docker, or Smithery.
• Authentication Support: HTTP Basic Auth for protected SearXNG instances.

Use cases of SearXNG MCP Server

• Enabling autonomous agents to gather up‑to‑date information from the web.
• Adding searchable knowledge augmentation to LLM chat interfaces.
• Building custom research assistants that need filtered, language‑specific results.
• Automating content extraction from URLs for downstream processing or summarisation.

FAQ from the SearXNG MCP Server

Q: Which SearXNG instance should I use? A: Choose any public instance from the list of public instances or run your own locally.

Q: Do I need an API key? A: No API key is required; only the SEARXNG_URL is needed. Authentication is optional via basic auth variables.

Q: How do I run the server with Docker? A: Pull the image (docker pull isokoliuk/mcp-searxng:latest) and configure the command in your MCP config as shown in the README.

Q: Can I change the safe‑search level? A: Yes, set the safesearch input (0, 1, or 2) when invoking the searxng_web_search tool.

Q: How are pagination numbers interpreted? A: pageno starts at 1; each increment retrieves the next page of results.

SearXNG MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that integrates the SearXNG API, providing web search capabilities.

Features

• Web Search: General queries, news, articles, with pagination.
• Pagination: Control which page of results to retrieve.
• Time Filtering: Filter results by time range (day, month, year).
• Language Selection: Filter results by preferred language.
• Safe Search: Control content filtering level for search results.

Tools

• searxng_web_search

  • Execute web searches with pagination
  • Inputs:
    • query (string): The search query. This string is passed to external search services.
    • pageno (number, optional): Search page number, starts at 1 (default 1)
    • time_range (string, optional): Filter results by time range - one of: "day", "month", "year" (default: none)
    • language (string, optional): Language code for results (e.g., "en", "fr", "de") or "all" (default: "all")
    • safesearch (number, optional): Safe search filter level (0: None, 1: Moderate, 2: Strict) (default: instance setting)

• web_url_read

  • Read and convert the content from a URL to markdown
  • Inputs:
    • url (string): The URL to fetch and process

Configuration

Setting the SEARXNG_URL

1. Choose a SearxNG instance from the list of public instances or use your local environment.
2. Set the SEARXNG_URL environment variable to the instance URL.
3. The default SEARXNG_URL value is http://localhost:8080.

Using Authentication

If you are using a password protected SearxNG instance you can set a username and password for HTTP Basic Auth:

• Set the AUTH_USERNAME environmental variable to your username
• Set the AUTH_PASSWORD environmental variable to your password

Usage with Claude Desktop

Installing via Smithery

To install SearxNG Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @ihor-sokoliuk/server-searxng --client claude

NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-searxng"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

NPM

npm install -g mcp-searxng

And then in your MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "mcp-searxng",
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

Using Pre-built Image from Docker Hub

docker pull isokoliuk/mcp-searxng:latest

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "SEARXNG_URL",
        "isokoliuk/mcp-searxng:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

Build Locally

docker build -t mcp-searxng:latest -f Dockerfile .

Use

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "SEARXNG_URL",
        "mcp-searxng:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "YOUR_SEARXNG_INSTANCE_URL"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running evals

The evals package loads an mcp client that then runs the index.ts file, so there is no need to rebuild between tests. You can see the full documentation here.

SEARXNG_URL=SEARXNG_URL OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key npx mcp-eval evals.ts index.ts

License

This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute the software, subject to the terms and conditions of the MIT License. For more details, please see the LICENSE file in the project repository.