Search the open web via SearXNG for a single query and return a compact, token-efficient summary of the top results. Best for: quick fact-finding, current events, locating likely sources, single-question lookups. Returns: ranked list of {title, url, domain, snippet, engine, score} plus answers, infoboxes, suggestions and corrections when SearXNG provides them. The full SearXNG payload is also available in hidden _meta.raw_payload. Use search_many instead when running multiple parallel queries; search_and_fetch when you also need extracted page content; research for multi-query investigations with merged sources and fetched excerpts.

Run several SearXNG searches in parallel, then dedupe and merge their result sets into a single ranked list. Best for: broadening coverage on one topic with synonym/angle variants, comparing how different phrasings rank, building a high-recall source pool before fetching. Returns: merged hits with per-hit queries (which inputs surfaced it), engines, hit_count, and a merged_score. Per-query raw payloads are in hidden _meta. Use search for a single query; research when you also need the top sources fetched and excerpted in the same call.

Search SearXNG for one query and fetch+extract the top results in a single call. Combines search and fetch_many for one-query research workflows. Best for: answering one question that needs evidence from full pages, building a citation-backed answer to a single prompt, getting both ranked results and readable excerpts in one round-trip. Returns: search summary plus per-source {title, url, excerpt, citations, render_mode}. The full SearXNG payload and per-page full text are in hidden _meta. Rendered fetch is automatic for JS-heavy pages; pass rendered=true to force browser mode (slower). Use search if extraction is not needed; research for multi-query investigations.

Run multi-query research: search several queries in parallel, merge and dedupe results, then fetch and extract the strongest sources with citations. Best for: open-ended investigations, building a multi-source briefing, answering a complex question that needs cross-checking across providers. Returns: merged ranking, per-source extracted excerpts and citations, plus a query map showing which queries surfaced each source. Full payloads in hidden _meta. Rendered fetch is automatic for JS-heavy pages; pass rendered=true to force browser mode. Use search_many when extraction is not needed; search_and_fetch for a single query.

Fetch one URL, extract readable content (Readability-style), and return a compact excerpt plus link list. The full extracted text is preserved in hidden _meta.full_text. Best for: reading a known page after search/search_many, extracting clean prose from an article, getting an outbound-link list from a hub page. Returns: {title, url, excerpt, citations, links, content_type, render_mode} plus domain and word/char counts. Rendered fetch is automatic for JS-heavy pages; pass rendered=true to force browser mode when a previous fetch came back nearly empty. Use fetch_many for multiple URLs in one call; search_and_fetch if you do not yet have URLs.

Fetch and extract several URLs in parallel. URLs are deduplicated after canonicalisation. Each per-source full text is preserved in hidden _meta.pages[].full_text. Best for: reading a batch of search results, comparing several known sources, building a multi-source citation set. Returns: per-source {title, url, excerpt, citations, render_mode} and aggregate stats (success_count, error_count, elapsed_ms). Rendered fetch is automatic for JS-heavy pages; pass rendered=true to force browser mode for every URL (slower). Use fetch_url for a single URL; research for an end-to-end multi-query workflow.

Report backend, cache, and render-engine readiness. Takes no arguments. Best for: a one-shot check before a session, debugging a 'search failed' result, verifying that the SearXNG backend is reachable and that rendered fetch is available. Returns: {backend, cache, render} with status, latency, and any active fallback URLs.