SearXNG Server

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

Proxy Support

The server supports HTTP and HTTPS proxies through environment variables. This is useful when running behind corporate firewalls or when you need to route traffic through a specific proxy server.

Proxy Environment Variables

Set one or more of these environment variables to configure proxy support:

• HTTP_PROXY: Proxy URL for HTTP requests
• HTTPS_PROXY: Proxy URL for HTTPS requests
• http_proxy: Alternative lowercase version for HTTP requests
• https_proxy: Alternative lowercase version for HTTPS requests

Proxy URL Formats

The proxy URL can be in any of these formats:

Usage Examples

With NPX:

With Docker:

Note: If no proxy environment variables are set, the server will make direct connections as normal.

HTTP Transport (Optional)

The server supports both STDIO (default) and HTTP transports:

STDIO Transport (Default)

• Best for: Claude Desktop and most MCP clients
• Usage: Automatic - no additional configuration needed

HTTP Transport

• Best for: Web-based applications and remote MCP clients
• Usage: Set the MCP_HTTP_PORT environment variable

HTTP Server Configuration:

HTTP Endpoints:

• MCP Protocol: POST/GET/DELETE /mcp
• Health Check: GET /health
• CORS: Enabled for web clients

Testing HTTP Server:

Usage with Claude Desktop

Installing via Smithery

To install SearxNG Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

NPX

NPM

And then in your MCP config file:

Docker

Using Pre-built Image from Docker Hub

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Build Locally

Use

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Running evals

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

For Developers

Contributing to the Project

We welcome contributions! Here's how to get started:

1. Fork and Clone

2. Development Setup

3. Development Workflow

1. Create a feature branch:
   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
2. Make your changes in src/ directory
   • Main server logic: src/index.ts
   • Error handling: src/error-handler.ts
3. Build and test:
   npm run build npm run inspector
4. Run evals to ensure functionality:
   SEARXNG_URL=http://localhost:8080 OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key npx mcp-eval evals.ts src/index.ts

4. Submitting Changes

Version Management & Releases

For Maintainers: Bumping Versions

The project uses semantic versioning. Use npm's version command to bump versions properly:

The postversion script automatically:

• Updates the version in src/index.ts
• Stages the changes
• Amends the version commit

Creating Release Tags

After bumping the version:

Publishing to NPM

Docker Release

Project Structure

Coding Guidelines

• Use TypeScript for type safety
• Follow existing error handling patterns
• Keep error messages concise but informative
• Add appropriate emoji indicators for error categories
• Test changes with the MCP inspector
• Run evals before submitting PRs

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.