> **Fork of [`@kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng`](https://github.com/kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng) (MIT).**
> Published as `@x-idra/mcp-server-searxng` because npm's latest release (0.3.9) mislabels a
> *reachable* SearXNG instance that returns 0 results (all scraper engines CAPTCHA-blocked) as
> `"All SearXNG instances failed"`. Upstream `main` already fixed this (0.3.11 — a `reachedInstance`
> flag returns `{results: []}` instead of throwing) but has not published it to npm. This fork carries
> that fix, vendored into the [Renfield](https://github.com/ebongard/renfield) backend image. All
> credit for the original server to kevinwatt; see `LICENSE`.

---

# 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

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

## Usage

### Direct Run

```bash
mcp-server-searxng
```

### With [Dive Desktop](https://github.com/OpenAgentPlatform/Dive)

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

```json
{
  "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 (all_time/day/week/month/year, default: 'all_time')
    - `safesearch` (number, optional): Safe search level (0: None, 1: Moderate, 2: Strict, default: 1)
  - Behavior:
    - Instances listed in `SEARXNG_INSTANCES` are tried in order; the first one that
      answers with results wins.
    - An instance that is reachable but has no matches returns
      `No results found for "<query>".` — an empty search is a normal result, not an error.
    - The error `All SearXNG instances failed` is returned only when no instance was
      reachable at all: connection errors, non-2xx responses, or replies that aren't a
      valid SearXNG JSON search response.

## Development

```bash
git clone https://github.com/kevinwatt/mcp-server-searxng.git
cd mcp-server-searxng
npm install
npm run build            # compiles to dist/src/
npm test                 # unit tests; HTTP is mocked, no live instance needed
node dist/src/index.js   # run the server on stdio
```

Run a single test case with `npm test -- -t "should resolve urls correctly"`.

## 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

```bash
# 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

```bash
# 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

```bash
# 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](https://docs.searxng.org/)

## Environment Variables

- `SEARXNG_INSTANCES`: Comma-separated list of SearXNG instance URLs, tried in order as
  fallbacks. An entry may include a base path for path-based reverse proxy routing
  (e.g. `https://example.com/searx`), with or without a trailing slash.
  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:
```json
{
  "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.