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sourav-spd

DuckDuckGo Browser MCP Server

by sourav-spd

DuckDuckGo MCP Server

A production-ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that performs real-time internet searches via the DuckDuckGo Lite endpoint (https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/) with automatic retry logic, intelligent caching, and robust error handling.

Supports all three MCP transports:

  • stdio — for MCP desktop hosts and IDE plugins

  • SSE — Server-Sent Events over HTTP

  • streamable-http — chunked HTTP streaming (default for container deployment)


Folder Structure

duckduckgo-tool/
├── duckduckgo_server.py             # Main MCP server entry point
├── pyproject.toml
├── Dockerfile
├── README.md
├── pytest.ini
├── tests/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── test_search_tools.py
└── src/
    └── duckduckgo_browser/
        ├── __init__.py
        ├── __main__.py              # python -m duckduckgo_browser
        ├── duckduckgo_server.py     # stub (canonical server is at root)
        ├── services/
        │   ├── __init__.py
        │   ├── search_engine.py     # RealSearchEngine — DuckDuckGo Lite
        │   └── web_scraper.py       # DuckDuckGoScraper with retry & cache
        └── tools/
            ├── __init__.py
            ├── toolhandler.py       # Abstract base class
            └── search_tools.py     # get_internet_result tool handler

Related MCP server: DuckDuckGo MCP Server

Available Tool (1)

get_internet_result

Performs a real-time search on DuckDuckGo Lite and returns a concise answer with source links.

Parameter

Type

Required

Description

input_value

string

Natural language query or search term

Example output:

Answer: Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables systems to learn
        and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.
Source 1: https://www.ibm.com/topics/machine-learning
Source 2: https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+machine+learning

Local Setup

# Create and activate virtual environment
python -m venv .venv

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate
# macOS / Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

Dependencies:

  • mcp[cli] >= 1.12.0

  • starlette >= 0.27.0

  • uvicorn >= 0.20.0

  • requests >= 2.31.0

  • beautifulsoup4 >= 4.12.0

  • truststore >= 0.10.0


Run

The server is controlled by environment variables or CLI flags. Environment variables take priority and are used for container deployments.

Environment Variable

Default

Description

TRANSPORT_TYPE

streamable-http

Transport mode: stdio, sse, streamable-http

APP_HOST

0.0.0.0

Bind host

APP_PORT

8000

Bind port

stdio (default for MCP desktop hosts)

duckduckgo-mcp --mode stdio

SSE

duckduckgo-mcp --mode sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Endpoints:

  • GET /sse — open SSE stream

  • POST /messages/ — send MCP request frames

  • GET /health — health check

  • GET /healthz — health check (alias)

  • GET / — server info

Streamable HTTP

duckduckgo-mcp --mode streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Endpoints:

  • POST /mcp — single MCP endpoint, chunked streaming response

  • GET /health — health check

  • GET /healthz — health check (alias)

  • GET / — server info


Docker

# Build
docker build -t duckduckgo-mcp .

# Run streamable-http (default)
docker run -p 8000:8000 duckduckgo-mcp

# Run SSE mode
docker run -e TRANSPORT_TYPE=sse -e APP_PORT=8000 -p 8000:8000 duckduckgo-mcp

# Run with custom port
docker run -e TRANSPORT_TYPE=streamable-http -e APP_PORT=9000 -p 9000:9000 duckduckgo-mcp

# Run stdio mode (pipe-based)
docker run -i -e TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio duckduckgo-mcp

MCP Client Configuration

Streamable HTTP

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "duckduckgo": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

SSE

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "duckduckgo": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    }
  }
}

stdio

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "duckduckgo": {
      "command": "duckduckgo-mcp",
      "args": ["--mode", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Testing with MCP Inspector

Streamable HTTP:

  1. Start the server: duckduckgo-mcp --mode streamable-http --port 8000

  2. Open MCP Inspector and connect to: http://localhost:8000/mcp

  3. Call get_internet_result with {"input_value": "what is machine learning"}

SSE:

  1. Start the server: duckduckgo-mcp --mode sse --port 8000

  2. Open MCP Inspector and connect to: http://localhost:8000/sse

  3. Call get_internet_result with {"input_value": "best cloud providers 2026"}


How It Works

Search Flow

User Query
    ↓
get_internet_result (async tool handler)
    ↓
RealSearchEngine.search()
    ↓
DuckDuckGoScraper.search_with_retry()
    ├─ Check in-memory cache (5-min TTL)
    ├─ Cache hit  → return cached results
    └─ Cache miss → fetch from DuckDuckGo Lite
        ├─ Attempt 1 (10s timeout)
        ├─ Fail → wait 2s → Attempt 2
        ├─ Fail → wait 4s → Attempt 3
        └─ All fail → return stale cache or empty result
    ↓
Auto-detect category from result content
    ↓
Format: Answer + Source 1 + Source 2

Key Features

Feature

Details

Search Source

DuckDuckGo Lite (https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/) with HTML + Instant Answer API fallback

Retry Logic

3 attempts with exponential backoff (2s, 4s)

Request Timeout

10 seconds per attempt

Caching

In-memory, 5-min TTL, stale fallback on network failure

SSL

OS trust store via truststore; falls back to SSL-disabled as last resort

CORS

Fully open (allow_origins=["*"]) for all HTTP modes

Session Timeout

60s per request (streamable-http), unlimited (stdio)

Category Detection

Results are automatically categorised from URL, title, and snippet content:

ai · programming · cloud · finance · health · science · education · travel · food · sports · general


Kubernetes Deployment

For EC2/Kubernetes, set transport mode and port via environment variables — no image rebuild needed:

# Streamable HTTP deployment
env:
  - name: TRANSPORT_TYPE
    value: "streamable-http"
  - name: APP_PORT
    value: "8000"
  - name: APP_HOST
    value: "0.0.0.0"

# SSE deployment
env:
  - name: TRANSPORT_TYPE
    value: "sse"
  - name: APP_PORT
    value: "8000"
  - name: APP_HOST
    value: "0.0.0.0"

No supergateway wrapper is needed. The server handles its own HTTP binding directly for both SSE and streamable-http modes.


Running Tests

pip install pytest pytest-asyncio
pytest

Troubleshooting

Port already in use

duckduckgo-mcp --mode streamable-http --port 8001

No search results returned

  • Verify internet connectivity from the host/container

  • Test: curl "https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=test"

  • Enable debug logging:

    PYTHONPATH=src python -c "import logging; logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)"

SSL errors in corporate network

  • The scraper automatically retries with SSL verification disabled as a last resort

  • Alternatively, set verify_ssl=False in web_scraper.py DuckDuckGoScraper init

Import errors after install

pip install -e . --force-reinstall

Configuration Reference

Tune scraper behaviour in src/duckduckgo_browser/services/web_scraper.py:

DuckDuckGoScraper(
    timeout=10.0,           # Request timeout per attempt (seconds)
    max_retries=3,          # Number of retry attempts
    retry_backoff_base=2.0, # Exponential backoff base (2s, 4s, ...)
    cache_ttl=300,          # Cache TTL in seconds (5 minutes)
)

Robustness Summary

Scenario

Behaviour

Network timeout

Retry up to 3x with exponential backoff

All retries fail

Return stale cache if available, else empty result

DuckDuckGo Lite unavailable

Fall back to HTML endpoint, then Instant Answer API

SSL certificate error

Retry with SSL verification disabled

Invalid query

Validation error returned as TextContent

Port conflict

Clear error log with suggested fix

Container restart

Cache cleared (in-memory); fresh searches on next request


Requirements

  • Python 3.10+

  • Internet access (for DuckDuckGo searches)

  • No API key required

License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details

Install Server
A
license - permissive license
A
quality
B
maintenance

Maintenance

Maintainers
Response time
Release cycle
Releases (12mo)
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