searxng-http-mcp

A self-contained MCP server that wraps SearXNG — a free, privacy-respecting metasearch engine that aggregates results from 200+ search engines.

🚀 Quick Start

Server mode — deploy once, connect from any client:

docker run -d --name searxng-mcp --restart unless-stopped \
  -p YOUR_PORT:8888 --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest

Then connect your client to http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/. To enable API key auth, see Authentication.

Local mode — no server needed, run directly in your client:

docker run --rm -i --memory=512m --cpus=1 ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest --stdio

Add this as a stdio MCP server in your client — see Client Configuration for details.

✨ Features

Search

• 🔍 200+ search engines — Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, and more via SearXNG

• 📂 30+ categories — news, images, videos, science, IT, and more

• 📄 Multi-page fanout — up to 5 pages per call

• 💡 Autocomplete suggestions — discover relevant search terms

• 🗂 Engine discovery — query available engines grouped by category

• 🎯 Token-efficient — results trimmed to essentials

Infrastructure

• 📦 Self-contained — SearXNG built into Docker image

• 🔄 Dual transport — HTTP (Streamable HTTP) and stdio

• 🔐 Authentication — x-api-key + HTTP Basic Auth

• 🌐 Reverse proxy — SearXNG Web UI on the same port

• ⚡ Dynamic tool descriptions — live category lists injected at startup

• 📐 Rich JSON Schema — enum constraints, range limits, and descriptions on every parameter

• 🧩 Claude Code Plugin — self-hosted marketplace

🏛 Architecture

graph LR
  Client(["client:YOUR_PORT"]) --> Expose(":8888")

  subgraph Container["🐳 Docker Container"]
    direction LR
    Expose --> Auth{Auth}
    Auth -->|/mcp| MCP[FastMCP Server]
    Auth -->|/*| Proxy[Reverse Proxy]
    MCP --> SearXNG[SearXNG :8080]
    Proxy --> SearXNG
  end

  style Expose fill:none,stroke:#2496ed,stroke-dasharray:5 5,color:#2496ed

  style Client fill:#4a90d9,color:#fff,stroke:#3a7bc8
  style Container fill:#f0f4f8,stroke:#2496ed,stroke-width:2px,color:#2496ed
  style Auth fill:#f5a623,color:#fff,stroke:#d4900e
  style MCP fill:#50c878,color:#fff,stroke:#3da85e
  style Proxy fill:#9b59b6,color:#fff,stroke:#8344a5
  style SearXNG fill:#e74c3c,color:#fff,stroke:#c0392b

📊 Comparison with Alternatives

There are 20+ SearXNG MCP servers and many more general-purpose search MCPs. Most SearXNG wrappers only expose a basic search tool, leaving SearXNG's categories, autocomplete, and engine metadata unused. We picked five alternatives that each represent a distinct category:

• 88plug/searxng-mcp — richest tool surface among SearXNG MCPs (7 tools: rendered fetch, research mode, parallel queries)

• ihor/mcp-searxng — most GitHub stars among SearXNG MCPs

• open-webSearch — top free multi-engine alternative outside the SearXNG ecosystem (Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Brave, etc.)

• exa-mcp-server — most popular commercial search API MCP

• Perplexity MCP — commercial AI-powered search, highest star count in the search MCP space

MCP is designed for composition — clients connect multiple specialized servers, each doing one thing well. Some alternatives bundle URL fetching, rendered page extraction, multi-query fan-out, or research modes into the search server. We keep the tool surface to three (search, autocomplete, engine discovery) by design:

• URL fetching is a separate concern. MCP clients already ship dedicated tools (WebFetch, Playwright MCP, Jina Reader). Bundling fetch into a search server mixes responsibilities and duplicates the client ecosystem.

• Multi-query parallel search is client-side orchestration. LLM clients can fire multiple search calls in parallel — a search_many tool only adds token overhead for tool selection with no real benefit.

• Research / synthesis belongs in the LLM layer. The model is the best synthesizer. Pushing multi-step research logic into the MCP server couples application concerns to infrastructure.

Instead we invest in what the alternatives above lack: complete SearXNG API coverage (categories, autocomplete, engine metadata — capabilities most wrappers leave on the table), self-contained deployment, authentication, Web UI reverse proxy, and Claude Code plugin integration.

📖 Usage

🌐 HTTP Mode (default)

# Without authentication
docker run -d --name searxng-mcp --restart unless-stopped \
  -p YOUR_PORT:8888 --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest

# With authentication
docker run -d --name searxng-mcp --restart unless-stopped \
  -p YOUR_PORT:8888 --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  -e API_KEY=your-secret-key \
  ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest

📡 stdio Mode

docker run --rm -i --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest --stdio

No ports exposed. Communication via stdin/stdout. SearXNG runs internally for the MCP tools.

⚙️ Environment Variables

🔐 Authentication

When API_KEY is set, all requests require one of:

• x-api-key header — for MCP clients: x-api-key: your-key

• HTTP Basic Auth — for browsers

When API_KEY is not set, all requests are open.

🔧 MCP Tools Reference

Aggregates results from 200+ search engines with privacy.

Returns: results, answers, suggestions, corrections, infoboxes.

No parameters. Returns the list of enabled engines grouped by category.

Returns:

{
  "categories": ["general", "images", "videos", "news", ...],
  "engines": ["google", "bing", "duckduckgo", ...],
  "category_engines": {
    "general": ["google", "bing", "duckduckgo", "brave", ...],
    "science": ["arxiv", "google scholar", "pubmed", ...],
    ...
  }
}

Use this to discover what engines are available before calling search with specific engines or categories filters.

🔌 Client Configuration

Server mode — edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "url": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Server mode:

claude mcp add --transport http --header "x-api-key: your-secret-key" searxng http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/

Local mode:

claude mcp add --transport stdio searxng -- docker run --rm -i --memory=512m --cpus=1 ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest --stdio

Server mode — add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.searxng]
url = "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/"
http_headers = { "x-api-key" = "your-secret-key" }

Local mode:

[mcp_servers.searxng]
command = "docker"
args = ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]

Server mode — edit .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "url": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Server mode — add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "searxng": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "servers": {
    "searxng": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Server mode — add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "serverUrl": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Configure via Cline's MCP settings panel in VS Code (Cline > MCP Servers > Add).

Server mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "url": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Server mode — edit opencode.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "searxng": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "your-secret-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local mode:

{
  "mcp": {
    "searxng": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["docker", "run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Server mode — edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

mcp_servers:
  searxng:
    url: "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/"
    headers:
      x-api-key: "your-secret-key"

Local mode:

mcp_servers:
  searxng:
    command: "docker"
    args: ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--memory=512m", "--cpus=1", "ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest", "--stdio"]

🧩 Claude Code Plugin

Add the marketplace, then install the plugin that fits your setup:

/plugin marketplace add whw23/searxng_http_mcp

Both plugins include the 🔍 /web-search-via-searxng skill for web search.

/plugin install searxng-http-mcp@searxng-http-mcp

Runs SearXNG in a local Docker container via stdio. Requires Docker installed.

/plugin install searxng-http-mcp@searxng-http-mcp-remote

Connects to a deployed SearXNG MCP server. Requires env vars SEARXNG_MCP_URL and SEARXNG_API_KEY.

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json under the env field:

{
  "env": {
    "SEARXNG_MCP_URL": "http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/mcp/",
    "SEARXNG_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
  }
}

Then restart Claude Code.

🛠 SearXNG Configuration

Access the SearXNG Web UI at http://YOUR_HOST:YOUR_PORT/ to configure search engines, languages, and other settings. Changes persist during the container's lifetime.

Mount the SearXNG config directory for persistent configuration:

docker run -d --name searxng-mcp --restart unless-stopped \
  -p YOUR_PORT:8888 --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  -v /path/to/searxng-config:/etc/searxng \
  ghcr.io/whw23/searxng-http-mcp:latest

SearXNG generates settings.yml on first startup. The container automatically enables JSON format output required by MCP tools.

🏗 Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/whw23/searxng_http_mcp.git
cd searxng_http_mcp
docker build -t searxng-http-mcp:local .
docker run -d --name searxng-mcp --restart unless-stopped \
  -p YOUR_PORT:8888 --memory=512m --cpus=1 \
  searxng-http-mcp:local

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow, CI requirements, and development setup.

1. 🍴 Fork the repository and enable GitHub Actions in your fork

2. 🌿 Create a feature branch from dev

3. ✍️ Make your changes

4. ✅ Run tests: pytest tests/ -v — CI must pass in your fork before opening a PR

5. 📬 Submit a PR to dev

Development happens on the dev branch. Merges to main trigger image builds.

📄 License

MIT — MCP server code.

SearXNG itself is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later.