SearXNG Search Skill

Prerequisites: Run bash skills/searxng/scripts/setup.sh to auto-install and start SearXNG (Docker-based, idempotent — safe to re-run).

Searching

Query the local SearXNG instance via web_fetch:

http://localhost:8888/search?q=YOUR+QUERY&format=json
```/

**Common variations:**

```bash
# Target specific engines (reduces noise)
http://localhost:8888/search?q=react+hooks&engines=google,bing&format=json

# Filter by recency
http://localhost:8888/search?q=openai+news&time_range=week&format=json

# Chinese content
http://localhost:8888/search?q=人工智能&engines=baidu,bing&lang=zh&format=json

# Dev/code questions
http://localhost:8888/search?q=rust+async+error&engines=stackoverflow,github&format=json

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Values
`q`	Search query	URL-encoded string
`engines`	Specific engines	`google,bing,duckduckgo,stackoverflow,github,baidu,...`
`lang`	Language	`zh`, `en`, `all`
`pageno`	Page number	`1`, `2`, ...
`time_range`	Recency filter	`day`, `week`, `month`, `year`
`safesearch`	Safe search	`0`, `1`, `2`

Best Practices

Read snippets before fetching pages. Each result has a content field with a relevant excerpt — this often contains the answer directly. Fetching full pages costs significantly more tokens, so only do it when the snippet isn't enough.

Limit to top 3–5 results. The first few results are almost always sufficient. More results mean more tokens without meaningfully better answers.

Target engines for the task. Narrowing to relevant engines reduces noise and speeds up results:

Code / dev: engines=stackoverflow,github
Chinese content: engines=baidu,bing&lang=zh
Recent events: append &time_range=week

If `web_fetch` blocks localhost

Some environments block localhost requests (SSRF protection). If you see a "Blocked hostname" error, fall back to the browser tool and search via Google directly — it costs more tokens but works reliably.

Notes

First request may be slow (engine warm-up)
For remote or production use, add authentication to your SearXNG instance