SearXNG

An MCP server that integrates the SearXNG API, giving AI assistants web search capabilities.

Features

• Web Search: General queries, news, articles, with pagination
• URL Content Reading: Advanced content extraction with pagination, section filtering, and heading extraction
• Intelligent Caching: URL content is cached with TTL to improve performance and reduce redundant requests
• 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

How It Works

mcp-searxng is a standalone MCP server — a separate Node.js process that your AI assistant connects to for web search. It queries any SearXNG instance via its HTTP JSON API.

Not a SearXNG plugin: This project cannot be installed as a native SearXNG plugin. Point it at any existing SearXNG instance by setting SEARXNG_URL.

Troubleshooting

403 Forbidden from SearXNG

Your SearXNG instance likely has JSON format disabled. Edit settings.yml (usually /etc/searxng/settings.yml):

search:
  formats:
    - html
    - json

Restart SearXNG (docker restart searxng) then verify:

curl 'http://localhost:8080/search?q=test&format=json'

You should receive a JSON response. If not, confirm the file is correctly mounted and YAML indentation is valid.