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searxng skill

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This skill enables private web searching using your local SearXNG instance, returning categorized results with fast JSON output.

npx playbooks add skill openclaw/skills --skill searxng

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md

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---
name: searxng
description: Privacy-respecting metasearch using your local SearXNG instance. Search the web, images, news, and more without external API dependencies.
author: Avinash Venkatswamy
version: 1.0.1
homepage: https://searxng.org
triggers:
  - "search for"
  - "search web"
  - "find information"
  - "look up"
metadata: {"clawdbot":{"emoji":"🔍","requires":{"bins":["python3"]},"config":{"env":{"SEARXNG_URL":{"description":"SearXNG instance URL","default":"http://localhost:8080","required":true}}}}}
---

# SearXNG Search

Search the web using your local SearXNG instance - a privacy-respecting metasearch engine.

## Commands

### Web Search
```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query"              # Top 10 results
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" -n 20        # Top 20 results
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --format json # JSON output
```

### Category Search
```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --category images
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --category news
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --category videos
```

### Advanced Options
```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --language en
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/searxng.py search "query" --time-range day
```

## Configuration

**Required:** Set the `SEARXNG_URL` environment variable to your SearXNG instance:

```bash
export SEARXNG_URL=https://your-searxng-instance.com
```

Or configure in your Clawdbot config:
```json
{
  "env": {
    "SEARXNG_URL": "https://your-searxng-instance.com"
  }
}
```

Default (if not set): `http://localhost:8080`

## Features

- 🔒 Privacy-focused (uses your local instance)
- 🌐 Multi-engine aggregation
- 📰 Multiple search categories
- 🎨 Rich formatted output
- 🚀 Fast JSON mode for programmatic use

## API

Uses your local SearXNG JSON API endpoint (no authentication required by default).

Overview

This skill connects to a local SearXNG instance to perform privacy-respecting metasearch across web, images, news, videos and more. It runs searches locally against your SearXNG JSON API, producing human-readable or machine-friendly JSON output. The skill avoids external API dependencies and preserves search privacy by using your own instance.

How this skill works

The skill sends queries to the SearXNG JSON endpoint specified by the SEARXNG_URL environment variable (defaults to http://localhost:8080). You can request different categories (images, news, videos), adjust result count, set language and time-range, and output results as formatted text or as JSON for programmatic consumption. No authentication is required by default unless your instance enforces it.

When to use it

When you want private web searches routed through your self-hosted SearXNG instance.
When aggregating results across multiple engines without using external search APIs.
When you need image, news, or video search categories in addition to web results.
When integrating search into scripts or tools that prefer JSON output.
When benchmarking or archiving search results from a local search endpoint.

Best practices

Set SEARXNG_URL to the full JSON API endpoint of your instance and verify connectivity before running queries.
Use JSON output (--format json) for downstream automation or logging to ensure consistent parsing.
Limit result counts for large batch jobs to avoid overloading your SearXNG instance.
Specify language and time-range filters for more relevant and repeatable results.
Protect your SearXNG instance behind access controls if exposed to untrusted networks.

Example use cases

Quickly fetch top 10 web results for a research query while keeping searches private.
Retrieve the latest news items for a topic using the news category and a day time-range.
Automate image discovery by querying the images category and piping JSON to an image processor.
Collect search snapshots for archival or analysis by running repeated queries and storing JSON outputs.
Integrate local metasearch into chatbots or personal assistants without external search APIs.

FAQ

How do I point the skill to my SearXNG instance?

Set the SEARXNG_URL environment variable to your instance URL or configure it in your environment settings. Default is http://localhost:8080.

Can I get machine-readable results?

Yes. Use the JSON output mode (--format json) to receive structured results suitable for automation.