🔍 SearXNG MCP Server

Privacy-respecting web search for AI assistants — use an operator-controlled or trusted SearXNG instance with Claude, Cursor, and more.

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

✨ Featured in the GitHub MCP Registry.

Quick Start

You need an existing SearXNG instance with JSON search enabled. This project connects an MCP client to SearXNG; it does not install SearXNG. Use an instance you operate or trust. Start with the self-hosted or public-instance guide if needed.

Choose how to connect:

Your setup	Start here
Client starts the server locally	Install Node.js 22 or later, then use the NPX example below or your client recipe.
Client starts a Docker container	Use the Docker/STDIO recipe in Installation.
You have an independently running HTTP service	Use your client's HTTP recipe with the full /mcp URL.
You need to operate an HTTP service	Follow the HTTP server guide.

For clients using mcpServers JSON (such as Claude Desktop), add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-searxng"],
      "env": { "SEARXNG_URL": "https://search.example.com" }
    }
  }
}

Replace the example URL with your SearXNG base URL. Other clients use different configuration shapes: choose your client recipe. Leave MCP_HTTP_PORT unset for local STDIO. Docker also needs environment forwarding into the container.

Reload the client, inspect its MCP tool inventory, then ask it to search for SearXNG documentation. A simple tool call is searxng_web_search with {"query":"SearXNG"}. Discovery alone does not test SearXNG connectivity. If the call fails, start with troubleshooting.

Features

• Search with pagination, filters, direct answers and full or compact text/JSON output.
• Read HTML, structured text and bounded PDF text; inspect headings or selected sections.
• Discover instance capabilities and get query suggestions.
• Optional replica failover/fan-out, HTML fallback, caching, proxies and browser solvers.
• Local STDIO or Streamable HTTP, with static bearer and optional OAuth protection.

See the tool guide for capabilities and limits, configuration reference for settings, and historical deployment measurements for bounded resource-planning evidence.

Why mcp-searxng?

Capability comparison recorded on 2026-07-29

As of 2026-07-29, the capability comparison below reflects the official Brave MCP, Exa MCP, and Firecrawl MCP projects. “Pagination” means an exposed page or offset control. “Self-hosted” means the search service can run under your control. “Free / No API key” means this MCP server does not require a paid search-vendor API key; you still operate or select the underlying SearXNG instance.

	Brave MCP	Exa MCP	Firecrawl MCP	mcp-searxng
Web Search	✓	✓	✓	✓
Read URL	✗	✓	✓	✓
Pagination	✓	✗	✓	✓
Self-hosted	✗	✗	Partial	✓
Free / No API key	✗	✗	✗	✓

Privacy depends on the SearXNG deployment. An operator-controlled instance can avoid trusting a third-party search operator, while a public instance receives the query and may log it. SearXNG and this MCP integration do not by themselves provide anonymity.

How It Works

MCP client → mcp-searxng → SearXNG → search engines

The client either starts its own STDIO process or connects to an HTTP service. SEARXNG_URL identifies the SearXNG service, not the MCP endpoint. URL reading fetches the selected website directly. A semicolon-separated replica list is supported for interchangeable SearXNG deployments; see replica configuration.

STDIO is the default. Legacy Streamable HTTP sessions are stateful by default: clients should send DELETE /mcp when finished, then reinitialize if a later request receives HTTP 404 for the terminated session. Modern HTTP requests and the MCP_HTTP_STATELESS=true legacy mode are sessionless; see HTTP transport configuration.

Tools

Tool	Use it to
searxng_web_search	Find sources and refine results
searxng_search_suggestions	Complete or refine a query
searxng_instance_info	Inspect categories, engines and defaults
web_url_read	Read a known URL as text/Markdown

The tool guide contains examples and the full parameter reference. The optional research workflow explains how to inspect sources and cite evidence.

Installation

For NPX and npm installs, Node.js 22 or later is required. The Docker image includes its Node.js runtime.

NPM (global install)

npm install -g mcp-searxng