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<p>
<a href="README.zh-CN.md">中文</a> ·
<a href="#-quick-start">Quick Start</a> ·
<a href="#-features">Features</a> ·
<a href="#-architecture">Architecture</a> ·
<a href="#-comparison-with-alternatives">Comparison</a> ·
<a href="#-usage">Usage</a> ·
<a href="#-mcp-tools-reference">MCP Tools</a> ·
<a href="#-client-configuration">Client Config</a> ·
<a href="#-ai-coding-agent-plugin">Plugin</a> ·
<a href="#-contributing">Contributing</a>
</p>
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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.
uvx mode — if you already have SearXNG running (install guide):
Set SEARXNG_URL to point to your SearXNG instance (default: http://127.0.0.1:8080).
✨ 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
- 🔄 Triple transport — HTTP server, Docker stdio, and uvx standalone
- 🔐 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
🏛 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
<details>
<summary>Why these five?</summary>
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
</details>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Feature</th>
<th>✨ This project</th>
<th><a href="https://github.com/88plug/searxng-mcp">88plug/searxng-mcp</a></th>
<th><a href="https://github.com/ihor-sokoliuk/mcp-searxng">ihor/mcp-searxng</a></th>
<th><a href="https://github.com/Aas-ee/open-webSearch">open-webSearch</a></th>
<th><a href="https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server">exa-mcp-server</a></th>
<th><a href="https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol">Perplexity MCP</a></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td colspan="7"><strong>Search</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td>200+ engines via SearXNG</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>30+ search categories</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>Multi-page fanout</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>Autocomplete suggestions</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>Engine discovery tool</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dynamic tool descriptions</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="7"><strong>Infrastructure</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td>Self-contained (built-in search)</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">N/A</td><td align="center">N/A</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zero-install Docker deploy</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>HTTP + stdio transport</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td></tr>
<tr><td>Authentication</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td></tr>
<tr><td>Web UI reverse proxy</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>AI Coding Agent Plugin</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">✅</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="7"><strong>General</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td>Free & open source</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌ (paid API)</td><td align="center">❌ (paid API)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Privacy (self-hosted)</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">✅</td><td align="center">❌</td><td align="center">❌</td></tr>
<tr><td>Language</td><td align="center">Python</td><td align="center">Python</td><td align="center">Node.js</td><td align="center">TypeScript</td><td align="center">TypeScript</td><td align="center">TypeScript</td></tr>
<tr><td>GitHub Stars</td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/whw23/searxng_http_mcp"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/whw23/searxng_http_mcp?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/88plug/searxng-mcp"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/88plug/searxng-mcp?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/ihor-sokoliuk/mcp-searxng"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/ihor-sokoliuk/mcp-searxng?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/Aas-ee/open-webSearch"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/Aas-ee/open-webSearch?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td><td align="center"><a href="https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol?style=social" alt="stars"></a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<details>
<summary>Why fewer tools?</summary>
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 k
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