Quick start

Docker compose.yml to run SearXNG with MCP server

services:
  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    volumes:
      - ./searxng/etc/:/etc/searxng/
      - ./searxng/data/:/var/cache/searxng/
    restart: always

  searxng-mcp:
    image: ghcr.io/aicrafted/searxng-mcp:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      # Ensure SearXNG starts before the MCP server
      - searxng
    environment:
      SEARXNG_URL: http://searxng:8080
      MCP_HOST: 0.0.0.0
      MCP_PORT: 32123
      MCP_TRANSPORT: "http"
    ports:
      - "32123:32123"

MCP client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:32123/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Search Abilities Guide

SearXNG aggregates results from various sources. This guide outlines the capabilities available through the searxng_search tool.

Search Categories

Categories help refine your search by content type. Use these in the categories parameter (comma-separated).

Supported Engines

SearXNG can query over 130 engines. Configured engines typically include:

• Web: Google, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Startpage
• Knowledge: Wikipedia, Wikidata
• Development: GitHub, StackOverflow, PyPI
• Social: Reddit, Twitter/X

Advanced Search Parameters

• categories: Filter by specific types (e.g., news,it).
• engines: Force specific engines (e.g., google,wikipedia).
• language: Specify search language (e.g., en, es, fr).
• pageno: Navigate through multiple pages of results.
• time_range: Filter by date (day, month, year).
• safesearch: Control content filtering (0=None, 1=Moderate, 2=Strict).

Programmatic Discovery

Use the searxng_get_info tool to dynamically retrieve the list of enabled categories and engines from your instance.