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web-search-by-searxng

Search using a custom SearXNG instance via HTTP API. Enables privacy-friendly web search by aggregating results from multiple search engines. Supports query, format (json/csv/rss), language, time range, categories, engines, pagination, and safe search filtering. Requires a user-provided or configured SearXNG instance URL.

Why use this skill?

Enhance your OpenClaw agent with private web search capabilities using SearXNG. Aggregate results from multiple engines securely.

skill-install — Terminal

Install via CLI (Recommended)

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/cyijun/web-search-by-searxng
Or

What This Skill Does

The web-search-by-searxng skill provides OpenClaw with the ability to query the web through private, decentralized channels. By leveraging the SearXNG architecture—a metasearch engine that aggregates results from dozens of sources like Google, DuckDuckGo, and Wikipedia—this skill ensures that your search queries are anonymized and stripped of user-tracking identifiers. It acts as a powerful bridge between your AI agent and the live internet, allowing it to retrieve up-to-the-minute information, technical documentation, or breaking news without compromising privacy. The skill supports sophisticated filtering options, including language selection, time-range constraints, and category-specific searches, ensuring that the AI retrieves only the most relevant data for its tasks.

Installation

To install this skill, use the ClawHub command-line interface. Run the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/cyijun/web-search-by-searxng

Ensure that you have set your preferred instance URL by configuring the SEARXNG_URL environment variable or by passing the URL directly via the tool configuration. If you are self-hosting your own instance, verify that your local network configuration allows egress traffic to your chosen instance.

Use Cases

  • Research Automation: Automatically gather and summarize scientific papers from Google Scholar or arXiv when the AI is tasked with investigating complex topics.
  • Live Troubleshooting: Fetch the latest StackOverflow posts or GitHub issues to resolve coding errors in real-time.
  • Market Intelligence: Query news aggregators to keep track of sector-specific updates or competitor announcements.
  • Cross-Lingual Information Retrieval: Access documentation or articles in languages other than English using the language parameter to broaden the AI's perspective.

Example Prompts

  1. "Search for the latest breakthroughs in quantum computing from the last month and summarize the top three findings."
  2. "Look up documentation on the latest React features on GitHub and provide a code snippet for server components."
  3. "Find current news regarding energy policy changes in Germany using general search engines."

Tips & Limitations

To get the best results, use the 'bang' syntax (e.g., !go for Google, !wp for Wikipedia) to drill down into specific data sets. Be aware that the quality and availability of results are dependent on the health of the specific SearXNG instance you connect to. Always prioritize using instances that you trust or host yourself to ensure maximum privacy and uptime. If a search returns empty results, try broadening your categories or removing engine-specific constraints. Remember that this tool performs network requests and should not be used to process private, internal company data as the queries are sent to external web indices.

Metadata

Author@cyijun
Stars3409
Views1
Updated2026-03-25
View Author Profile
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Add to Configuration

Paste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.

{
  "plugins": {
    "official-cyijun-web-search-by-searxng": {
      "enabled": true,
      "auto_update": true
    }
  }
}

Tags(AI)

#web-search#privacy#searxng#automation#research
Safety Score: 4/5

Flags: network-access, external-api