searxng-bangs – OpenClaw Skill

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name: searxng-bangs description: Privacy-respecting web search via SearXNG with DuckDuckGo-style bangs support. Use for web searches when you need to find information online. SearXNG protects privacy by randomizing browser fingerprints, masking IP addresses, and blocking cookies/referrers. Supports 250+ search engines, multiple categories (general, news, images, videos, science), and DuckDuckGo-style bangs for direct engine searches (!w for Wikipedia, !yt for YouTube, !gh for GitHub, !r for Reddit, etc.). Aggregates results from multiple engines simultaneously. Prefer this over external search APIs for privacy-sensitive queries or high-volume searches.

SearXNG Search

Privacy-respecting metasearch engine that anonymizes searches and aggregates results from 250+ engines.

Quick Start

Search the web using the bundled script:

python3 scripts/search.py "your query"

Returns JSON with titles, URLs, and content snippets.

Common Workflows

Basic Web Search

python3 scripts/search.py "OpenClaw AI agent" --num 5

News Search

python3 scripts/search.py "latest tech news" --categories news

Localized Search

python3 scripts/search.py "Python Tutorial" --lang de

Multi-Category Search

python3 scripts/search.py "machine learning" --categories general,science --num 10

Bang Searches (Direct Engine)

# Wikipedia
python3 scripts/search.py "Albert Einstein" --bang w

# YouTube
python3 scripts/search.py "python tutorial" --bang yt

# GitHub
python3 scripts/search.py "openclaw" --bang gh

# Reddit
python3 scripts/search.py "best laptop 2026" --bang r

Bangs are more granular than categories and search directly on specific engines.

Privacy Features

SearXNG protects your privacy through multiple layers:

1. Randomized Browser Fingerprints - Generates a new fake browser profile for each search query (version, OS, screen resolution, language)
2. IP Masking - Search engines see the SearXNG instance IP, not yours
3. No Cookies - Never forwards cookies to external search engines
4. No Referrer - Target websites don't see which search engine referred you
5. Optional Tor/Proxy - Can route all queries through Tor for additional anonymity

Result: Search engines cannot build a profile about you.

When to Use

Prefer SearXNG for:

• Privacy-sensitive searches (no tracking, no profiling)
• High-volume searches (no rate limits)
• When self-hosted infrastructure is available
• Multi-engine result aggregation (250+ engines)
• Ad-free results

Prefer Brave API (web_search tool) for:

• Faster response times
• Structured data requirements
• When external APIs are acceptable

Processing Results

The script returns clean JSON that's easy to parse and present:

import json
import subprocess

result = subprocess.run(
    ['python3', 'scripts/search.py', 'query', '--num', '5'],
    capture_output=True,
    text=True
)

data = json.loads(result.stdout)
for item in data['results']:
    print(f"Title: {item['title']}")
    print(f"URL: {item['url']}")
    print(f"Snippet: {item['content']}")
    print()

Advanced Options

See references/api.md for:

• All available categories
• Engine-specific searches
• Language codes
• Error handling
• Comparison with Brave Search API

Configuration

SearXNG Instance

By default, the script uses http://127.0.0.1:8080. Configure via environment variable:

export SEARXNG_URL=http://your-searxng-instance.com
python3 scripts/search.py "query"

Options:

• Self-hosted instance (recommended for privacy)
• Public instances: https://searx.space (community-run servers)

Using Public Instances

If you don't run your own SearXNG:

# Example with public instance
export SEARXNG_URL=https://searx.be
python3 scripts/search.py "query"

Note: Public instances may have rate limits or be slower than self-hosted.

Technical Details

• Default URL: http://127.0.0.1:8080 (override with SEARXNG_URL)
• Method: HTML parsing (JSON API often disabled for CSRF protection)
• Parser: Custom HTMLParser in scripts/search.py
• Timeout: 15 seconds
• Result Format: Clean JSON with title, URL, content

SearXNG Bangs Skill

Privacy-first web search with DuckDuckGo-style bangs for OpenClaw.

Features

• 🛡️ Privacy-First - Randomized browser fingerprints, IP masking, no tracking
• 🎯 Bangs Support - DuckDuckGo-style shortcuts (!w, !yt, !gh, !r, etc.)
• 📊 250+ Engines - Aggregates results from multiple search engines
• 🗂️ Multi-Category - Search general, news, images, videos, science
• 🚫 Ad-Free - Pure search results without advertising
• 🔓 No API Keys - Free and unlimited

Quick Start

1. Install SearXNG

   docker run -d -p 8080:8080 searxng/searxng
   

2. Install Skill

   # Copy to OpenClaw skills directory
   cp -r searxng-bangs /app/skills/
   

3. Configure (if not using default localhost:8080)

   export SEARXNG_URL=http://your-instance:port
   

4. Use

   • "Search the web for OpenClaw"
   • "Find Python tutorials on Wikipedia" (uses !w bang)
   • "Search GitHub for openclaw" (uses !gh bang)
   • "What's the latest news on AI?"

Examples

# Basic search
python3 scripts/search.py "OpenClaw AI"

# Bang search (Wikipedia)
python3 scripts/search.py "Albert Einstein" --bang w

# News search
python3 scripts/search.py "tech news" --categories news

# German search
python3 scripts/search.py "Python Tutorial" --lang de

Why SearXNG?

The Privacy Problem

In Germany, 90% of search traffic goes through Google, 5% through Bing. These services track users extensively using browser fingerprints – a unique combination of browser version, OS, screen resolution, language preferences, and more.

What SearXNG does differently:

• 🎭 Randomized Fingerprints - Generates a random browser profile for each query
• 🚫 No Cookies - Never sends cookies to external search engines
• 🔒 IP Masking - Uses SearXNG instance IP, not user IP
• 📊 Result Aggregation - Queries 250+ search engines simultaneously
• 🧹 No Ads - Pure results without advertising ballast

Self-Hosting Benefits

When you run your own SearXNG instance:

• ✅ Complete control over your data
• ✅ Shared household anonymity (multiple users = more privacy)
• ✅ No rate limits or API restrictions
• ✅ Optional Tor/Proxy routing for extra anonymity

vs. Brave Search API

• No API keys or rate limits
• Self-hosted (complete privacy)
• Aggregates multiple engines (Google, Bing, DDG, Qwant, etc.)
• DuckDuckGo-style bangs

vs. Google Directly

• Privacy-respecting (no tracking, no profiling)
• No API restrictions
• Open source
• Ad-free results

Documentation

• SKILL.md - Workflows and usage patterns
• references/api.md - Complete API reference, bangs list
• INSTALL.md - Installation and configuration guide

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• SearXNG instance (self-hosted or public)
• No additional dependencies (uses stdlib only)

Using a Different Instance

If your SearXNG runs on a different URL:

export SEARXNG_URL=http://your-instance:port

Public instances are available at https://searx.space if you prefer not to self-host.

Contributing

Suggestions and improvements welcome! This skill was built for the OpenClaw community.

License

Public domain / CC0 - Use freely!

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