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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.openclaw.ai/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

OpenClaw supports DuckDuckGo as a key-free web_search provider. No API key or account is required.
DuckDuckGo is an experimental, unofficial integration that pulls results from DuckDuckGo’s non-JavaScript search pages - not an official API. Expect occasional breakage from bot-challenge pages or HTML changes.

​
Setup

No API key needed - just set DuckDuckGo as your provider:
1

Configure

openclaw configure --section web
# Select "duckduckgo" as the provider

​
Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "duckduckgo",
      },
    },
  },
}
Optional plugin-level settings for region and SafeSearch: 
{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      duckduckgo: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            region: "us-en", // DuckDuckGo region code
            safeSearch: "moderate", // "strict", "moderate", or "off"
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

​
Tool parameters

​
query
string
required
Search query.
​
count
number
default:"5"
Results to return (1-10).
​
region
string
DuckDuckGo region code (e.g. us-en, uk-en, de-de).
​
safeSearch
'strict' | 'moderate' | 'off'
default:"moderate"
SafeSearch level.
Region and SafeSearch can also be set in plugin config (see above) - tool parameters override config values per-query.

​
Notes

  • No API key - works out of the box, zero configuration
  • Experimental - gathers results from DuckDuckGo’s non-JavaScript HTML search pages, not an official API or SDK
  • Bot-challenge risk - DuckDuckGo may serve CAPTCHAs or block requests under heavy or automated use
  • HTML parsing - results depend on page structure, which can change without notice
  • Auto-detection order - DuckDuckGo is the first key-free fallback (order 100) in auto-detection. API-backed providers with configured keys run first, then Ollama Web Search (order 110), then SearXNG (order 200)
  • SafeSearch defaults to moderate when not configured
For production use, consider Brave Search (free tier available) or another API-backed provider.