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SearXNG Search

OpenClaw supports SearXNG as a self-hosted, key-free web_search provider. SearXNG is an open-source meta-search engine that aggregates results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other sources. Advantages:
  • Free and unlimited — no API key or commercial subscription required
  • Privacy / air-gap — queries never leave your network
  • Works anywhere — no region restrictions on commercial search APIs

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Setup

1

Run a SearXNG instance

docker run -d -p 8888:8080 searxng/searxng
Or use any existing SearXNG deployment you have access to. See the SearXNG documentation for production setup.
2

Configure

openclaw configure --section web
# Select "searxng" as the provider
Or set the env var and let auto-detection find it:
export SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8888"

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Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "searxng",
      },
    },
  },
}
Plugin-level settings for the SearXNG instance: 
{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      searxng: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            baseUrl: "http://localhost:8888",
            categories: "general,news", // optional
            language: "en", // optional
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
The baseUrl field also accepts SecretRef objects.

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Environment variable

Set SEARXNG_BASE_URL as an alternative to config: 
export SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8888"
When SEARXNG_BASE_URL is set and no explicit provider is configured, auto-detection picks SearXNG automatically (at the lowest priority — any API-backed provider with a key wins first).

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Plugin config reference

FieldDescription
baseUrlBase URL of your SearXNG instance (required)
categoriesComma-separated categories such as general, news, or science
languageLanguage code for results such as en, de, or fr

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Notes

  • JSON API — uses SearXNG’s native format=json endpoint, not HTML scraping
  • No API key — works with any SearXNG instance out of the box
  • Auto-detection order — SearXNG is checked last (order 200) in auto-detection, so any API-backed provider with a key takes priority over SearXNG, and SearXNG sits behind DuckDuckGo (order 100) as well
  • Self-hosted — you control the instance, queries, and upstream search engines
  • Categories default to general when not configured
For SearXNG JSON API to work, make sure your SearXNG instance has the json format enabled in its settings.yml under search.formats.