command-center/omp-docs/agentic-web-research/searxng-tuning.md

type, title, description, tags, verified, timestamp, resource

type	title	description	tags	verified	timestamp	resource
concept	SearXNG Tuning	Configuration decisions for a fast, private, useful self-hosted SearXNG instance.	searxng search privacy configuration unverified	2026-10-19	2026-08-11	https://docs.searxng.org

SearXNG Tuning

SearXNG is a metasearch engine. It aggregates hundreds of upstream search services into one result set (upstream settings.yml defines 388 engine entries at master, probed 2026-10-19; the live fleet instance loads 262). Configuration lives in settings.yml. The recommended deployment is Docker Compose (or Podman Quadlet) with a Valkey container.

This page lists the settings that matter for speed, privacy, and useful results.

Fleet instance: the harness web/searxng provider calls the instance at 192.168.0.143:8081 (UI) / :8082 (JSON API) on dankclaw. The pi-era Pi Web Access called the same host.

Live instance (probed 2026-10-19)

User Quadlet stack on dankclaw: searxng.container (ghcr.io/searxng/searxng:latest) + searxng-valkey.container (docker.io/valkey/valkey:9-alpine) + gluetun.container (VPN egress; the containers share its network namespace, which is why podman ps shows :8081/ :8082 on several names) + marreta/marreta_browser. limiter.toml: enabled, pass_searxng_org: true.

Policy drift flag: this page's tuned engine policy (google and bing disabled; DuckDuckGo/Wikipedia/Google News enabled — verified via /config on 2026-08-16) is NOT live: /config on 2026-10-19 reports all 262 engines enabled, google and bing included. Either the settings override was lost in the 2026-10 stack reinstatement or the policy was deliberately dropped. Confirm with Frank before re-applying.

Plan the Deployment

graph LR
    A[Browser or Agent] --> B[SearXNG container]
    B --> C[Valkey cache + limiter]
    B --> D[Engine request pool]
    D --> E[Google News]
    D --> F[DuckDuckGo]
    D --> G[Wikipedia]

Deploy with the official Docker Compose file. It ships a searxng-valkey container (valkey/valkey:9-alpine). Valkey replaced Redis as the default cache. Mount your config at ./core-config/:/etc/searxng.

services:
  searxng:
    image: docker.io/searxng/searxng:latest
    ports:
      - "8081:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./core-config/:/etc/searxng/:Z
    depends_on:
      - searxng-valkey

  searxng-valkey:
    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:9-alpine
    restart: always

Core Settings

use_default_settings: true
server:
  secret_key: "change-this"   # or $SEARXNG_SECRET
  base_url: "http://192.168.0.143:8081/"   # or $SEARXNG_BASE_URL
  limiter: true
  method: "POST"

search:
  default_lang: "en"
  default_locale: "en-US"
  safe_search: 0
  formats:
    - html
    - json

Change secret_key. Set base_url to the public address. Use POST for privacy. Enable the json format for the agent.

Rate Limiting

Enable the limiter and point it at Valkey. Without a limiter, an upstream engine can block SearXNG's IP.

server:
  limiter: true

valkey:
  url: valkey://searxng-valkey:6379/0

The limiter uses a sliding window per IP:

Window	HTML limit	JSON/API limit
20 seconds	15	4 per 3600 s
600 seconds	150	4 per 3600 s

Suspicious IPs get a much lower budget (2 in 20 s, 10 in 600 s). The agent that hits the JSON endpoint repeatedly can trip the 4-per-hour API limit. Back off or make the agent part of a trusted group.

Outgoing Pool

outgoing:
  request_timeout: 3.0
  max_request_timeout: 10.0
  pool_connections: 100
  pool_maxsize: 20
  enable_http2: true
  keepalive_expiry: 5.0
  retries: 3

A short request_timeout keeps results snappy. enable_http2 multiplexes connections. More retries makes results more reliable but slower.

Engine Selection

Default engine state (current SearXNG):

Engine	Default state	Note
DuckDuckGo	Enabled	Reliable general search
Wikipedia	Enabled	Encyclopedia lookups
Google News	Enabled	News results
Google (main)	Inactive	Cloudflare CAPTCHA often blocks it
Bing	Disabled	Blocked upstream

Keep only the engines you need. Fewer engines means faster responses.

use_default_settings:
  engines:
    keep_only:
      - duckduckgo
      - wikipedia
      - google news

Make an engine private to one agent with a token:

engines:
  - name: arch wiki
    engine: archlinux
    tokens: ['my-secret-token']

Useful Plugins

plugins:
  searx.plugins.unit_converter.SXNGPlugin:
    active: true
  searx.plugins.calculator.SXNGPlugin:
    active: true
  searx.plugins.self_info.SXNGPlugin:
    active: true

The hostnames plugin filters or rewrites results. It needs a separate hostnames: block:

hostnames:
  remove:
    - '(.*\.)?facebook.com$'
  high_priority:
    - '(.*\.)?wikipedia.org$'

JSON API for the Agent

The agent uses the JSON format. Confirm that it returns structured data:

curl 'http://192.168.0.143:8081/search?q=test&format=json'

The response contains results, query, number_of_results, and suggestions. The /config endpoint lists engine availability.

Verify the Instance

1. Open the HTML interface and run a test query.
2. Confirm that the json format returns data.
3. Confirm that the limiter page appears on rapid repeats.

Citations

• SearXNG documentation: https://docs.searxng.org
• SearXNG outgoing settings: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings_outgoing.html
• SearXNG engine settings: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings_engines.html
• SearXNG Valkey settings: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings_valkey.html
• SearXNG limiter: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/searx.limiter.html
• SearXNG plugins: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings_plugins.html
• Docker Compose install: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation-docker.html

See Also

• VPN Routing for SearXNG — Route the outbound path through a VPN.
• Agentic Search Best Practices — Use the JSON format well.