searxng-bangs
This skill provides privacy-respecting web search via SearXNG with DuckDuckGo-style bangs and a bundled scripts/search.py client. It instructs executing python3 scripts/search.py, setting SEARXNG_URL, and making network requests to SEARXNG_URL (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080, https://searx.be).
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
-
Install SearXNG
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 searxng/searxng -
Install Skill
# Copy to OpenClaw skills directory cp -r searxng-bangs /app/skills/ -
Configure (if not using default localhost:8080)
export SEARXNG_URL=http://your-instance:port -
Use
- "Search the web for OpenClaw"
- "Find Python tutorials on Wikipedia" (uses
!wbang) - "Search GitHub for openclaw" (uses
!ghbang) - "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!
Built for OpenClaw | https://openclaw.ai