Free web search MCP using a local SearXNG instance

run-searx.sh

mkdir -p config data
cat > config/settings.yml << 'EOF'
server:
  bind_address: "0.0.0.0"
  secret_key: "secret"
search:
  formats:
    - html
    - json
EOF
docker run --rm --name searxng \
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -v "./config/:/etc/searxng/" \
    -v "./data/:/var/cache/searxng/" \
    docker.io/searxng/searxng:latest

searx-mcp.py

# dependencies for pip:
# pip install requests "mcp[cli]"

from mcp.server.fastmcp import FastMCP
import requests


mcp = FastMCP("searx")


@mcp.tool()
def search_web(query: str) -> str:
    """Search the web for information"""
    response = requests.get(f"http://localhost:8080/search?format=json&q={query}")
    data = response.json()
    return "\n\n".join(
        [
            result["title"] + "\n" + result["url"] + "\n" + result["content"]
            for result in data["results"]
        ]
    )