n8n-nodes-searxng-tool

This is an n8n community node that integrates the SearXNG search engine into your n8n workflows. It can be used as a standalone node to fetch search results or attached to an AI Agent node as a Web Search Tool.

[!IMPORTANT]
Disclaimer: This is a community-contributed integration node. The author of this package is not the owner of the SearXNG project and is not affiliated with or sponsored by the official SearXNG team.

• SearXNG Project Repository: https://github.com/searxng/searxng
• SearXNG Documentation: https://docs.searxng.org/

Installation

To install this community node in your n8n instance:

1. Go to Settings > Community Nodes.
2. Click Install a new node.
3. Enter the npm package name: n8n-nodes-searxng-tool
4. Agree to the risks and click Install.

For more details, see n8n's Community Nodes Installation Guide.

Credentials

The node requires a configured SearXNG API credential to connect to your instance.

Parameters:

• Base URL (Required): The URL of your SearXNG instance (e.g., http://localhost:8080 or https://searx.be).
• Authentication Type:
  • None: For public or open instances that do not require authentication.
  • Basic Auth: For self-hosted instances protected by basic auth proxy (requires Username and Password).
  • API Key: For proxy gateways requiring a custom API key header (requires Header Name, default X-API-KEY, and API Key value).

Standalone Operations & Properties

When used as a standard n8n workflow node, it outputs search results as a list of items.

• Query (Required): The search string to look up. Supports search operators (e.g., site:github.com).
• Categories: Select one or more search categories (General, News, Science, IT, Images, Videos, Maps, Music, Social Media, Files).
• Time Range: Filter results by a specific age (Any Time, Past Day, Past Week, Past Month, Past Year).
• Page Number: Specify the result page (starts from 1).
• Safe Search: SafeSearch filter level (Off, Moderate, Strict).
• Additional Options:
  • HTTP Method: Choose between GET (default) and POST queries. POST requests are more private but might not be supported by all instances.
  • Engines: Comma-separated list of specific engines to query (e.g., google,bing,wikipedia).
  • Language: Language code filter (e.g., en-US, de-DE).
  • Image Proxy: Proxy image results directly through the SearXNG instance (rewrites URLs).
  • Preferences String: Pass your base64 encoded user preferences token from the SearXNG preferences page.
  • Private Engine Tokens: Comma-separated access tokens for locked/private engines configured on your SearXNG instance.
  • Theme: Specify layout layout styles (e.g., simple).
  • Results on New Tab: Request result links to be marked for opening in new tabs.
  • Limit: Max number of search results to return (default: 10).
  • Raw Response: Return the complete, unmodified JSON payload from the SearXNG API.

AI Agent Tool Compatibility

This node includes the usableAsTool: true flag. It can be directly connected to the Tools input of an AI Agent node in n8n.

Setup:

1. Drag the AI Agent node into your workflow.
2. Drag the SearXNG node into the workflow and connect it to the Tools connector of the AI Agent.
3. Configure the SearXNG credentials.
4. When the AI Agent runs, it will dynamically evaluate the user's prompt and call SearXNG as a tool to retrieve real-time search results.
5. Output formatting: By default, the node returns a clean, structured object containing only the title, url, and content (snippet) of each search result. This preserves token limits and makes parsing easy for LLMs.

Local Development

If you want to modify this node or build it locally:

1. Clone your repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DanEvenSegler/n8n-nodes-searxng.git
   cd n8n-nodes-searxng

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install --legacy-peer-deps

3. Build the node:

   npm run build

4. Link the node locally to your n8n configuration:

   npm link
   # In your local n8n installation directory (~/.n8n)
   npm link n8n-nodes-searxng-tool

5. Run the node in watch/development mode:

   npm run dev