searxng

SearXNG

SearXNG is a privacy-respecting, self-hosted metasearch engine. It aggregates results from dozens of search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) without tracking you, storing queries, or serving ads. Use it as your default browser search engine to get broad results without the surveillance.

Why SearXNG

• No query logging, no user profiles, no ads
• Aggregates results from many sources simultaneously — better coverage than any single engine
• Fully configurable: choose which engines to enable, set safe-search level, customize the UI
• Redis-backed rate limiting prevents abuse without impacting normal use

Architecture

Browser (LAN only)
      │ HTTPS
      ▼
  Traefik (lan-only middleware)
      │
      ▼
  searxng:8080 ──► External search engines (Google, Bing, DDG, …)
      │
      ▼
  redis:6379 (ephemeral cache + rate limiter, tmpfs — no persistence)

Both containers share the searxng internal network. Only the searxng container is also on the traefik network; Redis is never directly reachable from outside.

Prerequisites

On the Docker host, create the config directory and place your settings.yml before running docker compose up -d:

mkdir -p /mnt/SSD/Containers/searxng/config

# Copy the template from this repo
cp config/settings.yml /mnt/SSD/Containers/searxng/config/settings.yml

# Generate a secret key and replace the placeholder
SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
sed -i "s/REPLACE_WITH_GENERATED_SECRET/$SECRET/" /mnt/SSD/Containers/searxng/config/settings.yml

Do this before first run. Changing secret_key after launch invalidates all active sessions.

Quick Start

cp example.env .env
# Edit .env — set SEARXNG_DOMAIN at minimum
nano .env

# Run the host prerequisite steps above, then:
docker compose up -d

# Verify both containers are healthy
docker compose ps

Visit https://${SEARXNG_DOMAIN} from the LAN (or VPN) — you should see the SearXNG search page.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
SEARXNG_DOMAIN	—	Required. Hostname Traefik routes to SearXNG (e.g. searxng.yourdomain.com)
SEARXNG_PORT	8092	Host port for direct access (Traefik is the primary entrypoint)
TZ	America/New_York	Container timezone

Configuration

SearXNG is configured via /etc/searxng/settings.yml inside the container, which is bind-mounted from /mnt/SSD/Containers/searxng/config/ on the host. The committed config/settings.yml in this repo is a template — the actual file with the real secret_key lives only on the host.

Key settings:

Setting	Default	Notes
server.secret_key	—	Must be set. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32
server.limiter	true	Rate limiting via Redis — keeps the instance healthy
server.image_proxy	true	Proxies result images through SearXNG (no external image requests from browser)
search.safe_search	0	0 = off, 1 = moderate, 2 = strict
search.autocomplete	duckduckgo	Suggestion provider; set to "" to disable
ui.theme_args.simple_style	dark	dark or light

To add or remove search engines, add an engines: block to settings.yml. See the SearXNG engine docs for available options.

Updating

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d