searxng/docs/admin/engines/settings.rst

settings.yml

This page describe the options possibilities of the searx/settings.yml file.

Further reading ..

• use_default_settings.yml
• search API

Contents

settings.yml location

The initial settings.yml we be load from these locations:

1. the full path specified in the SEARXNG_SETTINGS_PATH environment variable.
2. /etc/searxng/settings.yml

If these files don't exist (or are empty or can't be read), SearXNG uses the searx/settings.yml file. Read settings use_default_settings to see how you can simplify your user defined settings.yml.

Global Settings

brand:

brand:
  issue_url: https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues
  docs_url: https://docs.searxng.org
  public_instances: https://searx.space
  wiki_url: https://github.com/searxng/searxng/wiki

issue_url :

If you host your own issue tracker change this URL.

docs_url :

If you host your own documentation change this URL.

public_instances :

If you host your own https://searx.space change this URL.

wiki_url :

Link to your wiki (or false)

general:

general:
  debug: false
  instance_name:  "SearXNG"
  privacypolicy_url: false
  donation_url: false
  contact_url: false
  enable_metrics: true

debug : $SEARXNG_DEBUG

Allow a more detailed log if you run SearXNG directly. Display detailed error messages in the browser too, so this must be deactivated in production.

donation_url :

Set value to true to use your own donation page written in the searx/info/en/donate.md <searx.infopage> and use false to disable the donation link altogether.

privacypolicy_url:

Link to privacy policy.

contact_url:

Contact mailto: address or WEB form.

enable_metrics:

Enabled by default. Record various anonymous metrics availabled at /stats, /stats/errors and /preferences.

search:

search:
  safe_search: 0
  autocomplete: ""
  default_lang: ""
  ban_time_on_fail: 5
  max_ban_time_on_fail: 120
  suspended_times:
    SearxEngineAccessDenied: 86400
    SearxEngineCaptcha: 86400
    SearxEngineTooManyRequests: 3600
    cf_SearxEngineCaptcha: 1296000
    cf_SearxEngineAccessDenied: 86400
    recaptcha_SearxEngineCaptcha: 604800
  formats:
    - html

safe_search:

Filter results.

• 0: None
• 1: Moderate
• 2: Strict

autocomplete:

Existing autocomplete backends, leave blank to turn it off.

• dbpedia
• duckduckgo
• google
• startpage
• swisscows
• qwant
• wikipedia

default_lang:

Default search language - leave blank to detect from browser information or use codes from searx/languages.py.

languages:

List of available languages - leave unset to use all codes from searx/languages.py. Otherwise list codes of available languages. The all value is shown as the Default language in the user interface (in most cases, it is meant to send the query without a language parameter ; in some cases, it means the English language) Example:

languages:
  - all
  - en
  - en-US
  - de
  - it-IT
  - fr
  - fr-BE

ban_time_on_fail:

Ban time in seconds after engine errors.

max_ban_time_on_fail:

Max ban time in seconds after engine errors.

suspended_times:

Engine suspension time after error (in seconds; set to 0 to disable)

SearxEngineAccessDenied: 86400

For error "Access denied" and "HTTP error [402, 403]"

SearxEngineCaptcha: 86400

For error "CAPTCHA"

SearxEngineTooManyRequests: 3600

For error "Too many request" and "HTTP error 429"

Cloudflare CAPTCHA:

• cf_SearxEngineCaptcha: 1296000
• cf_SearxEngineAccessDenied: 86400

Google CAPTCHA:

• recaptcha_SearxEngineCaptcha: 604800

formats:

Result formats available from web, remove format to deny access (use lower case).

• html
• csv
• json
• rss

server:

server:
    base_url: http://example.org/location  # change this!
    port: 8888
    bind_address: "127.0.0.1"
    secret_key: "ultrasecretkey"           # change this!
    limiter: false
    image_proxy: false
    default_http_headers:
      X-Content-Type-Options : nosniff
      X-XSS-Protection : 1; mode=block
      X-Download-Options : noopen
      X-Robots-Tag : noindex, nofollow
      Referrer-Policy : no-referrer

base_url : $SEARXNG_URL buildenv <make buildenv>

The base URL where SearXNG is deployed. Used to create correct inbound links. If you change the value, don't forget to rebuild instance's environment (utils/brand.env <make buildenv>)

port & bind_address: $SEARXNG_PORT & $SEARXNG_BIND_ADDRESS buildenv <make buildenv>

Port number and bind address of the SearXNG web application if you run it directly using python searx/webapp.py. Doesn't apply to a SearXNG services running behind a proxy and using socket communications. If you change the value, don't forget to rebuild instance's environment (utils/brand.env <make buildenv>)

secret_key : $SEARXNG_SECRET

Used for cryptography purpose.

limiter :

Rate limit the number of request on the instance, block some bots. The limiter src requires a settings redis database.

image_proxy :

Allow your instance of SearXNG of being able to proxy images. Uses memory space.

default_http_headers :

Set additional HTTP headers, see #755

ui:

ui:
  static_use_hash: false
  default_locale: ""
  query_in_title: false
  infinite_scroll: false
  center_alignment: false
  cache_url: https://web.archive.org/web/
  default_theme: simple
  theme_args:
    simple_style: auto

static_use_hash :

Enables cache busting of static files.

default_locale :

SearXNG interface language. If blank, the locale is detected by using the browser language. If it doesn't work, or you are deploying a language specific instance of searx, a locale can be defined using an ISO language code, like fr, en, de.

query_in_title :

When true, the result page's titles contains the query it decreases the privacy, since the browser can records the page titles.

infinite_scroll:

When true, automatically loads the next page when scrolling to bottom of the current page.

center_alignment : default false

When enabled, the results are centered instead of being in the left (or RTL) side of the screen. This setting only affects the desktop layout (min-width: @tablet <searx/static/themes/simple/src/less/definitions.less>)

cache_url : https://web.archive.org/web/

URL prefix of the internet archive or cache, don't forgett trailing slash (if needed). The default is https://web.archive.org/web/ alternatives are:

• https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:
• https://archive.today/

default_theme :

Name of the theme you want to use by default on your SearXNG instance.

theme_args.simple_style:

Style of simple theme: auto, light, dark

results_on_new_tab:

Open result links in a new tab by default.

redis:

A redis DB can be connected by an URL, in :pysearx.redisdb you will find a description to test your redis connection in SerXNG. When using sockets, don't forget to check the access rights on the socket:

ls -la /usr/local/searxng-redis/run/redis.sock
srwxrwx--- 1 searxng-redis searxng-redis ... /usr/local/searxng-redis/run/redis.sock

In this example read/write access is given to the searxng-redis group. To get access rights to redis instance (the socket), your SearXNG (or even your developer) account needs to be added to the searxng-redis group.

url

URL to connect redis database, see Redis.from_url(url) & redis db:

redis://[[username]:[password]]@localhost:6379/0
rediss://[[username]:[password]]@localhost:6379/0
unix://[[username]:[password]]@/path/to/socket.sock?db=0

Tip for developers

To set up a local redis instance, first set the socket path of the Redis DB in your YAML setting:

redis:
  url: unix:///usr/local/searxng-redis/run/redis.sock?db=0

Then use the following commands to install the redis instance :

$ ./manage redis.build
$ sudo -H ./manage redis.install
$ sudo -H ./manage redis.addgrp "${USER}"
# don't forget to logout & login to get member of group

outgoing:

Communication with search engines.

outgoing:
  request_timeout: 2.0       # default timeout in seconds, can be override by engine
  max_request_timeout: 10.0  # the maximum timeout in seconds
  useragent_suffix: ""       # information like an email address to the administrator
  pool_connections: 100      # Maximum number of allowable connections, or null
                             # for no limits. The default is 100.
  pool_maxsize: 10           # Number of allowable keep-alive connections, or null
                             # to always allow. The default is 10.
  enable_http2: true         # See https://www.python-httpx.org/http2/
  # uncomment below section if you want to use a custom server certificate
  # see https://www.python-httpx.org/advanced/#changing-the-verification-defaults
  # and https://www.python-httpx.org/compatibility/#ssl-configuration
  #  verify: ~/.mitmproxy/mitmproxy-ca-cert.cer
  #
  # uncomment below section if you want to use a proxyq see: SOCKS proxies
  #   https://2.python-requests.org/en/latest/user/advanced/#proxies
  # are also supported: see
  #   https://2.python-requests.org/en/latest/user/advanced/#socks
  #
  #  proxies:
  #    all://:
  #      - http://proxy1:8080
  #      - http://proxy2:8080
  #
  #  using_tor_proxy: true
  #
  # Extra seconds to add in order to account for the time taken by the proxy
  #
  #  extra_proxy_timeout: 10.0
  #

request_timeout :

Global timeout of the requests made to others engines in seconds. A bigger timeout will allow to wait for answers from slow engines, but in consequence will slow SearXNG reactivity (the result page may take the time specified in the timeout to load). Can be override by settings engine

useragent_suffix :

Suffix to the user-agent SearXNG uses to send requests to others engines. If an engine wish to block you, a contact info here may be useful to avoid that.

keepalive_expiry :

Number of seconds to keep a connection in the pool. By default 5.0 seconds.

proxies :

Define one or more proxies you wish to use, see httpx proxies. If there are more than one proxy for one protocol (http, https), requests to the engines are distributed in a round-robin fashion.

source_ips :

If you use multiple network interfaces, define from which IP the requests must be made. Example:

• 0.0.0.0 any local IPv4 address.
• :: any local IPv6 address.
• 192.168.0.1
• [ 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2 ] these two specific IP addresses
• fe80::60a2:1691:e5a2:ee1f
• fe80::60a2:1691:e5a2:ee1f/126 all IP addresses in this network.
• [ 192.168.0.1, fe80::/126 ]

retries :

Number of retry in case of an HTTP error. On each retry, SearXNG uses an different proxy and source ip.

retry_on_http_error :

Retry request on some HTTP status code.

Example:

• true : on HTTP status code between 400 and 599.
• 403 : on HTTP status code 403.
• [403, 429]: on HTTP status code 403 and 429.

enable_http2 :

Enable by default. Set to false to disable HTTP/2.

verify: : $SSL_CERT_FILE, $SSL_CERT_DIR

Allow to specify a path to certificate. see httpx verification defaults.

In addition to verify, SearXNG supports the $SSL_CERT_FILE (for a file) and $SSL_CERT_DIR (for a directory) OpenSSL variables. see httpx ssl configuration.

max_redirects :

30 by default. Maximum redirect before it is an error.

categories_as_tabs:

A list of the categories that are displayed as tabs in the user interface. Categories not listed here can still be searched with the search-syntax.

categories_as_tabs:
  general:
  images:
  videos:
  news:
  map:
  music:
  it:
  science:
  files:
  social media:

Engines are added to categories: (compare engine categories), the categories listed in categories_as_tabs are shown as tabs in the UI. If there are no active engines in a category, the tab is not displayed (e.g. if a user disables all engines in a category).

On the preferences page (/preferences) -- under engines -- there is an additional tab, called other. In this tab are all engines listed that are not in one of the UI tabs (not included in categories_as_tabs).

Engine settings

Further reading ..

• configured engines
• engines-dev

In the code example below a full fledged example of a YAML setup from a dummy engine is shown. Most of the options have a default value or even are optional.

- name: example engine
  engine: example
  shortcut: demo
  base_url: 'https://{language}.example.com/'
  send_accept_language_header: false
  categories: general
  timeout: 3.0
  api_key: 'apikey'
  disabled: false
  language: en_US
  tokens: [ 'my-secret-token' ]
  weight: 1
  display_error_messages: true
  about:
     website: https://example.com
     wikidata_id: Q306656
     official_api_documentation: https://example.com/api-doc
     use_official_api: true
     require_api_key: true
     results: HTML
  enable_http: false
  enable_http2: false
  retries: 1
  retry_on_http_error: true # or 403 or [404, 429]
  max_connections: 100
  max_keepalive_connections: 10
  keepalive_expiry: 5.0
  proxies:
    http:
      - http://proxy1:8080
      - http://proxy2:8080
    https:
      - http://proxy1:8080
      - http://proxy2:8080
      - socks5://user:password@proxy3:1080
      - socks5h://user:password@proxy4:1080

name :

Name that will be used across SearXNG to define this engine. In settings, on the result page...

engine :

Name of the python file used to handle requests and responses to and from this search engine.

shortcut :

Code used to execute bang requests (in this case using !bi)

base_url : optional

Part of the URL that should be stable across every request. Can be useful to use multiple sites using only one engine, or updating the site URL without touching at the code.

send_accept_language_header :

Several engines that support languages (or regions) deal with the HTTP header Accept-Language to build a response that fits to the locale. When this option is activated, the language (locale) that is selected by the user is used to build and send a Accept-Language header in the request to the origin search engine.

categories : optional

Specifies to which categories the engine should be added. Engines can be assigned to multiple categories.

Categories can be shown as tabs (settings categories_as_tabs) in the UI. A search in a tab (in the UI) will query all engines that are active in this tab. In the preferences page (/preferences) -- under engines --users can select what engine should be active when querying in this tab.

Alternatively, \!bang <search-syntax> can be used to search all engines in a category, regardless of whether they are active or not, or whether they are in a tab of the UI or not. For example, !dictionaries can be used to query all search engines in that category (group).

timeout : optional

Timeout of the search with the current search engine. Be careful, it will modify the global timeout of SearXNG.

api_key : optional

In a few cases, using an API needs the use of a secret key. How to obtain them is described in the file.

disabled : optional

To disable by default the engine, but not deleting it. It will allow the user to manually activate it in the settings.

inactive: optional

Remove the engine from the settings (disabled & removed).

language : optional

If you want to use another language for a specific engine, you can define it by using the ISO code of language (and region), like fr, en-US, de-DE.

tokens : optional

A list of secret tokens to make this engine private, more details see private engines.

weight : default 1

Weighting of the results of this engine.

display_error_messages : default true

When an engine returns an error, the message is displayed on the user interface.

network : optional

Use the network configuration from another engine. In addition, there are two default networks:

• ipv4 set local_addresses to 0.0.0.0 (use only IPv4 local addresses)
• ipv6 set local_addresses to :: (use only IPv6 local addresses)

Note

A few more options are possible, but they are pretty specific to some engines, and so won't be described here.

Example: Multilingual Search

SearXNG does not support true multilingual search. You have to use the language prefix in your search query when searching in a different language.

But there is a workaround: By adding a new search engine with a different language, SearXNG will search in your default and other language.

Example configuration in settings.yml for a German and English speaker:

search:
    default_lang : "de"
    ...

engines:
  - name : google english
    engine : google
    language : en
    ...

When searching, the default google engine will return German results and "google english" will return English results.

use_default_settings

use_default_settings: true

• settings location
• use_default_settings.yml
• /etc/searxng/settings.yml <utils/templates/etc/searxng/settings.yml>

The user defined settings.yml is loaded from the settings location and can relied on the default configuration searx/settings.yml using:

use_default_settings: true

server:

In the following example, the actual settings are the default settings defined in searx/settings.yml with the exception of the secret_key and the bind_address:

use_default_settings: true
server:
    secret_key: "ultrasecretkey"   # change this!
    bind_address: "0.0.0.0"

engines:

With use_default_settings: true, each settings can be override in a similar way, the engines section is merged according to the engine name. In this example, SearXNG will load all the default engines, will enable the bing engine and define a token <private engines> for the arch linux engine:

use_default_settings: true
server:
  secret_key: "ultrasecretkey"   # change this!
engines:
  - name: arch linux wiki
    tokens: ['$ecretValue']
  - name: bing
    disabled: false

engines: / remove:

It is possible to remove some engines from the default settings. The following example is similar to the above one, but SearXNG doesn't load the the google engine:

use_default_settings:
  engines:
    remove:
      - google
server:
  secret_key: "ultrasecretkey"   # change this!
engines:
  - name: arch linux wiki
    tokens: ['$ecretValue']

engines: / keep_only:

As an alternative, it is possible to specify the engines to keep. In the following example, SearXNG has only two engines:

use_default_settings:
  engines:
    keep_only:
      - google
      - duckduckgo
server:
  secret_key: "ultrasecretkey"   # change this!
engines:
  - name: google
    tokens: ['$ecretValue']
  - name: duckduckgo
    tokens: ['$ecretValue']