dsh-searxng-search

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One-click local search engine for DeepSeek Harness. It installs SearXNG on your machine, keeps it running, and points web_search at it.

• No API key. Nothing to sign up for, no vendor credential to store — search works the moment it installs.
• Free. Self-hosted: no subscription, no per-query billing, no quota.
• Best route, measured not guessed. The settings page probes every enabled engine on your own network, scores reachability, latency and yield, and recommends the working set in one click.
• Clean results. SearXNG aggregates several fast engines (Bing, Sogou, 360search, …) with no ads, no tracking, and no redirect wrappers.

The base layer pins ctx.web to searchProvider: deepseek-official, which needs DEEPSEEK_API_KEY. Without that credential searchReady() answers false and the web_search tool is withheld from every model step — the agent is left with web_fetch only. This plugin registers a credential-free provider backed by a SearXNG instance you run yourself.

What it adds

Piece	What it does
Provider	Registers search provider searxng on ctx.web. The shipped web_search tool keeps its schema, formatting, and result card.
Supervision	Probes /healthz before every search; when the server is down it restarts it through launchd, systemd, a Windows task, or a child process it owns.
Installer	scripts/bootstrap-searxng.sh (macOS, Linux) and scripts/bootstrap-searxng.ps1 (WSL) install or repair an instance idempotently. Never overwrites an existing settings file.
Settings page	Engine table grouped by category, one-click probe of the engines this host can reach, a recommended roster, and the outbound proxy.
Proxy	Reads and writes SearXNG's outgoing.proxies.all://, so engine requests can go through a local proxy.

Requirements

• DeepSeek Harness with a profile (dsh.bundle support).
• A reachable SearXNG instance. The installer needs git, Python 3.11+, and macOS, Linux, or WSL.
• SearXNG must serve JSON: search.formats has to include json.

Install

# 1. Get a SearXNG to point at (skip if you already run one).
./scripts/bootstrap-searxng.sh            # macOS / Linux
./scripts/bootstrap-searxng.sh --print    # show the plan first

# 2. Install the plugin into a DSH profile.
#    In DSH: Plugins → install from a directory, or
#    dsh plugin install /path/to/dsh-searxng-search

Point the plugin at an existing instance by editing config.baseUrl; point it at another machine and disable the supervisor with ensure.enabled: false.

Ports

The installer refuses to run when the target port is taken by something that is not SearXNG, and names the process holding it:

Port 8888 is taken by another process:
  python3.1 (pid 835)
Nothing was installed. Use another port, and set the plugin's baseUrl to match:
  SEARXNG_PORT=8899 ./scripts/bootstrap-searxng.sh
  config.baseUrl: 'http://127.0.0.1:8899'

A healthy instance on that port, or a SearXNG process stuck in a restart loop, counts as “ours” and is repaired in place. There is no automatic port fallback: the installer and the plugin have to agree on the port, so the port stays one explicit value on both sides. If the plugin is pointed at a dead port, its error scans 8888–8896 for an instance that answers /healthz and returns an engine list from /config, and names the address to use.

Configuration

- id: searxng-search
  name: 'dsh-searxng-search'
  config:
    baseUrl: 'http://127.0.0.1:8888'
    settingsPath: '~/.local/share/searxng/searxng.yml'   # optional; this is the default
    id: searxng              # provider id the web service pins
    maxResults: 20           # provider-side floor; the tool caps again
    timeoutMs: 20000
    safesearch: 0
    probeTimeoutMs: 12000    # one engine probe
    # Optional SearXNG query parameters, omitted when empty:
    # language: zh-CN
    # categories: general
    # engines: google,bing
    ensure:
      enabled: true
      healthPath: /healthz
      probeTimeoutMs: 1500
      startupTimeoutMs: 20000
      probeIntervalMs: 400
      retryCooldownMs: 15000
      launchAgent: com.searxng.server   # macOS
      systemdUnit: ''                   # Linux, e.g. searxng.service
      windowsTask: ''                   # Windows (WSL only)
      windowsService: ''
      command: ''                       # universal fallback, plugin-owned
      args: []
      cwd: ''
      env: {}

Platforms

Platform	Supervisor	Installer	Status
macOS	LaunchAgent → launchctl kickstart -k gui/<uid>/<label>	bootstrap-searxng.sh	installed, self-heal and clean uninstall verified on a real machine
Linux	systemd user unit → systemctl --user restart, falling back to systemctl restart	bootstrap-searxng.sh	installer, settings, JSON API and the plugin round-trip verified in an Ubuntu 24.04 container; the unit itself only with a stubbed systemctl
Windows	—	bootstrap-searxng.ps1 refuses outside WSL	not supported natively: SearXNG's searx/valkeydb.py imports the POSIX-only pwd module, so the server dies at import. Use WSL, Docker, or point this plugin at a Linux/macOS instance with config.baseUrl

The plugin half is plain Node and runs anywhere; only the server is POSIX-bound.

How supervision works

Every web_search probes GET /healthz first (1.5 s budget). If the server is down, the plugin starts it and polls until healthy (20 s budget), then runs the search:

1. This platform's supervisor, when configured and installed. That manager owns the process; the plugin never kills it.
2. Otherwise ensure.command, which the plugin spawns through ctx.subprocess, owns, and terminates when the plugin unloads.
3. Neither → the search fails with a message listing what was tried and which setting or installer would fix it.

A failed start is remembered for retryCooldownMs, and concurrent searches share one recovery attempt. The provider implements no ready(), so web_search stays admitted to every step: a down server surfaces as an actionable tool error instead of a silently missing tool.

The engine page

Probe runs one query per enabled engine in the general category, three at a time, and scores each result 0–100:

Component	Points	Rule
Answers	55	valid JSON and no unresponsive_engines entry for it
Latency	25 / 18 / 10 / 4 / 0	≤0.8 s / ≤2 s / ≤5 s / ≤15 s / slower
Yield	20 / 12 / 4	≥5 results / 1–4 / none

That is a usability score, not accuracy: nothing compares an engine's answers with ground truth. Accuracy would need a labelled corpus or cross-engine agreement sampling; the page does not pretend to have it.

Apply writes one explicit switch per engine (- name: "<engine>" + disabled: true|false) and drops use_default_settings.engines.keep_only. The whitelist is a one-way door — after it is written /config only returns the kept engines, so every other engine disappears from the page and cannot be turned back on. The first apply migrates the file away from it; the page also lists engines parsed from SearXNG's own searx/settings.yml, so the catalog is complete even before that migration.

Every write keeps a timestamped backup next to the settings file, restarts the instance, waits for health, and restores the backup if the instance does not come back.

Security

• No credentials. The provider has no key and implements no ready().
• Loopback by default. The installer binds 127.0.0.1. SEARXNG_BIND=0.0.0.0 exists for containers and puts the exposure decision on you.
• The settings file is the only file it writes, and only through the page's apply/proxy actions: timestamped backup first, verify, roll back on failure.
• Process control is limited to the configured supervisor. launchctl, systemctl, schtasks, or the explicit ensure.command; nothing is discovered or killed by pattern.
• No telemetry, no remote calls. The only network traffic is to your own instance.
• All results are external data. They pass through the stock web_search result formatting and the harness's untrusted-content notice unchanged.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause
web_search is missing from the tool list	Another provider is pinned and unavailable. Check web.provider/searchProvider and GET /dsh-searxng/engines.
Search returns 0 results	Engine roster is empty or every engine was CAPTCHA-blocked. Probe from the settings page.
did not answer within N ms	The instance is down and could not be restarted; the error names the strategy that failed.
HTTP 500 on a search	SearXNG refused the JSON format. Add json to search.formats.
Engines vanish after applying	You are on an old build: apply used to write keep_only. Update to 0.4.3+, then apply once to migrate.

Development

File	Role
index.js	Host plugin: provider, supervision, platform restarts
engines.js	Pure helpers: scoring, roster/proxy text surgery, catalog parsing
engine-api.js	Host routes: GET /dsh-searxng/engines, POST /probe, /apply, /proxy
client.js	Settings page: table, probe/apply buttons, proxy field, zh/en dictionaries
scripts/bootstrap-searxng.sh	Idempotent installer for macOS and Linux
scripts/bootstrap-searxng.ps1	Same, for WSL; refuses natively

Routes are host-only JSON. The client renders them and never touches the settings file.

Known limits

• The installer targets macOS LaunchAgents and systemd user units; other init systems are out of scope.
• bing, sogou, 360search are the tamest engines on a CN route; several upstream defaults (google, brave, duckduckgo, startpage, qwant, baidu) are CAPTCHA- or rate-limited, and wikipedia can cost 15 s before its own timeout — it is out of the default roster for that reason.
• Search requests carry only query; recency and domain filters are not exposed by the harness seam.
• The accuracy question above is deliberately unanswered.

License

MIT