Internet Search
Queries a self-hosted SearXNG instance aggregating multiple search engines.
Category Routing
Always set category based on the nature of the query.
| Category | When to use | Engines |
|---|---|---|
general |
Default. Facts, how-tos, products, people, broad web. | Brave, Bing, DDG, Startpage, Qwant, Wikipedia… |
news |
Recent events, breaking news, anything time-sensitive. | Bing News, DDG News |
academic |
Research papers, studies, medical literature, preprints. | arXiv, Google Scholar, PubMed |
social |
Opinions, community recommendations, "what do people think about X". |
Query Formulation
Write queries as a search engine expects — keywords, not full sentences:
# Bad
"what is the fastest async runtime for rust"
# Good
"rust async runtime benchmarks 2025"
- news: include a time anchor —
"OpenAI o3 release 2025"not just"OpenAI o3" - academic: use field terminology —
"transformer attention efficiency survey" - social: phrase as community search —
"reddit best mechanical keyboard 2025"
SearXNG Search Syntax (in query)
SearXNG supports lightweight query modifiers you can embed directly into the query string:
| Syntax | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
!<engine> / !<category> |
Select engine(s) and/or a category. Chainable and inclusive; abbreviations are accepted. | !wp paris, !wikipedia paris, !map paris, !map !ddg !wp paris |
:<lang> |
Language filter | :fr !wp Wau Holland |
Count
count=5(default) — sufficient for most taskscount=10— comparing many options, checking consensuscount=3— quick fact checks
Multi-Search Strategy
Fire multiple focused searches rather than one broad one:
# Bad: one vague search
internet_search("best way to deploy Node.js")
# Good: three targeted searches
internet_search("Node.js Docker deployment best practices 2025")
internet_search("Node.js PM2 vs Docker production", category="social")
internet_search("Node.js zero-downtime deployment strategies")
Combine general + social for factual + sentiment coverage:
internet_search("Bun runtime performance vs Node.js benchmarks")
internet_search("Bun runtime production experience", category="social")
When NOT to Use
- Things you already know with high confidence
- Stable API docs or well-known syntax — use training knowledge
- Repeating a search that already answered the question
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
general for a research paper |
Use category="academic" |
| Searching "what happened today" | Use category="news" with a specific topic |
| One broad search for a multi-part question | Break into 2–3 focused searches |
| Repeating a failed search verbatim | Rephrase with different keywords |
count=20 for a simple fact |
Default count=5 is almost always enough |
