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sahenjp/RustXNG

A self-hosted, keyless web search engine in Rust that returns ranked results plus page text for grounding local AI agents.

Open-source alternative to:TavilyExa

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What is it?

RustXNG is a self-hosted web search service built for AI agents. It is a Rust port of SearXNG that aggregates results from many search engines and, in a single request, can also return the extracted text of the top pages, so an agent can answer from sources rather than from memory. No API keys or per-query fees are required, and search terms are processed on the user's own machine.

The service exposes a SearXNG-compatible JSON endpoint and a browser UI. It queries about 180 engines in parallel by default, with per-engine timeouts, suspension with backoff, and automatic rest for engines that keep returning nothing. Results are ranked by term coverage, site authority and identifier matching, then deduplicated. Outbound requests are restricted to public addresses as an SSRF guard, which matters when URLs come from untrusted content. An optional experimental local index can crawl your own corpus and rank with BM25.

It ships as a prebuilt binary, a Cargo install, a Docker image, or a source build requiring Rust 1.85 or newer. Operational endpoints include /healthz and OpenMetrics /metrics, along with a response cache and image proxy.

Key features

  • 01Keyless, self-hosted search with a SearXNG-compatible JSON API.
  • 02Returns ranked results and extracted page text in one request for grounding.
  • 03Queries roughly 180 engines in parallel with per-engine timeouts and backoff.
  • 04Restricts outbound requests to public addresses as an SSRF guard.
  • 05Optional local index that crawls your own corpus and ranks with BM25.
  • 06Exposes health and OpenMetrics endpoints plus a response cache.

Use cases

  • Giving a local LLM agent web search with source text it can cite.
  • Keeping search queries inside your own network instead of a third-party API.
  • Running a private metasearch backend for scripts or other tools.
  • Searching your own document corpus alongside public web results.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Install the server with Cargo

    cargo install --git https://github.com/sahenjp/RustXNG.git --tag v0.25.0
  2. 2

    Start the server on 127.0.0.1:8888

    rustxng
  3. 3

    Run a search that returns JSON

    curl "http://127.0.0.1:8888/search?q=tokio+runtime&format=json"

Things to know

  • Google is unavailable in this build because its endpoints now block or require JavaScript.
  • Building from source requires Rust 1.85 or newer.
  • The license is AGPL-3.0-or-later, so running a modified version as a network service requires offering its source to users.

In collections

Open-source AI agent frameworks & appsMCP serversSelf-hosted appsPrivacy & local-first tools

Topics

#search-engine#ai-agents#rag#llm#self-hosted#metasearch#privacy#mcp#agpl#grounding

FAQ

What is RustXNG?
A self-hosted, keyless web search engine in Rust that returns ranked results plus page text for grounding local AI agents. RustXNG is a self-hosted web search service built for AI agents. It is a Rust port of SearXNG that aggregates results from many search engines and, in a single request, can also return the extracted text of the top pages, so an agent can answer from sources rather than from memory. No API keys or per-query fees are required, and search terms are processed on the user's own machine.
Is RustXNG free to use? What license does it have?
RustXNG is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is RustXNG still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to RustXNG was on Nov 6, 2026.
What can I use RustXNG for?
Giving a local LLM agent web search with source text it can cite. Keeping search queries inside your own network instead of a third-party API. Running a private metasearch backend for scripts or other tools. Searching your own document corpus alongside public web results.
How do I install RustXNG?
Install the server with Cargo: cargo install --git https://github.com/sahenjp/RustXNG.git --tag v0.25.0 Start the server on 127.0.0.1:8888: rustxng Run a search that returns JSON: curl "http://127.0.0.1:8888/search?q=tokio+runtime&format=json"
Where can I get RustXNG?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/sahenjp/RustXNG

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