SimpleXNG is a simplified package of SearXNG to make it a single command to run for local use.

The official install options for SearXNG are a bit complex and assume admin privileges to set up. This can be simplified a lot if you’re just wanting to run it locally for your own use.

SimpleXNG is a tiny package to run SearXNG locally on macOS, Linux, or Windows.

I wrote this since a friend was asking me why it wasn’t easier to set up for “localhost” use or embedded use. I thought I’d see if it worked as a minimal, modern uv package.

1. Install uv if you haven’t already.

2. Install and run:

   uv tool install --upgrade simplexng
   simplexng --open

   Or if you’re in a hurry, in one line:

   uvx --upgrade simplexng --open

   This will install the latest version of SimpleXNG and open it in your browser.

See more options:

simplexng --help

• SimpleXNG uses uv to manage the Python dependencies.

• It omits Apache, Nginx, and Docker setup.

• It by default uses the minimal template settings with Redis and rate limiting turned off. (You can adjust the settings file if desired.)

• Since SearXNG is distributed in Docker images only, we vendor a recent copy of SearXNG so it is all available in a single package from PyPI for quick installation.

• On first run, it sets up a minimal config file (on macOS and Linux it will be ~/.config/simplexng/settings.yml), which you can edit and will be used on subsequent runs.

• You can see the version of SearXNG being used with simplexng --version. If you want a newer or different build, you can clone this repo and run:

  ./scripts/clone_searxng.sh HEAD   # Or pick a revision
  uv run simplexng

If this is useful or of interest or have feedback, file an issue or drop a comment on my post about SimpleXNG.

This code and SearXNG are AGPL-3.0 licensed.

For how to install uv and Python, see installation.md.

For development workflows, see development.md.

For instructions on publishing to PyPI, see publishing.md.

This project was built from simple-modern-uv.