search

About

Search is a privacy-respecting metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple search engines without tracking you. Built in Go for enhanced performance, security, and ease of deployment.

Single self-contained binary. Runs with zero configuration on first start. No admin web UI — all settings are in server.yml.

Official Site

https://scour.li

Features

Privacy First: No third-party analytics by default, consent-aware preferences, self-hosted data control
Tor Support: Full Tor integration with SOCKS5, circuit rotation, and .onion service
Portable Preferences: Save settings locally, export/import them, or share them with portable prefs links
Search Alerts: Accountless alerts with email verification plus private RSS and webhook delivery
Fast and Efficient: Written in Go with concurrent engine queries
Multiple Engines: Aggregate results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and more
Instant Answers: Calculator, unit/currency converter, weather, dictionary, and more
Bang Shortcuts: Quick redirects like !g, !w, !gh for fast searching
Keyboard Navigation: Vim-style shortcuts for power users (j/k, /, Enter)
Mobile Friendly: Responsive design that works on all devices
Dark and Light Themes: Modern interface with dark (Dracula) and light themes
File-only Configuration: All settings in server.yml; no admin web UI
Multi-Category Search: Web, images, videos, news, maps, files, music, science, IT, and social
Built-in SSL: Let's Encrypt integration for automatic HTTPS
Monitoring: Prometheus metrics and health endpoints
Container Ready: Docker and Docker Compose support
GeoIP: Country detection and blocking capabilities
Email Notifications: Alerts for important events

Production

Binary

# Download latest release
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apimgr/search/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Start the server (auto-selects port in 64000-65535 range)
search

# Specify port
search --port 64080

Docker

docker run -d \
  -p 172.17.0.1:64080:80 \
  -v ./data:/data \
  -v ./config:/config \
  --name search \
  ghcr.io/apimgr/search:latest

Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/apimgr/search.git
cd search
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

Install as System Service

# Install (writes systemd unit / launchd plist / Windows service)
sudo search install

# Uninstall
sudo search uninstall

Multi-Platform Downloads

Platform	Download
Linux amd64	`search-linux-amd64`
Linux arm64	`search-linux-arm64`
macOS amd64	`search-darwin-amd64`
macOS arm64	`search-darwin-arm64`
Windows amd64	`search-windows-amd64.exe`
Windows arm64	`search-windows-arm64.exe`
FreeBSD amd64	`search-freebsd-amd64`
FreeBSD arm64	`search-freebsd-arm64`

All binaries at: https://github.com/apimgr/search/releases/latest

Client

A companion CLI/TUI client (search-cli) is available for interacting with the Search API from the terminal.

Install

# Linux
curl -LO https://github.com/apimgr/search/releases/latest/download/search-cli-linux-amd64
chmod +x search-cli-linux-amd64
sudo mv search-cli-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/search-cli

# macOS
curl -LO https://github.com/apimgr/search/releases/latest/download/search-cli-darwin-arm64
chmod +x search-cli-darwin-arm64
sudo mv search-cli-darwin-arm64 /usr/local/bin/search-cli

Configure

# Connect to a server
search-cli config --server https://search.example.com --token YOUR_API_TOKEN

# Or via environment variables
export SEARCH_SERVER_PRIMARY="https://search.example.com"
export SEARCH_TOKEN="your-api-token"

Usage

# Search from command line
search-cli search "golang tutorials"

# Search with category
search-cli search --category images "cute cats"

# Interactive TUI mode
search-cli tui

# Show help
search-cli --help

Configuration

On first run, Search creates a configuration file with sane defaults.

Config file locations:

OS	Path
Linux (root)	`/etc/apimgr/search/server.yml`
Linux (user)	`~/.config/apimgr/search/server.yml`
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/apimgr/search/server.yml`
Windows	`%AppData%\apimgr\search\server.yml`
BSD	`/usr/local/etc/apimgr/search/server.yml`

Basic Configuration

server:
  # Port in 64000-65535 range (random on first run, saved to config)
  port: 64080

  # Listen address: [::] (all interfaces) or 127.0.0.1 (localhost only)
  address: "[::]"

  # Application mode: production or development
  mode: production

  # Operator bearer token (auto-generated on first run)
  token: ""

# Enable search engines
engines:
  google: true
  bing: true
  duckduckgo: true
  wikipedia: true

Environment Variables

MODE=production
PORT=64080
LISTEN="0.0.0.0"
SEARCH_CONFIG_DIR="/etc/apimgr/search"
SEARCH_DATA_DIR="/var/lib/apimgr/search"

Operator Access

There is no admin web UI. Configuration is file-driven via server.yml and hot-reloaded automatically via a file watcher (no signal required). To rotate the operator token:

search maintenance rotate-token

API

All API endpoints are under /api/v1/. Every web page has a corresponding JSON API endpoint.

Search

# Search
curl "https://scour.li/api/v1/search?q=golang&category=general"

# Autocomplete
curl "https://scour.li/api/v1/autocomplete?q=gol"

# List engines
curl "https://scour.li/api/v1/engines"

Alerts

# Create an alert (accountless)
curl -X POST "https://scour.li/api/v1/alerts" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "golang release notes",
    "category": "news",
    "email": "alerts@example.com",
    "frequency": "daily",
    "deliver_rss": true
  }'

# Manage alert with returned token
curl "https://scour.li/api/v1/alerts/MANAGE_TOKEN"

Health and Status

# Public health (no auth)
curl https://scour.li/server/healthz

# Engine status (operator token required)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  https://scour.li/api/v1/server/engines

API Documentation

Interactive API docs at: https://scour.li/server/docs/swagger

GraphQL playground at: https://scour.li/server/docs/graphql

Other

Supported Search Engines

Web: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Brave Search, Wikipedia

Video: YouTube

News and Social: Reddit

Code: GitHub, Stack Overflow

Instant Answers

Zero-click answers displayed above search results:

Widget	Example
Calculator	`2 + 2`, `sqrt(144)`
Unit Converter	`5 miles in km`, `100F to C`
Currency	`100 usd to eur`
Weather	`weather tokyo`
Dictionary	`define ubiquitous`
IP Lookup	`my ip`, `8.8.8.8`
QR Code	`qr https://example.com`
UUID	`uuid`
Hash	`sha256 hello`

Bang Shortcuts

Quick redirects with ! prefix: !g Google, !w Wikipedia, !gh GitHub, !yt YouTube, !r Reddit, !so Stack Overflow, !npm NPM, !ddg DuckDuckGo, and 170+ more.

Keyboard Navigation

Key	Action
`/`	Focus search box
`j` / `k`	Navigate results down/up
`Enter`	Open selected result
`h` / `l`	Previous/next page
`t`	Toggle theme
`?`	Show shortcuts help

Tor Integration

Search auto-detects a running Tor daemon and enables the hidden service. Configuration in server.yml:

server:
  tor:
    enabled: true
    socks_proxy: "127.0.0.1:9050"
    control_port: "127.0.0.1:9051"
    hidden_service:
      enabled: false
      port: 80
    circuit_rotation: true
    stream_isolation: true

Privacy

No third-party tracking by default
No ads; clean result links with tracking params stripped
Preferences stored client-side (localStorage + portable ?prefs= links)
Optional image proxy
Full Tor support with per-engine routing and stream isolation

Monitoring

# Prometheus metrics
curl https://scour.li/metrics

# Health check
curl https://scour.li/server/healthz

Security Headers

HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, rate limiting (120 req/min default), CSRF protection, and input validation on all endpoints.

Internationalization

Language resolved from: ?lang= query param → lang cookie → Accept-Language header → English.

Supported: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Turkish, and more.

Development

Development instructions are for contributors only.

Prerequisites

Docker (for builds and tests — Go is NOT installed on host)
Make
Git

Build

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/apimgr/search.git
cd search

# Quick dev build (Docker, outputs to /tmp/apimgr/)
make dev

# Full cross-platform build (8 platforms)
make build

# Run tests (Docker)
make test

# Build and push Docker image
make docker

Project Structure

src/           # Go source code
  ├── client/  # CLI/TUI client (search-cli)
  ├── config/  # Configuration
  ├── server/  # HTTP server + handlers
  ├── search/  # Search engine aggregator
  ├── database/# Database layer
  └── ...
docker/        # Docker configuration
  ├── Dockerfile        # Production image
  ├── Dockerfile.build  # Build toolchain image
  └── Dockerfile.dev    # Development image
docs/          # MkDocs documentation
tests/         # Integration tests
binaries/      # Built binaries (gitignored)

Adding a Search Engine

Create src/search/engines/myengine.go
Implement the Engine interface
Register in src/search/engines/registry.go
Add configuration key to server.yml defaults
Write unit tests

Debug Mode

# Enable debug endpoints (/debug/pprof, /debug/config, /debug/routes, etc.)
search --debug

# Or via environment
DEBUG=true search

Disclaimer

This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk.

No Warranty: The authors are not responsible for any damages, data loss, or issues arising from use of this software
Not Professional Advice: This software does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or other professional advice
Third-Party Services: If this software connects to external APIs or services, their terms of service apply separately
Security: While we strive to follow security best practices, no software is guaranteed to be free of vulnerabilities
Production Use: Evaluate thoroughly before deploying in production environments

By using this software, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this disclaimer.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE.md for details.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.claude		.claude
.forgejo/workflows		.forgejo/workflows
.gitea/workflows		.gitea/workflows
.github		.github
docker		docker
docs		docs
scripts		scripts
src		src
tests		tests
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.readthedocs.yaml		.readthedocs.yaml
AI.md		AI.md
AUDIT.AI.md		AUDIT.AI.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
IDEA.md		IDEA.md
Jenkinsfile		Jenkinsfile
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
TODO.AI.md		TODO.AI.md
TODO.md		TODO.md
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
mkdocs.yml		mkdocs.yml
release.txt		release.txt
renovate.json		renovate.json
site.txt		site.txt

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About

Official Site

Features

Production

Binary

Docker

Docker Compose

Install as System Service

Multi-Platform Downloads

Client

Install

Configure

Usage

Configuration

Basic Configuration

Environment Variables

Operator Access

API

Search

Alerts

Health and Status

API Documentation

Other

Supported Search Engines

Instant Answers

Bang Shortcuts

Keyboard Navigation

Tor Integration

Privacy

Monitoring

Security Headers

Internationalization

Development

Prerequisites

Build

Project Structure

Adding a Search Engine

Debug Mode

Disclaimer

License

About

Resources

Code of conduct

Contributing

Security policy

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages