shaunandrews/ddg-search

DuckDuckGo Search

Search the web using DuckDuckGo's HTML interface. No API key required.

When to Use

• Web searches when you want to avoid API rate limits
• Quick lookups that don't need Brave's advanced features
• Fallback when web_search is unavailable or limited
• Any general web search task

Usage

# Basic search (returns JSON)
ddg-search "your query"

# Limit results
ddg-search "your query" -n 5

# Region-specific results
ddg-search "your query" -r uk-en

# Plain text output (easier to read)
ddg-search "your query" --text

# Safe search off (for unrestricted results)
ddg-search "your query" --safe off

Options

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | -n, --count | 10 | Number of results to return | | -r, --region | (none) | Region code (e.g., us-en, uk-en, de-de) | | -s, --safe | moderate | Safe search: off, moderate, strict | | -t, --text | false | Output plain text instead of JSON |

Output

JSON (default)

{
  "query": "wordpress block development",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Block Editor Handbook",
      "url": "https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/",
      "snippet": "Documentation for building blocks..."
    }
  ],
  "count": 1
}

Plain Text (--text)

Query: wordpress block development

1. Block Editor Handbook
   https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/
   Documentation for building blocks...

Region Codes

Common region codes for -r flag:

• us-en — United States
• uk-en — United Kingdom
• ca-en — Canada (English)
• au-en — Australia
• de-de — Germany
• fr-fr — France
• es-es — Spain
• wt-wt — No region (worldwide)

Notes

• Results are from DuckDuckGo's index (may differ from Google/Brave)
• Rate limited to 1 request/second — be patient with multiple searches
• No instant answers or rich snippets — organic results only
• If parsing fails, DuckDuckGo may have changed their HTML structure

Troubleshooting

No results returned:

• Check your query isn't too specific
• Try without region filtering
• Verify internet connectivity

Error "HTTP 403":

• You may be rate limited — wait a moment and retry
• Check if DuckDuckGo is accessible in your network