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DuckDuckGo search

docs/tools/duckduckgo-search.md

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OpenClaw supports DuckDuckGo as a key-free web_search provider. No API key or account is required.

<Warning> DuckDuckGo is an **experimental, unofficial** integration that pulls results from DuckDuckGo's non-JavaScript search pages — not an official API. Expect occasional breakage from bot-challenge pages or HTML changes. </Warning>

Setup

No API key needed — just set DuckDuckGo as your provider:

<Steps> <Step title="Configure"> ```bash openclaw configure --section web # Select "duckduckgo" as the provider ``` </Step> </Steps>

Config

json5
{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "duckduckgo",
      },
    },
  },
}

Optional plugin-level settings for region and SafeSearch:

json5
{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      duckduckgo: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            region: "us-en", // DuckDuckGo region code
            safeSearch: "moderate", // "strict", "moderate", or "off"
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Tool parameters

<ParamField path="query" type="string" required> Search query. </ParamField> <ParamField path="count" type="number" default="5"> Results to return (1–10). </ParamField> <ParamField path="region" type="string"> DuckDuckGo region code (e.g. `us-en`, `uk-en`, `de-de`). </ParamField> <ParamField path="safeSearch" type="'strict' | 'moderate' | 'off'" default="moderate"> SafeSearch level. </ParamField>

Region and SafeSearch can also be set in plugin config (see above) — tool parameters override config values per-query.

Notes

  • No API key — works out of the box, zero configuration
  • Experimental — gathers results from DuckDuckGo's non-JavaScript HTML search pages, not an official API or SDK
  • Bot-challenge risk — DuckDuckGo may serve CAPTCHAs or block requests under heavy or automated use
  • HTML parsing — results depend on page structure, which can change without notice
  • Auto-detection order — DuckDuckGo is the first key-free fallback (order 100) in auto-detection. API-backed providers with configured keys run first, then Ollama Web Search (order 110), then SearXNG (order 200)
  • SafeSearch defaults to moderate when not configured
<Tip> For production use, consider [Brave Search](/tools/brave-search) (free tier available) or another API-backed provider. </Tip>