openclaw/docs/tools/duckduckgo-search.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
DuckDuckGo web search -- key-free fallback provider (experimental, HTML-based)	You want a web search provider that requires no API key You want to use DuckDuckGo for web_search You need a zero-config search fallback	DuckDuckGo search

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

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.

Setup

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

```bash openclaw configure --section web # Select "duckduckgo" as the provider ```

Config

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

Optional plugin-level settings for region and SafeSearch:

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

Tool parameters

Search query. Results to return (1-10). DuckDuckGo region code (e.g. `us-en`, `uk-en`, `de-de`). SafeSearch level.

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

For production use, consider [Brave Search](/tools/brave-search) (free tier available) or another API-backed provider.

Related

• Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
• Brave Search -- structured results with free tier
• Exa Search -- neural search with content extraction