How do I install the Ddgs Search skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add modbender/ddgs-search in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Ddgs Search safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. Capability flags: executes scripts. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Ddgs Search?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Ddgs Search free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Ddgs Search?

modbender (@modbender) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Ddgs Search by modbender — Agent Skill

Name: Ddgs Search
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: modbender

Ddgs Search

Free multi-engine web search via ddgs CLI (DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, Brave, Yandex, Yahoo, Wikipedia) + arXiv API search. No API keys required. Use when user needs web search, research paper discovery, or when other skills need a search backend. Drop-in replacement for web-search-plus.

modbender Updated Sep 9, 2026 12 repo stars

File contents

ddgs-search

Why This Skill?

🆓 Completely free — no API keys, no subscriptions, no rate limits, no billing surprises.

🔍 8 search engines in one — Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yandex, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Mojeek. Switch engines with a single flag. Most search skills only support one.

🎓 Built-in arXiv research search — search academic papers directly via arXiv's free API. Returns authors, categories, abstracts, and publication dates. Perfect for researchers, students, and AI/ML practitioners.

🔌 Drop-in replacement — outputs web-search-plus compatible JSON, so it works with any skill or tool that expects that format. Zero config migration.

⚡ Lightweight — single pip package, no browser automation, no headless Chrome. Searches complete in 1-3 seconds.

Install

python3 scripts/install.py

Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Installs the ddgs package, verifies CLI access, and runs a quick search test.

Manual install

pip install ddgs

Web Search

CLI wrapper (recommended)

The ddgs-search wrapper outputs clean JSON to stdout with no interactive prompts or abort issues:

# Google (default)
ddgs-search "your query" 5 google

# Other engines
ddgs-search "your query" 3 duckduckgo
ddgs-search "your query" 5 brave
ddgs-search "your query" 10 yandex

Python script (web-search-plus compatible JSON)

# Google (default)
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -m 5

# Other engines
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b duckduckgo
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b brave
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b yandex
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b yahoo
python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b wikipedia

Output (web-search-plus compatible JSON):

{
  "provider": "ddgs",
  "results": [
    {"title": "...", "url": "...", "snippet": "...", "published_date": "..."}
  ]
}

arXiv Search

# Search by topic
python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "3D gaussian splatting" -m 10

# Field-specific search (title, abstract, category)
python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "ti:transformer AND cat:cs.CV" -m 5

# Sort by relevance instead of date
python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "reinforcement learning" --sort-by relevance

Returns authors, categories, abstracts — same JSON format.

Direct CLI

⚠️ The raw ddgs text CLI has a pagination bug (input() call → Aborted! + exit code 1 in non-TTY contexts). Use ddgs-search wrapper or -o file.json instead.

ddgs text -q "query" -m 5 -b google -o /tmp/results.json

Integration

Set WEB_SEARCH_PLUS_PATH to use as a search backend for other skills:

export WEB_SEARCH_PLUS_PATH="path/to/ddgs-search/scripts/search.py"

---name: ddgs-searchdescription: Free multi-engine web search via ddgs CLI (DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, Brave, Yandex, Yahoo, Wikipedia) + arXiv API search. No API keys required. Use when user needs web search, research paper discovery, or when other skills need a search backend. Drop-in replacement for web-search-plus.--- # ddgs-search ## Why This Skill? 🆓 **Completely free** — no API keys, no subscriptions, no rate limits, no billing surprises. 🔍 **8 search engines in one** — Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yandex, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Mojeek. Switch engines with a single flag. Most search skills only support one. 🎓 **Built-in arXiv research search** — search academic papers directly via arXiv's free API. Returns authors, categories, abstracts, and publication dates. Perfect for researchers, students, and AI/ML practitioners. 🔌 **Drop-in replacement** — outputs web-search-plus compatible JSON, so it works with any skill or tool that expects that format. Zero config migration. ⚡ **Lightweight** — single pip package, no browser automation, no headless Chrome. Searches complete in 1-3 seconds. ## Install ```bash python3 scripts/install.py ``` Works on **macOS, Linux, and Windows**. Installs the `ddgs` package, verifies CLI access, and runs a quick search test. ### Manual install ```bash pip install ddgs ``` ## Web Search ### CLI wrapper (recommended) The `ddgs-search` wrapper outputs clean JSON to stdout with no interactive prompts or abort issues: ```bash # Google (default) ddgs-search "your query" 5 google # Other engines ddgs-search "your query" 3 duckduckgo ddgs-search "your query" 5 brave ddgs-search "your query" 10 yandex ``` ### Python script (web-search-plus compatible JSON) ```bash # Google (default) python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -m 5 # Other engines python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b duckduckgo python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b brave python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b yandex python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b yahoo python3 scripts/search.py -q "your query" -b wikipedia ``` Output (web-search-plus compatible JSON): ```json { "provider": "ddgs", "results": [ {"title": "...", "url": "...", "snippet": "...", "published_date": "..."} ] } ``` ## arXiv Search ```bash # Search by topic python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "3D gaussian splatting" -m 10 # Field-specific search (title, abstract, category) python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "ti:transformer AND cat:cs.CV" -m 5 # Sort by relevance instead of date python3 scripts/arxiv_search.py -q "reinforcement learning" --sort-by relevance ``` Returns authors, categories, abstracts — same JSON format. ## Direct CLI > ⚠️ The raw `ddgs text` CLI has a pagination bug (`input()` call → `Aborted!` + exit code 1 in non-TTY contexts). Use `ddgs-search` wrapper or `-o file.json` instead. ```bash ddgs text -q "query" -m 5 -b google -o /tmp/results.json ``` ## Integration Set `WEB_SEARCH_PLUS_PATH` to use as a search backend for other skills: ```bash export WEB_SEARCH_PLUS_PATH="path/to/ddgs-search/scripts/search.py" ```

Frequently asked questions