NafisRayan DuckDuckGo Search
Overview
Use DuckDuckGo HTML endpoint to search the web and get structured results. Free, no API key required, returns clean HTML that's easy to parse.
When to Use
- Need to search the web for information
- Don't have an API key for Brave/Google/Bing
- Need parseable search results (not JavaScript-rendered)
- Want privacy-respecting search
Skip when:
- You have a Brave Search API key (use web-search skill instead)
- You need advanced filtering (use Brave Search)
- You need image/video search specifically
Quick Reference
| Task | Method |
|---|---|
| Basic search | webfetch with HTML endpoint |
| Format | markdown |
| Endpoint | https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=QUERY |
Syntax
webfetch({
url: "https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=YOUR+SEARCH+QUERY",
format: "markdown"
})
Examples
Basic search
webfetch({
url: "https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=what+is+react+hooks",
format: "markdown"
})
Multiple words (use + or %20)
webfetch({
url: "https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=nafis+rayan+github",
format: "markdown"
})
Time-filtered search
Results can be filtered by adding time filters to the query terms:
- "past day" -
q=topic+past+day - "past week" -
q=topic+past+week - "past month" -
q=topic+past+month
Response Format
Returns markdown with structured results containing:
- Title: Link to the page
- URL: Actual website link
- Description: Snippet from the page
- Date: Publication date (when available)
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
Using duckduckgo.com/?q= |
Use html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q= for parseable results |
| Spaces in query | Replace with + or %20 |
| Not using format: "markdown" | Add format: "markdown" for clean output |
| Using main DuckDuckGo URL | It requires JavaScript; use HTML endpoint |
Why This Works
The /html/ endpoint returns simple HTML without JavaScript, making it:
- Easy to parse with
webfetch - Works without browser automation
- Returns consistent results
- No rate limiting for basic use