ketch

Search Backends ​

ketch supports three search backends. Set the default with ketch config set backend <name>.

Brave (default) ​

Brave Search offers a free API tier — no scraping, proper JSON API, reliable.

Setup:

  1. Get a free API key at brave.com/search/api
  2. Set it: ketch config set brave_api_key <your-key>

Free tier limits: 2,000 queries/month, 1 query/second.

DuckDuckGo ​

Zero-config HTML scraping of DuckDuckGo's search results. No API key needed.

Setup: None — works out of the box.

Limitations: DuckDuckGo aggressively rate-limits automated requests. You may see ddg rate limited after retries errors under heavy use. ketch retries up to 3 times with 500ms backoff.

SearXNG ​

Self-hosted metasearch engine with a JSON API. The most reliable option for heavy use.

Setup:

  1. Run a SearXNG instance (Docker is easiest):
sh
docker run -d -p 8081:8080 searxng/searxng

  1. Enable JSON format in SearXNG settings (required for the API).

  2. Point ketch to it:

sh
ketch config set backend searxng
ketch config set searxng_url http://localhost:8081

Recommended for: operators running agents that search frequently, or anyone who wants full control over their search infrastructure.