- name
- ddg-search
- description
- Web search without an API key using DuckDuckGo Lite via web_fetch. Use as a fallback when web_search fails with missing_brave_api_key error, or whenever you need to search the web and no search API is configured. Provides titles, URLs, and snippets for research queries. Zero dependencies — works with just the built-in web_fetch tool.
DuckDuckGo Search via web_fetch
Search the web using DuckDuckGo Lite's HTML interface, parsed via web_fetch. No API key or package install required.
How to Search
web_fetch(url="https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=QUERY", extractMode="text", maxChars=8000)- URL-encode the query — use
+for spaces - Use
extractMode="text"(not markdown) for clean results - Increase
maxCharsfor more results
Region Filtering
Append &kl=REGION for regional results:
au-en— Australiaus-en— United Statesuk-en— United Kingdomde-de— Germanyfr-fr— France
Full list: https://duckduckgo.com/params
Example — Australian search
web_fetch(url="https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=best+coffee+melbourne&kl=au-en", extractMode="text", maxChars=8000)Reading Results
Results appear as numbered items with title, snippet, and URL. Skip entries marked "Sponsored link" (ads) — organic results follow.
Search-then-Fetch Pattern
- Search — query DDG Lite for a list of results
- Pick — identify the most relevant URLs
- Fetch — use
web_fetchon those URLs to read full content
Tips
- First 1-2 results may be ads — skip to organic results
- For exact phrases, wrap in quotes:
q=%22exact+phrase%22 - Add specific terms to narrow results (site name, year, location)
Limitations
- No time/date filtering (DDG Lite doesn't support
&df=reliably via fetch) - Text results only — no images or videos
- Results sourced from Bing (may differ from Google)
- Google search does NOT work via web_fetch (captcha blocked)