DDDMUC/dsh-free-search
Free, keyless web search for DSH: 7 engines (DuckDuckGo/Bing/SearXNG free + Exa/Perplexity/DeepSeek paid), auto-failover, settings-page UI with API key inputs and official links, web_fetch, and an engine test tool.
Install
via npm
Resolves a published tarball rather than cloning the repository, and installs without any extra setup. Swap `web` for your profile name if you run another one.
via GitHub · npm package
Installing from GitHub runs the project's build script, which pnpm blocks until you allowlist it — run the command once and pnpm prints the exact key to add under `allowBuilds` in ~/.dsh/profiles/web/pnpm-workspace.yaml.
What happened when we ran it
Installed cleanly when we ran it
Every command here is run in a throwaway container against a clean profile, and the result is whatever the harness recorded — not a guess from the source. Last run 19d ago.
Show it in your README
For maintainers: the badge serves this listing's latest sandbox verdict, so a re-run updates it on its own — and it links readers to the full result here.
Due diligence
What it is — Adds free multi-engine web search to DeepSeek Harness with auto-failover and engine switching.
Who it is for — If you build agents in DeepSeek Harness that require web search and lack DeepSeek official API key or use gateways without web_search support, this plugin suits you. Users who do not use DeepSeek Harness for agent development do not need to install it.
Watch out — Sandbox test passed, installed in fresh profile and registered with harness. Requires API key or token for paid engines. No obvious pitfalls found.
The verdict — I would install it because it provides search alternatives without DeepSeek official key, but not if you already have the official key.
Generated by grok-4.6, and a starting point rather than a verdict. Where it says a plugin installs or does not, that is from a real run in a clean profile — everything else is read off the repository. Trust the source over this.
dsh-free-search is a DeepSeek Harness plugin that adds keyless and API-backed web search providers through the ctx.web seam. DeepSeek Harness can use the registered provider through web_search, with bing selected by default. The plugin tries the preferred engine first and automatically falls back to other engines when a request fails because of missing credentials, authentication errors, rate limits or network errors. Supported providers listed by the project include DuckDuckGo HTML and Lite, Bing, SearXNG, AnySearch, Exa, Tavily, Keenable, Perplexity and DeepSeek Official.
dsh-free-search reads provider settings and API keys from ~/.dsh/settings.yaml. Its settings page can select an engine, store keys, enable platform search and configure a cache of up to five minutes; /free-search-engine changes the preferred provider. It also supplies free_search_test, advanced_search, web_fetch and platform_search tools. Search requests reach external engine endpoints, and configured credentials are used for paid providers such as Perplexity and DeepSeek Official.
This suits installations that need web search without depending on DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, including setups where an OpenAI-compatible gateway does not provide web_search. It is the wrong choice when external search services, anonymous quotas or additional provider credentials are unacceptable, or when the existing DeepSeek Harness search provider already meets the requirement.
DeepSeek Harness loads dsh-free-search as a web-profile plugin. The plugin registers a provider through ctx.web and stores its settings in ~/.dsh/settings.yaml under free-search.
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
provider |
Preferred engine; the default is bing |
lang |
Settings-page language, zh or en |
bingMarket |
Bing market; the documented example is zh-CN |
region |
Optional DuckDuckGo region, such as cn-zh |
searxngInstances |
Optional list of custom SearXNG instance URLs |
exaApiKey, tavilyApiKey, keenableApiKey |
Optional credentials for those providers |
perplexityApiKey |
Credential for Perplexity |
deepseekApiKey |
Credential for DeepSeek Official |
The settings page can select an engine, save credentials in masked form, test the current engine without fallback, enable platform search and set the result-cache duration from zero to five minutes. A zero-minute cache disables caching. dsh-free-search also documents DEEPSEEK_API_KEY for the official DeepSeek provider, and the paid providers require their corresponding API keys.
DeepSeek Harness exposes the plugin’s search through web_search. Enter /free-search-engine in the chat box to choose and save the preferred engine. The free_search_test tool tests every engine individually. advanced_search accepts timeRange values such as day, week, 3d, 2mo or 2026-07-01, and can explicitly select engine. The plugin also provides web_fetch and platform_search for supported public platforms.
The preferred engine runs first. On failure, dsh-free-search tries other configured or keyless-capable providers and then the remaining free engines, reporting the engine that actually returned the result. Exa, Tavily and Keenable can be attempted without a key using their documented anonymous paths, while Perplexity and DeepSeek Official require credentials.
DeepSeek Harness must provide the @deepseek-ai/dsh-settings and @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools peer dependencies as single runtime instances. The search providers are external services: free engines can be rate-limited, and paid engines can fail when keys are absent or invalid. The README documents no additional runtime platform requirement.
Written from the project's own documentation and kept in sync with it. Where the two disagree, the source is authoritative — read the README on GitHub
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