dsh-free-web-search
Free web search plugin for DeepSeek Harness. No API keys required — works out of the box with Bing, DuckDuckGo, and SearXNG. Optional paid engines (Exa, Tavily, Keenable, Perplexity, DeepSeek Official) activate when you add a key.
Features
- 10 search engines with automatic fallback — if one fails, the next one picks up
- Time-filtered search via
advanced_search tool (last day/week/month/year, or custom ranges like 3d, 2mo, 2026-07-01)
- Platform search — GitHub repos and Reddit threads via
platform_search tool
- Engine diagnostics —
free_search_test tool to check which engines work
- Web Settings UI — engine selection, API key management, cache TTL config
- Result caching — LRU cache (50 entries, configurable TTL up to 5 min) to reduce rate limiting
Install
dsh plugin --profile web add github:delef/dsh-free-web-search
If pnpm blocks the build script, add the key it prints to allowBuilds in your profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml and retry.
Engines
| Engine | Cost | Key required |
|---|
| Bing | Free | No |
| DuckDuckGo (HTML / Lite) | Free | No |
| SearXNG | Free | No |
| AnySearch AI | Free | No |
| Exa | Free tier / paid | Optional |
| Tavily | Free tier / paid | Optional |
| Keenable | Free tier / paid | Optional |
| Perplexity | Paid | Yes |
| DeepSeek Official | Paid | Yes |
Default engine: Bing (most stable). Change it in Settings > Plugins > Free Web Search, or type /free-search-engine in chat.
Tools
web_search (built-in, powered by this plugin)
Standard harness web search. Uses the configured engine with automatic fallback.
advanced_search
query: "rust async runtime"
timeRange: "week" # day | week | month | year | 3d | 2mo | 1y | 2026-07-01
engine: "exa" # optional, override preferred engine
maxResults: 5
platform_search
platform: "github" # github | reddit
query: "deepseek harness plugins"
maxResults: 5
web_fetch
url: "https://docs.example.com/guide"
maxLength: 50000 # optional, default 50000 chars
Fetches a single page, strips HTML, returns plain text. For reading articles, docs, or any URL.
free_search_test
Tests engine availability. No arguments tests all engines.
Configuration
Settings are managed through the web UI (Settings > Plugins > Free Web Search) or in the free-web-search entry of the active profile (DSH 0.2+; earlier releases used the free-search section of settings.yaml):
- id: free-web-search
name: dsh-free-web-search
config:
provider: bing
bingMarket: en-US
cache: true
cacheTtl: 5
platforms:
- github
- reddit
searxngInstances: # optional, overrides default public instances
- https://your-instance.example.com
# Optional API keys
exaApiKey: ""
tavilyApiKey: ""
keenableApiKey: ""
perplexityApiKey: ""
deepseekApiKey: ""
Profiles that still use the old entry id web-search-free keep working, but the plugin logs a deprecation warning and the settings card shows a notice. Rename the entry to free-web-search to migrate.
Requires DSH >=0.2.0-rc.2 (developed against 0.2.1-rc.5).
License
Apache-2.0
