Deploys a SearXNG metasearch instance behind the existing shared Caddy edge.
Graded A+ (score 120, 10/10) by the MDN Observatory API, and "Vanilla" in the
sense that every change is settings-only -- no template or static-file edits.
Public but deliberately not submitted to the searx.space directory.
Both containers run network_mode: host because Docker bridge networking has
zero egress on this box (nftables' default-drop forward chain is terminal at
NF_INET_FORWARD regardless of Docker's legacy-iptables ACCEPTs), so a stock
bridge compose cannot reach a single search engine.
Non-obvious things established empirically against the pinned image, all of
which cost a debugging cycle and are commented at their use sites:
- granian binds :: (all interfaces) by default, NOT the 127.0.0.1 its own docs
claim; with host networking that would have LAN-exposed the instance.
GRANIAN_HOST/PORT are the only things pinning it. settings.yml's
server.bind_address is inert (read only under __main__).
- Caddy's `> Header "v"` is a substring-replace, not a header setter -- it
silently set nothing. The bare name is "set"; `+` appends and would duplicate
the headers SearXNG already sends (X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy).
- server.public_instance force-enables link_token, a browser-proof challenge no
scripted client can pass, which makes the JSON API unusable. Dropped it and
kept limiter/image_proxy via their own keys.
- Without limiter.toml there are no trusted_proxies, so botdetection 429s every
request including the homepage.
- The entrypoint chowns config to uid 977 and needs DAC_OVERRIDE to read it, so
cap_drop breaks startup and mode 600 breaks the worker's read (640 is right).
- `compose up -d` is a no-op when only a bind-mounted config file changed, so an
explicit restart is required or every check tests the previous config.
- All curl checks must send browser-shaped headers; bare curl gets 429, which
had the status command reporting a healthy instance as broken.
Engine pruning is measured, not guessed: brave/duckduckgo/startpage CAPTCHA on
100% of queries, flickr is the 1.0s tail, and pinterest was failing because
this host's own /etc/hosts blackholes it -- a local cause that would otherwise
have been misdiagnosed as a dead upstream.
Measured latency, reported honestly: front page median 19ms, but search median
486ms (233-623ms). Sub-200ms search is not achievable by any configuration --
a metasearch cannot return faster than the slowest upstream it queries. The
~200ms figure on searx.space measures initial front-page response, which is met.
Image pinned by digest: the workarounds above are only known-true for 2026.8.4.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Cb77nxXGwFYFM4fyXEQkzG
