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Overview

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine. This tool provides web search, news, and image search capabilities without requiring an API key. The user asks a question; the agent searches DuckDuckGo and returns relevant results.

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Installation

pip install "praisonai[tools]"
No API key required!

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Quick Start

1

Simple Usage

from praisonai_tools import DuckDuckGoTool

# Initialize
ddg = DuckDuckGoTool()

# Search
results = ddg.search("Python programming")
print(results)
2

With Configuration

Use the same tool with an agent — see Usage with Agent below, or pass env vars and options from the sections above.

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Usage with Agent

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai_tools import DuckDuckGoTool

agent = Agent(
    name="Researcher",
    instructions="You are a research assistant. Use DuckDuckGo to search for information.",
    tools=[DuckDuckGoTool()]
)

response = agent.chat("Search for the latest Python tutorials")
print(response)

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Available Methods

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search(query, max_results=5)

Search the web. 
from praisonai_tools import DuckDuckGoTool

ddg = DuckDuckGoTool()
results = ddg.search("machine learning basics", max_results=3)

# Returns:
# [
#     {"title": "...", "url": "...", "snippet": "..."},
#     ...
# ]

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news(query, max_results=5)

Get news articles. 
news = ddg.news("AI technology", max_results=5)

# Returns:
# [
#     {"title": "...", "url": "...", "source": "...", "date": "...", "snippet": "..."},
#     ...
# ]

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images(query, max_results=5)

Search for images. 
images = ddg.images("cute cats", max_results=3)

# Returns:
# [
#     {"title": "...", "image_url": "...", "thumbnail": "...", "source": "..."},
#     ...
# ]

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Configuration Options

ddg = DuckDuckGoTool(
    proxy="socks5://localhost:9050",  # Optional: use proxy
    timeout=10                         # Request timeout in seconds
)

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Function-Based Usage

from praisonai_tools import duckduckgo_search

# Quick search without instantiating class
results = duckduckgo_search("latest tech news", max_results=5)

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CLI Usage

# Use with praisonai (no API key needed)
praisonai --tools DuckDuckGoTool "Search for Python best practices"

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Error Handling

from praisonai_tools import DuckDuckGoTool

ddg = DuckDuckGoTool()
results = ddg.search("my query")

if results and "error" in results[0]:
    print(f"Error: {results[0]['error']}")
else:
    for r in results:
        print(f"- {r['title']}: {r['url']}")

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Common Errors

ErrorCauseSolution
duckduckgo-search not installedMissing dependencyRun pip install duckduckgo-search
RatelimitExceptionToo many requestsAdd delay between requests or use proxy
TimeoutExceptionRequest timeoutIncrease timeout or check network

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Advantages

  • No API key required - Works out of the box
  • Privacy-focused - No tracking
  • Multiple search types - Web, news, images
  • Free - No usage limits (respect rate limits)

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How It Works

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Best Practices

DuckDuckGo works without credentials — ideal for quick prototypes and privacy-sensitive use.
Request a small number of results so the agent processes fewer tokens and answers faster.
Wrap the search in error handling so the agent can switch to another search tool if a request fails.

Tavily

AI-powered search

Exa

Neural search engine

Serper

Google search API