# SearXNG: AI-friendly with conditions

> All AI use must be disclosed with the tool and extent, the contributor must fully understand the code, and AI may never be the main author of a PR. Issues and PR descriptions must be fully human-written, with AI translation of self-written text allowed.

- What it is: A free, privacy-respecting metasearch engine. (Application)
- Homepage: https://docs.searxng.org/
- Repository: https://github.com/searxng/searxng
- Overall stance: AI-friendly with conditions (Mostly friendly). AI-assisted contributions are accepted with extra rules, such as disclosing AI use, or AI is banned for issues or written text.
- Last classified: 2026-10-09 (manual review, high confidence)
- Policy last changed: 2026-10-09
- Web page: https://areweaifriendly.com/projects/searxng/

## Policy by area

- **Code contributions**: AI-friendly with conditions (AI use must be disclosed; Contributor takes full responsibility)
- **Issues & bug reports**: Not AI-friendly (Only minor help (autocomplete, grammar))
- **AI-written text**: Not AI-friendly (Only minor help (autocomplete, grammar))

## In their own words

- Code contributions: "All AI usage in any form must be disclosed." (https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst)
- Code contributions: "The human-in-the-loop must fully understand all code." (https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst)
- Code contributions: "AI should never be the main author of the PR." (https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst)
- Issues & bug reports: "Issues and PR descriptions must be fully human-written." (https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst)
- AI-written text: "If you're a not a native English speaker, using AI for translating self-written issue texts to English is okay, but please keep the wording as close as possible to the original wording." (https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst)

## Sources

- [SearXNG AI Policy](https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/AI_POLICY.rst), fetched 2026-10-09