have you checked the directory & file permissions with ls -la /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir ?

The error in your log is telling you that the container does not have permission to that directory/file, you can essentially bypass this with sudo chmod 777 /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir/* and sudo chown 1000:1000 /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir/*

However, if you’re looking for security best practices this is not advisable but if all you care about is that it works it should be fine.

Here is my searxng rocker compose:

services:
  redis:
    container_name: redis
    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:7-alpine
    command: valkey-server --save 30 1 --loglevel warning
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - local_bridge
    volumes:
      - ./data/reddis:/data
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - SETGID
      - SETUID
      - DAC_OVERRIDE
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "1m"
        max-file: "1"

  searxng:
    container_name: searxng
    image: docker.io/searxng/searxng:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - local_bridge
      - proxy
    volumes:
      - ./data/searxng:/etc/searxng
    environment:
      - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=https://${SEARXNG_HOSTNAME:-localhost}/
      - SEARXNG_SECRET=${SEARXNG_SECRET}
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - CHOWN
      - SETGID
      - SETUID
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "1m"
        max-file: "1"

networks:
  local_bridge: # local bridge with ipv6 internet access
    driver: bridge
    enable_ipv6: true
  proxy:
    external: true

And my searxng settings:

searxng/data/searxng/settings.yml
# see https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings.html#settings-use-default-settings
use_default_settings: true

server:
  # base_url is defined in the SEARXNG_BASE_URL environment variable, see .env and docker-compose.yml
  limiter: false  # can be disabled for a private instance
  image_proxy: false
ui:
  static_use_hash: true
  query_in_title: true
  infinite_scroll: true
  default_theme: simple
  theme_args:
    # style of simple theme: auto, light, dark
    simple_style: dark
redis:
  url: redis://redis:6379/0


search:
  safe_search: 0
  autocomplete: 'duckduckgo'
  default_lang: "en"
  formats:
    - html
    - json


outgoing:
  # default timeout in seconds, can be override by engine
  request_timeout: 3.0


enabled_plugins:
  - 'Hash plugin'
  - 'Basic Calculator'
  - 'Self Informations'
  - 'Tracker URL remover'
  # - 'Ahmia blacklist'
  - 'Hostnames plugin'  # see 'hostnames' configuration below
  - 'Open Access DOI rewrite'

And the proxy network is just the docker network that nginx is connected to. Here is my nginx conf https://github.com/muntedcrocodile/nginxconf .

Question: What is redis and valkey giving you in this instance? I took a look at my notes and I’ve never invoked redis. Just curious. School me. This is what I spin up:

services:
  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    container_name: searxng
    ports:
      - "8989:8080"
    volumes:
      - /path/to/searxng/data:/etc/searxng
    environment:
      - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=
      - SEARXNG_INSTANCE_NAME=
      - SEARXNG_CONTACT_INFO=
      - SEARXNG_LANGUAGE=en-US
      - SEARXNG_AUTOCOMPLETE=duckduckgo
      - SEARXNG_THEME=simple
      - SEARXNG_OUTGOING_METHOD=default
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_METRICS=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_CAPTCHA=false
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_INFINITE_SCROLL=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PIWIK_ANALYTICS=false
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_ADVANCED_SEARCH=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PRIVATE_RESULTS=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_TORIFICATION=false
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_HTTPS_EVERYWHERE=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PROXY=true
      - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PLUGINS=true
    restart: unless-stopped

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