Argus Retrieval

Argus

Retrieval platform for AI agents. Argus routes search across 14 providers, recovers dead URLs, captures important site content, builds local docs-plus-research packs, and persists everything with traceable local artifacts.

Features at a glance:

• Topology-aware acquisition — Argus knows if it's on a residential IP or datacenter, routing search and extraction automatically to avoid blocks and minimize network hops.
• 14 providers, one API — free-first tier routing, budget-exhausted providers skipped automatically
• Zero-key start — pip install argus-search gives you DuckDuckGo + Yahoo immediately, no accounts needed
• SearXNG self-host = 70+ engines — Google, Bing, Yahoo, Startpage, Ecosia, Qwant and more via one Docker container
• 12-step content extraction — returns full page text with quality gates, not just links
• Opinionated retrieval workflows — recover dead articles, capture important pages from a site, and build local docs-plus-research packs
• Argus-owned corpus storage — runtime data goes to a writable user data directory, not your repo checkout
• Multi-turn sessions — pass session_id for conversational context across searches
• Score attribution — optionally show which providers contributed to each fused RRF score
• Usage dashboard — inspect provider budgets, recent query volume, and machine-level usage at /dashboard
• 4 search modes — discovery, research, recovery, grounding
• Dead URL recovery — /recover-url with Wayback Machine and archive fallbacks
• 4 integration paths — HTTP API, CLI, MCP server, Python SDK

_Built for AI agent builders, RAG pipelines, and ops teams who need reliable search, capture, and local evidence without stitching APIs together._

Status: beta. The retrieval workflows and corpus model are production-oriented, but still maturing.

Status: see the public status page. Authorized maintainers

can use the private argus-ops README for the latest dated reports.

Current production checkpoint — September 7, 2026: The authenticated

HTTP API and MCP adapter are operational, and sampled free search works

through SearXNG, Yahoo, and GitHub. DuckDuckGo is intermittent and fails

closed after acquisition-policy blocks. Production readiness is

ready=true, degraded; paid providers are not currently admitted until

their non-secret credential-version and account-scope bindings are recorded.

Browser capability and recovery metadata evidence remain open. See the

current status matrix before relying on a provider.

Contents

• Quickstart
• Development
• Where Argus Writes Data
• Opinionated Workflows
• Providers
• HTTP API
• Dashboard
• Integration
• CLI
• MCP
• Python
• Content Extraction
• Architecture
• Configuration
• When Not To Use Argus
• FAQ

Quickstart

Mode 1: Local CLI (zero config)

pip install argus-search && argus search -q "python web frameworks"

That's it. DuckDuckGo handles the search — no accounts, no keys, no containers. You get unlimited free search from your laptop right now. Add API keys whenever you want more providers, or don't.

argus extract -u "https://example.com/article"       # extract clean text from any URL

argus recover-article -u "https://example.com/dead-post" argus capture-site -u "https://docs.example.com" argus build-research-pack -t "example sdk" --official-url "https://docs.example.com"

Works on any machine with Python 3.11+ — laptop, Mac Mini, Raspberry Pi, cloud VM. Nothing to host.

For MCP (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, VS Code):

pipx install argus-search[mcp]

export ARGUS_MCP_STANDALONE=true # explicit development-only local broker argus mcp init --global --client all

That writes native config for Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode, and Cursor. Restart the client after configuration. For manual stdio setup:

{"mcpServers": {"argus": {"command": "argus", "args": ["mcp", "serve"], "env": {"ARGUS_MCP_STANDALONE": "true"}}}}

Or install from the MCP Registry:

{

"mcpServers": { "argus": { "registryType": "pypi", "identifier": "argus-search", "runtimeHint": "uvx", "env": {"ARGUS_MCP_STANDALONE": "true"} } } }

Standalone development needs no server or keys, but it must be explicitly enabled. Production MCP always delegates to an authenticated HTTP authority.

See MCP Client Setup for exact config files, verification commands, remote HTTP setup, and troubleshooting.

Mode 2: Full Stack Server

Got a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole? A Mac Mini on your desk? An old laptop? That's enough to run the full stack — SearXNG (your own private search engine, disabled by default) plus local JS-rendering content extraction.

# Optional: tell Argus it has residential egress to optimize routing

export ARGUS_EGRESS_TYPE=residential ARGUS_SEARXNG_ENABLED=true docker compose up -d # SearXNG + Argus

SearXNG takes 512MB of RAM and gives you a private Google-style search engine (disabled by default — set ARGUS_SEARXNG_ENABLED=true) that nobody can rate-limit, block, or charge for. It runs alongside Pi-hole on hardware millions of people already own.

Where Argus Writes Data

Argus code and Argus runtime data are different things.

• Code lives wherever you install or clone Argus.
• Runtime corpus data lives in a writable user data directory resolved by platformdirs, or in ARGUS_DATA_ROOT if you override it.

Inspect the exact paths on your machine:

argus paths

By default Argus writes:

• official docs cache under the resolved docs/cache/
• research packs under docs/research/
• workflow run state under workflows/runs/
• versioned workflow snapshots under snapshots/

This means Argus does not require a sibling ../docs-cache checkout. If you have an older docs-cache tree, import it once with:

argus corpus import-docs-cache -s /path/to/docs-cache

Opinionated Workflows

These workflows build local artifacts, not just transient JSON responses.

Recover A Dead Article

argus recover-article -u "https://example.com/old-post" -t "Example Post"

Argus searches for recovery candidates, extracts the best result, saves the recovered sources locally, and writes a citation-backed report plus manifest.

Capture The Important Parts Of A Site

argus capture-site -u "https://docs.example.com"

Argus stays on-domain, uses sitemap-assisted discovery plus heuristic link scoring, saves the important pages it finds, and writes a detailed summary with references.

Build A Docs + Research Pack

argus build-research-pack -t "example sdk"

argus build-research-pack -t "example sdk" --official-url "https://docs.example.com"

Argus captures official docs into its local docs cache, adds non-official supporting sources from search, and writes a combined research pack with traceable artifacts.

Development

Repo development is pinned to Python 3.12. The package runtime floor is Python 3.11, the production image runs Python 3.12.3, and Python 3.13 is the compatibility CI lane. Required CI passes all three; contributors should use the uv workflow below so local verification matches the canonical lane and does not accidentally use an older system interpreter.

uv sync --python 3.12 --extra dev --extra mcp

uv run pytest tests/ -v --tb=short

The repo includes .python-version with 3.12 so uv, pyenv, and similar tools pick the right interpreter by default. More contributor guidance lives in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Providers

¹ SearXNG aggregates Google, Bing, Yahoo, Startpage, Ecosia, Qwant, Wikipedia, and 60+ more — all behind a single self-hosted endpoint. Run docker compose up -d on any machine with 512MB of free RAM.

² WolframAlpha returns computed answers (math, unit conversions, factual lookups), not web search results. It only activates in grounding and research modes. Queries it can't compute (general web searches) return empty — no error, no health penalty.

7,000+ free queries/month from recurring free-tier providers with API keys (WolframAlpha 2k + Brave 2k + Tavily 1k + Exa 1k + Linkup 1k), or up to 12,000+ when Parallel's monthly credit is available to an eligible account with a card on file. DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and GitHub have no monthly cap. SearXNG is disabled by default (enable in .env). Routing priority: Tier 0 (free: SearXNG*, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, GitHub, WolframAlpha) → Tier 1 (monthly recurring: Brave, Tavily, Exa, Linkup, Parallel) → Tier 3 (one-time: Serper, You.com, Valyu, SearchAPI). Budget-exhausted providers are skipped automatically.

These are package-level provider tiers and advertised quotas, not proof of current production availability. The production authority fails closed for a credentialed provider until its registration fingerprint, account scope, budget, and approved test evidence are present. A protected key value alone does not prove th