Webscout CLI Reference

December 19, 2025 · View on GitHub

Last updated: 2025-12-20 Source of truth: webscout/cli.py

The Webscout CLI provides a unified interface for multiple search engines. All commands now support an --engine (or -e) option to switch between providers, with DuckDuckGo (ddg) as the default.

🧭 Getting Started

# List all available commands
webscout --help

# Show CLI version
webscout version

# Run a simple search
webscout text -k "python programming"

The CLI uses Rich for beautiful, formatted table outputs and informative panels.

🔍 Core Commands

Command	Description	Supported Engines
`text`	General web search	`ddg`, `bing`, `yahoo`, `brave`, `mojeek`, `yandex`, `wikipedia`, `yep`
`images`	Image search	`ddg`, `bing`, `yahoo`, `yep`
`videos`	Video search	`ddg`, `yahoo`
`news`	News search	`ddg`, `bing`, `yahoo`
`weather`	Weather information	`ddg`, `yahoo`
`answers`	Instant answers	`ddg`, `yahoo`
`suggestions`	Query autocomplete	`ddg`, `bing`, `yahoo`, `yep`
`translate`	Text translation	`ddg`, `yahoo`
`maps`	POI / Location search	`ddg`, `yahoo`
`search`	Shortcut for `text`	Use as a general unified command

Common Options

-k, --keywords      (required) Search query or keywords
-e, --engine        Search engine to use (default: ddg)
-m, --max-results   Maximum number of results to display (default: 10)
-r, --region        Region code (e.g., us, uk, wt-wt)
-s, --safesearch    on / moderate / off (default: moderate)
-t, --timelimit     Time filter (d, w, m, y)

🌦️ Weather & Info

The weather command provides a current conditions panel and a 5-day forecast.

webscout weather -l "London" -e yahoo

🧪 Usage Examples

1. Multi-Engine Search

# Default (DuckDuckGo)
webscout text -k "fastapi tutorial"

# Using Brave Search
webscout text -k "fastapi tutorial" -e brave

# Using Wikipedia
webscout text -k "Quantum Physics" -e wikipedia

2. Media Search

# Find images on Bing
webscout images -k "cyberpunk art" -e bing

# Find news on Yahoo
webscout news -k "space exploration" -e yahoo

3. Utility Commands

# Translate text via Yahoo
webscout translate -k "Hola mundo" --to en -e yahoo

# Get suggestions from Yep
webscout suggestions -q "artificial i" -e yep

🛠️ Advanced Options

Certain commands have specific extras:

Maps: --place and --radius are supported for refinement.
Translate: --from (optional) and --to (default: en).

docs/search.md – Technical documentation for the Python Search API.
docs/architecture.md – How the search module is structured.
docs/client.md – Using the unified Webscout client.