The discussion centers on the utility and naming of Bong as a self-hosted DuckDuckGo bang alternative, with criticism directed at its default configuration relying on Google APIs and concerns over search engine pricing. Competing interpretations arise regarding whether server-side implementation is necessary given existing browser features or extensions.
17 readable replies · Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2 · Supporting reply 3 · Supporting reply 4kagisearch
bangs
Ruby2024–2026
kagisearch / bangs
bangs
Repository of bangs used by Kagi Search
5Distinct people
10Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
384GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Repository of bangs used by Kagi Search
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
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Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month10 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2024-02-20 22:51:45 UTC to 2026-06-05 08:45:06 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2024 | 2024-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 2024-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2024 | 2024-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2024 | 2024-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jun 2024 | 2024-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2024 | 2024-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2024 | 2024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2024 | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Nov 2024 | 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2024 | 2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2025 | 2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2025 | 2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jun 2025 | 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2025 | 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Dec 2025 | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jan 2026 | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2026 | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
10 sourcesBRBrunoBernardino·Jun 5, 2026
I'm not sure if this is trolling, but we offer both. Even custom bangs, and you can also use Kagi's Bangs: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs
In Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites(replying to dead reply downthread)
Kagi (custom) bangs[1] already supports `!cobalt <youtube video>`
I just added !cobalt to my custom bangs as `https://cobalt.meowing.de#%s`, and it works.
Kagi also accepts new public bangs: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs#contribution-guidelines
Kagi bangs are free for everyone (a subscription is required for custom bangs and regular search).
- Example of how to use Kagi bangs without subscription: https://kagi.com/search?q=!chatgpt+TEST
- https://zbang.leftium.com/ uses Kagi bangs under the hood.
[1]: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html#custom-bangs
In Show HN: My not-for-profit search engine with no ads, no AI, & all DDG bangsKagi maintains an update-to-date list of bangs[1]:
- Kagi redirects bang searches even if you are not a member/logged in
- ChatGPT: https://kagi.com/search?q=!chatgpt+test
- Grok: https://kagi.com/search?q=!grok+test
- Copilot (sadly copilot no longer accepts queries from the url params): https://kagi.com/search?q=!copilot+test
- there are internal Kagi bangs for Gemini: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Akagisearch%2Fbangs+gemini...
- no redirect bang yet for Gemini; you can open an issue and/or pull request
---
[1]: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs
In Tell HN: DuckDuckGo doesn't have bangs for Chatbots like ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini> Typing `article about german war in the stone age !!g` becomes: `site:en.wikipedia.org "german" AND "war" AND "stone age"`
I wonder how much of that could be done without AI, just (locally) using https://www.npmjs.com/package/compromise
---
Also I couldn't find your source for bang data; Kagi maintains an updated list: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs
I'm working on an enhanced version of bangs. Since there are so many "dead" bangs, I'm thinking of using a bang whitelist and suggestions from the full list if not found in the whitelist.
In Show HN: routr - a fast local replacement for DuckDuckGo bangsApart from search customizations, I also use the bang searches (a few mine and many from https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs). I also recently switched to ultimate and created a few assistants with system prompts for my various needs (coding, learning chemistry, etc.)
In Why pay for a search engineIt clearly shows in the example that @r translated to "site:www.reddit.com" in their resulting search- I did not read "supporting domain search in general" as being Kagi specific.
The Kagi specific part is /easily/ searching a site in Kagi.
The whole point here is that they are extending the already supported bangs[1] to search the domain with "@", thus if "!r" exists to redirect to Reddit's search, you can use @r to search Reddit within Kagi.
Of course I could type "site:Reddit.com" that's what I've been doing for years, including on Kagi, but easily doing that with @<bang> seems exclusive to Kagi.
[1] Kagi maintains an open source list of supported bangs here, you can even do a PR to add even more: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs
In Kagi SnapsWe do currently have a field to override the domain used for snaps (the `ad` field in the bangs repository[1]) which doesn't have much validation and is useful for situations like this. It's possible we'll expose this for custom bangs in the future, but for now I can add that as a bang to the main repository, as it seems like it would be generally useful.
[1]: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs?tab=readme-ov-file#bang-...
In Kagi SnapsKagi allows you to define custom bangs: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html#custom-bangs
And you can open an issue/pull request here: https://github.com/kagisearch/bangs
(Kagi's search bang redirects work even if you don't have a Kagi account.)
Kagi probably has the most updated search bangs, even though DuckDuckGo created them.
In How I Made Google's "Web" View My Default SearchOpen-source repository of bangs used by Kagi Search
4 points · Open discussion