Brave Search MCP Server

What is Brave Search MCP Server?

The Brave Search MCP Server is a comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates seamlessly with the Brave Search API. This server provides enhanced search capabilities, allowing users to perform both web and local searches efficiently. By leveraging the power of the Brave Search API, this server offers users the ability to obtain relevant and precise information from the web, as well as discover local businesses and services in their area.

Key Features

• Web Search: With the Brave Search MCP Server, users can execute general web queries to find news, articles, and more. The server supports pagination and allows users to control the freshness of the content they receive, ensuring up-to-date results.

• Local Search: The server also excels in providing localized search results. Users can find detailed information about nearby businesses, restaurants, and services. If no local results are found, the server intelligently falls back to web search to ensure useful results are always provided.

• Flexible Filtering: Users have the flexibility to filter search results by type, safety level, and content freshness, tailoring their search experience to meet specific needs.

• Smart Fallbacks: In instances where local search yields no results, the server automatically defaults to a web search, ensuring that users receive comprehensive search results without interruption.

Tools

brave_web_search

This tool allows users to execute web searches with options for pagination and result filtering.

Inputs:

• query (string): Search terms.
• count (number, optional): Results per page (max 20).
• offset (number, optional): Pagination offset (max 9).

brave_local_search

Designed for searching local businesses and services, this tool will automatically fall back to a web search if no local results are found.

Inputs:

• query (string): Local search terms.
• count (number, optional): Number of results (max 20).

How to Use

Configuration

To use the Brave Search MCP Server, you will need an API key:

1. Get an API Key: Sign up for a Brave Search API account and choose a plan. A free tier is available, offering up to 2,000 queries per month.
2. Integrate with Claude Desktop: Add your API key to the claude_desktop_config.json.

Docker Setup

For Docker users, configure as follows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "mcp/brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

NPX Setup

For NPX, configure as follows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Build Instructions

To build using Docker:

docker build -t mcp/brave-search:latest -f src/brave-search/Dockerfile .

License

The Brave Search MCP Server is licensed under the MIT License, granting users the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the software under the terms specified in the LICENSE file included within the project repository.