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Brave Search MCP Server

Provides access to Brave Search data and AI-powered summarization via MCP tools.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arjunkmrm-brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "docker.io/mcp/brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE",
        "BRAVE_MCP_HOST": "0.0.0.0",
        "BRAVE_MCP_PORT": "8080",
        "BRAVE_MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT": "stdio",
        "BRAVE_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS": "brave_web_search,brave_image_search"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can access Brave Search’s capabilities through a dedicated MCP server that exposes web, local business, image, video, news searches, and AI-powered summaries. This server lets you use Brave’s search data from MCP clients in a consistent, tool-driven way across environments.

How to use

You connect to the Brave Search MCP server from an MCP client by selecting the Brave Search server as your provider and then invoking the available tools. You can perform web searches, look up local businesses, search for images and videos, retrieve news, and generate AI-powered summaries from web results. Each tool exposes a focused set of parameters you can customize, such as query terms, language, country, result count, and safe content settings.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installation include Node.js version 22.x or higher, npm, and a Brave Search API key.

Choose an installation method below and follow the steps precisely.

docker build -t mcp/brave-search:latest .
```

```
npm install
```

```
npm run build

Configuration and runtime options

Your MCP client will typically configure the Brave Search MCP server through environment variables or command-line options. The key settings include supplying your Brave Search API key and choosing the transport mode. The server supports STDIO and HTTP transports, with STDIO being the default mode.

Security and credentials

Protect your Brave Search API key by keeping it in a secure environment variable in your deployment environment. Do not share the key in logs or public code.

Notes and troubleshooting

If you need to run the server with HTTP transport, specify the transport explicitly when starting your MCP client or container, for example by setting the appropriate environment variable or command-line flag as shown in the examples.

Available tools

brave_web_search

Performs comprehensive web searches with rich result types and advanced filtering options.

brave_local_search

Searches for local businesses and places with detailed information including ratings, hours, and AI-generated descriptions.

brave_video_search

Searches for videos with comprehensive metadata and thumbnail information.

brave_image_search

Searches for images with automatic fetching and appropriate response formatting.

brave_news_search

Searches for current news articles with freshness controls and breaking news indicators.

brave_summarizer

Generates AI-powered summaries from web search results using Brave's summarization API.