Marginalia Search MCP server

The Marginalia MCP Server enables access to Marginalia Search, a search engine focused on discovering non-commercial content and hidden internet gems, through the Model Context Protocol.

Features

• Search the web using Marginalia Search API
• Configure search parameters including index and result count
• Protection through rate limiting with helpful error messages
• Seamless integration via the MCP SDK

Installation

To install the Marginalia MCP Server, run:

npm install
npm run build

Configuration

Configure the server using environment variables:

• MARGINALIA_API_KEY: Your Marginalia Search API key (optional, defaults to public access)

If you need a dedicated API key, contact: [email protected]

Usage

The MCP server provides the following tool:

search

Search the web using Marginalia Search with these parameters:

• query (required): Search query string
• index (optional): Search index number (corresponds to dropdown in main GUI)
• count (optional): Number of results to return (1-100, default: 10)

Example usage through MCP:

const result = await mcp.useTool("marginalia", "search", {
  query: "interesting non-commercial websites",
  count: 5
});

Response Format

Search results are returned in this format:

{
  "query": "your search query",
  "license": "license information",
  "results": [
    {
      "url": "result url",
      "title": "page title",
      "description": "page description"
    }
    // ... more results
  ]
}

Error Handling

The server includes robust error handling for:

• Rate limiting (503 responses)
• Invalid requests
• Network errors
• API-specific errors

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "marginalia" '{"command":"node","args":["path/to/marginalia-mcp-server/build/index.js"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "marginalia": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "path/to/marginalia-mcp-server/build/index.js"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "marginalia": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "path/to/marginalia-mcp-server/build/index.js"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect