Bright Data MCP server

Bright Data MCP is a powerful server that enables AI agents to access real-time web data without getting blocked. It integrates with MCP clients like Claude Desktop and provides web search, navigation, and data extraction capabilities using Bright Data's web unlocker technology.

Installation

Prerequisites

• A Bright Data account (new users get free credits)
• Node.js installed on your system

Setup with Claude Desktop

You can use Bright Data MCP with Claude Desktop in two ways:

Option 1: Using the Extension

Download the Bright Data MCP Extension from the official repository.

Option 2: Manual Configuration

1. Get your API key from the Bright Data user settings page

2. Configure Claude Desktop by going to: Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config

3. Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
        "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional zone name override>",
        "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name>",
        "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit e.g., 100/1h>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Setup with Other MCP Clients

For other MCP-compatible clients, run the server with:

API_TOKEN=<your-token> npx @brightdata/mcp

Optional environment variables:

• WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE: Custom Web Unlocker zone name
• BROWSER_ZONE: Browser API zone name (defaults to mcp_browser)
• RATE_LIMIT: Format limit/time+unit (e.g., 100/1h)

Usage

Available Tools

Bright Data MCP provides various tools for web interaction:

• Web search tools
• Web navigation tools
• Data extraction tools
• Browser control tools

Example Queries

The MCP server can help with queries like:

• "Google some movies that are releasing soon in [your area]"
• "What's Tesla's current market cap?"
• "What's the Wikipedia article of the day?"
• "What's the 7-day weather forecast in [your location]?"
• "Of the 3 highest paid tech CEOs, how long have their careers been?"

Security Best Practices

Always treat scraped web content as untrusted data:

• Never use raw scraped content directly in LLM prompts
• Filter and validate all web data before processing
• Use structured data extraction rather than raw text

Troubleshooting

Timeouts with Web Tools

Some tools that read web data may take longer to complete. Set a high enough timeout in your agent settings (around 180 seconds is recommended for most requests).

"spawn npx ENOENT" Error

If your system can't find the npx command:

1. Find your Node.js path:

   • On macOS: Run which node
   • On Windows: Run where node

2. Update your MCP configuration to use the full path:

   "command": "/path/to/node",
   "args": ["/path/to/npm/npx", "@brightdata/mcp"]
   

Rate Limiting

You can control API usage with the RATE_LIMIT environment variable:

• Format: limit/time+unit (e.g., 100/1h for 100 calls per hour)
• Supported time units: seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h)

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 "Bright-Data" '{"command":"npx","args":["@brightdata/mcp"],"env":{"API_TOKEN":"<insert-your-api-token-here>","WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE":"<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>","BROWSER_ZONE":"<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>","RATE_LIMIT":"<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"}}'

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": {
        "Bright Data": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@brightdata/mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
                "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>",
                "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>",
                "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "Bright Data": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@brightdata/mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
                "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>",
                "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>",
                "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect