The Web MCP is a powerful tool that gives AI assistants real-time web capabilities, allowing them to access current information without getting blocked, rate-limited, or served CAPTCHAs. Built by Bright Data, this server ensures your AI can seamlessly connect to the live web for accurate, up-to-date responses.
There are two main ways to use the Web MCP:
The simplest option is to use Bright Data's hosted server:
https://mcp.brightdata.com/mcp?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE
To set it up in Claude Desktop:
Bright Data Webhttps://mcp.brightdata.com/mcp?token=YOUR_API_TOKENTo run the MCP server on your own machine, create a configuration file with:
{
"mcpServers": {
"Bright Data": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
"env": {
"API_TOKEN": "<your-api-token-here>"
}
}
}
}
PRO_MODE=true environment variable| Tool | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
search_engine |
Web search with AI-optimized results | Research, fact-checking, current events |
scrape_as_markdown |
Convert any webpage to clean markdown | Content extraction, documentation |
Pro mode includes 60+ additional tools such as:
scraping_browser.*)web_data_*)For more control, you can configure advanced options:
{
"mcpServers": {
"Bright Data": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
"env": {
"API_TOKEN": "your-token-here",
"PRO_MODE": "true", // Enable all 60+ tools
"RATE_LIMIT": "100/1h", // Custom rate limiting
"WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "custom", // Custom unlocker zone
"BROWSER_ZONE": "custom_browser" // Custom browser zone
}
}
}
}
Solution: Install Node.js or use the full path to node:
"command": "/usr/local/bin/node" // macOS/Linux
"command": "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" // Windows
Solution: Increase timeout in your client settings to 180s
Solution: Ensure your API token is valid and has proper permissions
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.
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.
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>"
}
}
}
}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.
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.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json2. 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