Bright Data MCP server

The Bright Data MCP server allows LLMs, agents, and applications to access real-time web data without getting blocked. It integrates with AI assistants like Claude Desktop to enable web searching, website navigation, and data extraction capabilities.

Installation Options

Option 1: Using Claude Desktop Extension

1. Download the Bright Data MCP Extension
2. Open Claude and navigate to Settings → Extensions
3. Drag the .dtx file into the dropping area
4. Enable the service and restart Claude

Option 2: Configure Claude Desktop Directly

1. Install Node.js to get the npx command
2. Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Advanced Configuration

For more control, you can use additional environment variables:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
        "RATE_LIMIT": "100/1h",
        "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "custom_unlocker_zone",
        "BROWSER_ZONE": "custom_browser_zone"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using with Other MCP Clients

macOS / Linux

export API_TOKEN=your-token
npx @brightdata/mcp

Windows (Command Prompt)

set API_TOKEN=your-token
npx @brightdata/mcp

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:API_TOKEN="your-token"
npx @brightdata/mcp

Account Setup

1. Create an account on brightdata.com
2. Get your API key from the user settings page or welcome email
3. (Optional) Configure rate limiting through the RATE_LIMIT environment variable
4. (Optional) Create custom Web Unlocker and Browser API zones in your control panel

Usage Examples

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 to avoid potential prompt injection risks. Instead:

• Filter and validate all web data before processing
• Use structured data extraction rather than raw text (web_data tools)

Troubleshooting

Timeouts when using certain tools

Set a high enough timeout in your agent settings. A value of 180 seconds should be sufficient for most requests.

"spawn npx ENOENT" error

This occurs when your system cannot find the npx command. Find your Node.js path using:

• macOS: which node
• Windows: where node

Then update your MCP configuration with the full path to Node.

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