This MCP server integrates Perplexity AI's API with Claude Desktop, enabling Claude to perform web-based research and provide answers with citations. The tool connects Claude to Perplexity's search capabilities, allowing it to retrieve and cite current information from the internet.
Before installing the Perplexity Tool, ensure you have the following software installed:
For Mac:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
brew install git
For Windows:
For Mac:
brew install git
For Windows:
Confirm both tools are installed correctly:
git --version
node --version
git clone https://github.com/letsbuildagent/perplexity-tool
cd perplexity-tool
npm install
Option 1 (Quick setup):
server.js
const PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = "YOUR-API-KEY-HERE";
Option 2 (Best practice):
# On Mac/Linux:
touch .env
open .env
# On Windows:
notepad .env
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
npm install dotenv
import 'dotenv/config'
const PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY;
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"perplexity-tool": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"/full/path/to/perplexity-tool/server.js"
]
}
}
}
/full/path/to
with the actual path where you cloned the repositoryRestart the application to apply changes.
Once installed, use the tool through Claude with commands like:
You can customize your searches with these parameters:
node --version
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "perplexity-tool" '{"command":"node","args":["/full/path/to/perplexity-tool/server.js"]}'
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": {
"perplexity-tool": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"/full/path/to/perplexity-tool/server.js"
]
}
}
}
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.json
2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"perplexity-tool": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"/full/path/to/perplexity-tool/server.js"
]
}
}
}
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect