Web Search MCP server

WebSearch MCP Server is a versatile tool that allows you to perform web searches using different providers, convert web content to Markdown format, retrieve WeChat official account articles, and search GitHub repositories, users, and issues. It implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to provide these search capabilities through a simple server interface.

Installation Requirements

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12 or higher
• uv for dependency management (recommended) or pip

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Howe829/websearch-mcp-server.git
   cd websearch-mcp-server
   

2. Install dependencies:

   Using uv (recommended):

   uv venv && uv sync
   

   Or using pip:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Configure the server:

   cp .env.example .env
   

4. Edit the .env file with your preferred settings:

   BING_SEARCH_BASE_URL="https://www.bing.com"
   LANGUAGE="en"
   CC="us"
   IMPERSONATE="edge"
   HOST=127.0.0.1
   PORT=8002
   SERVER_MODE=streamable-http
   

Running the Server

Start the server using one of these methods:

Using uv:

uv run python server.py

Or using Python directly:

source .venv/bin/activate
python server.py

Features and Usage

Web Search

The server supports multiple search providers:

• Bing (default)
• Baidu
• Google (with browser_use option)

URL to Markdown Conversion

Convert any web page content to well-formatted Markdown for easier processing and reading.

WeChat Official Account Articles

Search and retrieve content from WeChat official account articles.

GitHub Search

Search across GitHub repositories, users, issues, and more, all through a unified interface.

API Examples

The server implements the Model Context Protocol, allowing you to make requests through compatible clients. You can interact with the server by sending HTTP requests to the configured host and port with the appropriate parameters depending on the search feature you want to use.

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 "websearch-mcp-server" '{"command":"python","args":["server.py"]}'

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": {
        "websearch-mcp-server": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "websearch-mcp-server": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect