Brave Search MCP server

Brave Search MCP Server provides a powerful integration with Brave Search API, enabling web, image, news, video, and local points of interest search capabilities through the Model Context Protocol.

Features

• Web Search: Perform regular searches on the web
• Image Search: Find relevant images on the web
• News Search: Discover news articles from across the internet
• Video Search: Search for videos on various topics
• Local Points of Interest Search: Find local businesses, restaurants, and services

Installation

Prerequisites

• Docker or Node.js environment
• Brave Search API key

Getting an API Key

1. Sign up for a Brave Search API account
2. Choose a plan (Free tier available with 2,000 queries/month)
3. Generate your API key from the developer dashboard

Using Docker

1. Clone the repository
2. Build the Docker image:

docker build -t brave-search-mcp:latest -f ./Dockerfile .

Using NPX

No additional installation steps are required when using NPX.

Configuration

Integration with Claude Desktop

Docker Method

Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcp-servers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "brave-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR API KEY HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

NPX Method

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcp-servers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "brave-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR API KEY HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Integration with LibreChat

Add this to your librechat.yaml configuration:

brave-search:
  command: sh
  args:
    - -c
    - BRAVE_API_KEY=API KEY npx -y brave-search-mcp

Using the Tools

The Brave Search MCP Server provides several powerful search tools:

Web Search

Execute web searches using Brave's API:

• Inputs:
  • query (string): The term to search the internet for
  • count (number, optional): The number of results to return (max 20, default 10)

Image Search

Get images from the web relevant to your query:

• Inputs:
  • query (string): The term to search for images
  • count (number, optional): The number of images to return (max 3, default 1)

News Search

Search the web for news articles:

• Inputs:
  • query (string): The term to search for news, trending topics, or recent events
  • count (number, optional): The number of results to return (max 20, default 10)

Local Search

Find local businesses, services, and points of interest:

• Note: Requires subscription to the Pro API plan for location results
• Falls back to web search if no location results are found
• Inputs:
  • query (string): Local search term
  • count (number, optional): The number of results to return (max 20, default 5)

Video Search

Search the web for videos:

• Inputs:
  • query (string): The term to search for videos
  • count (number, optional): The number of videos to return (max 20, default 10)

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.