Octagon Deep Research MCP server for AI agents

Octagon Deep Research MCP server provides specialized AI-powered comprehensive research and analysis capabilities by integrating with advanced deep research agents. With no rate limits, it operates faster than ChatGPT Deep Research and more thoroughly than alternatives like Grok DeepSearch or Perplexity Deep Research, adding unlimited deep research functionality to any MCP client.

Getting Started

Get Your Octagon API Key

To use Octagon Deep Research MCP, you need to:

Sign up for a free account at Octagon
After logging in, from left menu, navigate to API Keys
Generate a new API key
Use this API key in your configuration as the OCTAGON_API_KEY value

Prerequisites

Before installing or running Octagon Deep Research MCP, you need to have npx (which comes with Node.js and npm) installed on your system.

Mac (macOS)

Install Homebrew (if you don't have it):

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Node.js (includes npm and npx):
```
brew install node
```
Verify installation:
```
node -v
npm -v
npx -v
```

Windows

Download the Node.js installer:
- Go to https://nodejs.org/ and download the LTS version for Windows.
Run the installer and follow the prompts.
Verify installation:
```
node -v
npm -v
npx -v
```

Installation

Running on Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop
Go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "octagon-deep-research-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "octagon-deep-research-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "OCTAGON_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude for the changes to take effect

Running on Cursor

Note: Requires Cursor version 0.45.6+

Open Cursor Settings
Go to Features > MCP Servers
Click "+ Add New MCP Server"
Enter the following:
- Name: "octagon-deep-research-mcp" (or your preferred name)
- Type: "command"
- Command: env OCTAGON_API_KEY=your-octagon-api-key npx -y octagon-deep-research-mcp

If you are using Windows and are running into issues, try cmd /c "set OCTAGON_API_KEY=your-octagon-api-key && npx -y octagon-deep-research-mcp"

Running on Windsurf

Add this to your ./codeium/windsurf/model_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "octagon-deep-research-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "octagon-deep-research-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "OCTAGON_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running with npx

env OCTAGON_API_KEY=your_octagon_api_key npx -y octagon-deep-research-mcp

Manual Installation

npm install -g octagon-deep-research-mcp

Using the Deep Research Agent

The Octagon Deep Research MCP provides a single tool:

octagon-deep-research-agent

This tool accepts a natural language query parameter and performs comprehensive research across any topic or domain.

Example Research Queries

Technology & AI Research

"Research the current state of quantum computing development and commercial applications across major tech companies"
"Analyze the competitive landscape in large language models, comparing capabilities, limitations, and market positioning"

Healthcare & Medical Research

"Research breakthrough medical treatments for Alzheimer's disease developed in the last 3 years"
"Analyze the effectiveness of different COVID-19 vaccine technologies and their global distribution"

Business & Economics

"Analyze the gig economy's impact on traditional employment models and worker protections"
"Research the evolution of remote work policies post-pandemic and their effectiveness on productivity"

Environmental & Sustainability

"Research sustainable agriculture practices and their adoption rates globally"
"Study carbon capture technologies and their commercial viability"

Research Capabilities

Multi-Source Analysis: Aggregates information from academic papers, industry reports, news sources, and expert opinions
Real-Time Data: Accesses current information and recent developments
Cross-Verification: Validates findings across multiple reliable sources
Trend Analysis: Identifies patterns and forecasts future developments

Troubleshooting

API Key Issues: Ensure your Octagon API key is correctly set in the environment or config file.
Connection Issues: Make sure the connectivity to the Octagon API is working properly.
Rate Limiting: No rate limits apply to Deep Research MCP - execute unlimited queries.

For comprehensive documentation, visit https://docs.octagonagents.com or specifically the Deep Research Agent Guide.

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 "octagon-deep-research-mcp" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","octagon-deep-research-mcp@latest"],"env":{"OCTAGON_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"}}'

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": {
        "octagon-deep-research-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "octagon-deep-research-mcp@latest"
            ],
            "env": {
                "OCTAGON_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "octagon-deep-research-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "octagon-deep-research-mcp@latest"
            ],
            "env": {
                "OCTAGON_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect