Perplexity MCP server

The Perplexity MCP Server provides a bridge between Claude Desktop and the Perplexity API, allowing you to request chat completions with citations directly from Perplexity within the Claude interface. This server implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to enable seamless integration between these services.

Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing the Perplexity MCP Server, you'll need:

1. A Perplexity API key
2. Claude Desktop application installed
3. uvx package installed on your system

Configure Claude Desktop

You need to modify the Claude Desktop configuration file to add the Perplexity MCP Server. The location of this file depends on your operating system:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration to the JSON file:

"mcpServers": {
  "Perplexity": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "mcp-server-perplexity"
    ],
    "env": {
      "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-perplexity-api-key"
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace "your-perplexity-api-key" with your actual Perplexity API key.

Usage

Available Tools

The Perplexity MCP Server provides the following tool:

• ask_perplexity: Use this tool to request chat completions with citations from the Perplexity API.

Using in Claude Desktop

Once the MCP server is properly configured, you can access Perplexity functionality directly within Claude Desktop. You can prompt Claude to use Perplexity for retrieving information with citations.

Known Limitations

• The Claude Desktop client may timeout if Perplexity processing takes too long
• This issue might be resolved in the future if Claude Desktop implements support for long-running operations and progress reporting
• The implementation will be updated to handle these features when they become available

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.