Perplexity MCP server

This MCP server implements the Model Context Protocol to provide AI-powered research capabilities through Perplexity's web interface without requiring API keys. It leverages browser automation to deliver intelligent web research, persistent conversations, and content extraction features.

Installation Requirements

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• pnpm package manager

Setup Instructions

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/wysh3/perplexity-mcp-zerver.git
cd perplexity-mcp-zerver
pnpm install
pnpm run build

Configuration

Add the server to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/build/main.js"],
      "timeout": 300
    }
  }
}

Available Research Tools

The server provides several specialized tools:

Search

Performs research queries with configurable depth and returns raw text results.

Get Documentation

Retrieves technical documentation with examples and returns structured documentation.

Find APIs

Discovers relevant APIs for development needs and returns API listings with descriptions.

Check Deprecated Code

Analyzes code snippets for outdated patterns and returns an analysis report.

Extract URL Content

Parses web content with automatic GitHub handling and returns structured content metadata.

Chat

Enables persistent conversations with context history stored in SQLite and returns conversation state in JSON format.

Usage Examples

Initiate commands through your MCP client using natural language:

• "Use perplexity to research quantum computing advancements"
• "Ask perplexity-server for React 18 documentation"
• "Begin conversation with perplexity about neural networks"

Troubleshooting

Server Connection Issues

1. Verify the absolute path in your configuration file
2. Confirm Node.js installation with node -v
3. Ensure the build completed successfully

Content Extraction Problems

• GitHub paths must use full repository URLs
• You may need to adjust link recursion depth in the source configuration

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 "perplexity-server" '{"command":"node","args":["/full/path/to/your/perplexity-mcp-zerver/build/index.js"],"env":[],"disabled":false,"alwaysAllow":[],"timeout":300}'

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": {
        "perplexity-server": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/full/path/to/your/perplexity-mcp-zerver/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": [],
            "disabled": false,
            "alwaysAllow": [],
            "timeout": 300
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "perplexity-server": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/full/path/to/your/perplexity-mcp-zerver/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": [],
            "disabled": false,
            "alwaysAllow": [],
            "timeout": 300
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect