brave-search-mcp

# Brave Search MCP Server An MCP Server implementation that integrates the [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), providing, Web Search, Local Points of Interest Search, Video Search, Image Search, News Search and LLM Context Search capabilities <a href="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@mikechao/brave-search-mcp"> <img width="380" height="200" src="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@mikechao/brave-search-mcp/badge" alt="Brave Search MCP server" /> </a> ## Features - **Web Search**: Perform a regular search on the web - **Image Search**: Search the web for images. - **News Search**: Search the web for news - **Video Search**: Search the web for videos - **Local Points of Interest Search**: Search for local physical locations, businesses, restaurants, services, etc - **LLM Context Search**: Fetch and extract full web page content optimized for reading and synthesizing sources ## Tools - **brave_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) - `offset` (number, optional, default 0): The offset for pagination - `freshness` (enum, optional): Filters search results by when they were discovered - The following values are supported - pd: Discovered within the last 24 hours. - pw: Discovered within the last 7 Days. - pm: Discovered within the last 31 Days. - py: Discovered within the last 365 Days - YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD: Custom date range (e.g., 2022-04-01to2022-07-30) - **brave_image_search** - Get images from the web relevant to the query - Inputs: - `query` (string): The term to search the internet for images of - `count` (number, optional): The number of images to return (max 50, default 10) - **brave_news_search** - Searches the web for news - Inputs: - `query` (string): The term to search the internet for news articles, trending topics, or recent events - `count` (number, optional): The number of results to return (max 20, default 10) - `offset` (number, optional, default 0): The zero-based offset for pagination (max 9) - `freshness` (enum, optional): Filters search results by when they were discovered - The following values are supported - pd: Discovered within the last 24 hours. - pw: Discovered within the last 7 Days. - pm: Discovered within the last 31 Days. - py: Discovered within the last 365 Days - YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD: Custom date range (e.g., 2022-04-01to2022-07-30) - **brave_local_search** - Search for local businesses, services and points of interest - Falls back to brave_web_search on the initial page 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) - `offset` (number, optional, default 0): The zero-based offset for pagination (max 9) - **brave_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) - `offset` (number, optional, default 0): The zero-based offset for pagination (max 9) - `freshness` (enum, optional): Filters search results by when they were discovered - The following values are supported - pd: Discovered within the last 24 hours. - pw: Discovered within the last 7 Days. - pm: Discovered within the last 31 Days. - py: Discovered within the last 365 Days - YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD: Custom date range (e.g., 2022-04-01to2022-07-30) - **brave_llm_context_search** - Pre-extracted web content optimized for AI agents, LLM grounding, and RAG pipelines. - Uses Brave's `balanced` context threshold mode in `compact` mode and disables Brave relevance filtering in `full` mode. - Inputs: - `query` (string): The search query. Maximum 400 characters and 50 words. - `url` (string, optional): Optional URL to target. When provided, query and URL are combined for retrieval and only snippets from this exact URL are returned. - `count` (number, optional, default 8): The maximum number of search results considered. Minimum 1, maximum 50. - `maximumNumberOfUrls` (number, optional, default 8): The maximum number of URLs to include in the response. Minimum 1, maximum 50. - `maximumNumberOfTokens` (number, optional, default 2048): The approximate maximum number of tokens in the returned context. Minimum 1024, maximum 32768. - `maximumNumberOfSnippets` (number, optional, default 16): The maximum number of snippets across all URLs. Minimum 1, maximum 100. - `maximumNumberOfTokensPerUrl` (number, optional, default 512): The maximum number of tokens per URL. Minimum 512, maximum 8192. - `maximumNumberOfSnippetsPerUrl` (number, optional, default 2): The maximum number of snippets per URL. Minimum 1, maximum 100. - `responseMode` (enum, optional, default `compact`): `compact` applies Brave's `balanced` relevance filtering plus local snippet filtering/truncation. `full` disables Brave's relevance filtering and returns raw snippets without local filtering or truncation. - `maxSnippetChars` (number, optional, default 400): Maximum characters per snippet in compact mode. Minimum 80, maximum 4000. - `maxOutputChars` (number, optional, default 8000): Approximate maximum serialized response size in compact mode. Minimum 1000, maximum 100000. ## OpenAI Apps & MCP Apps Support <p align="center"> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KiC00gBVE"> <img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Z5KiC00gBVE/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="Watch the demo" width="80%"> </a> <br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KiC00gBVE"><em>▶️ Click to watch the demo video</em></a> </p> There is now support for [OpenAI Apps](https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/) and [MCP Apps](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/extensions/apps) in this MCP Server. When UI mode is enabled for each tool there is a corresponding UI widget that let's you control what gets added to the model's context. See the directions in [usage with ChatGPT section](#usage-with-chatgpt). ## Configuration ### Getting an API Key 1. Sign up for a [Brave Search API account](https://brave.com/search/api/) 2. Choose a plan 3. Generate your API key [from the developer dashboard](https://api.search.brave.com/app/keys) ### Runtime modes By default the MCP server runs in stdio mode. ```bash BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp ``` To enable Streamable HTTP mode: ```bash BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp --http ``` By default the server listens on port 3001. The URL is: ``` http://0.0.0.0:3001/mcp ``` There are two configuration modes: - Env mode: `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG` is unset. Feature toggles come from environment variables exactly as in previous releases. - File mode: `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG=/path/to/config.toml` is set. The TOML file becomes the single source of truth for feature settings, and overlapping feature env vars are ignored with warnings. ### Environment-only settings These settings are always read from the process environment, regardless of mode: - `BRAVE_API_KEY` (required): Brave Search API key. - `PORT` (optional): HTTP port (default: `3001`). - `HOST` (optional): Interface to bind to (default: `0.0.0.0`). - `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG` (optional): Absolute or relative path to a TOML config file for feature settings. ### Env mode feature settings When `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG` is not set, these feature env vars are supported: - `ALLOWED_HOSTS` (HTTP mode only): Comma-separated list of allowed hostnames for Host header validation. - Example: `ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1,my-app.ngrok-free.app` - Use hostnames only (no scheme/path), e.g. `my-app.ngrok-free.app` not `https://my-app.ngrok-free.app/mcp` - `BRAVE_MCP_POLICY_FILE`: JSON policy file path. - `BRAVE_MCP_POLICY_REDACT`: `true` to redact matched text instead of blocking it. - `BRAVE_MCP_REQUEST_LIMIT`: Positive integer request cap. - `BRAVE_MCP_WINDOW_SECONDS`: Non-negative integer rolling window size. - `BRAVE_MCP_COOLDOWN_SECONDS`: Non-negative integer cooldown after the limit is exceeded. - `BRAVE_MCP_AUDIT_LOG`: `true` to emit audit logs. - `BRAVE_MCP_AUDIT_LOG_RAW`: `true` to include raw query text in audit logs. - `BRAVE_MCP_REQUIRE_JUSTIFICATION`: `true` to reject tool calls without a `justification` string. Examples: ```bash # Local only HOST=127.0.0.1 ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1 BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp --http ``` ```bash # Local with ngrok tunnel HOST=127.0.0.1 ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1,my-app.ngrok-free.app BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp --http --ui ``` ### File mode (`BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG`) When `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG` is set, the file controls feature configuration, including the HTTP host allowlist. ```toml [auth] httpApiKey = "sk-..." requireAuth = true callerId = "team-a" [auth.jwt] jwksUri = "https://idp.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json" audience = "brave-search-mcp" clockSkewSeconds = 30 [auth.oauth] issuer = "https://idp.example.com" audience = "brave-search-mcp" clientId = "client-123" clientSecret = "super-secret" verifyStrategy = "jwks" [audit] enabled = true logRaw = false hmacSecret = "audit-secret" [policy] file = "/etc/brave-mcp/policy.json" redact = false [guardrail] requestLimit = 100 windowSeconds = 60 cooldownSeconds = 10 requireJustification = false [server] allowedHosts = [ "localhost", "127.0.0.1", "my-app.ngrok-free.app", ] ``` Notes: - `BRAVE_API_KEY`, `PORT`, and `HOST` remain environment-only even in file mode. - If you set overlapping feature env vars such as `BRAVE_MCP_REQUEST_LIMIT` or `ALLOWED_HOSTS` alongside `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG`, startup warns that they are being ignored. - Unknown TOML keys also emit warnings so typos like `[guardrails]` are visible before you debug runtime behavior. To validate a config file without starting the server, use the packaged entrypoint after building the app workspace: ```bash pnpm -C apps/brave-search-mcp run build node apps/brave-search-mcp/dist/index.js --check-config ./apps/brave-search-mcp/test/fixtures/config.valid.toml ``` To run the built local entrypoint in file mode: ```bash pnpm -C apps/brave-search-mcp run build BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG="$PWD/apps/brave-search-mcp/test/fixtures/config.valid.toml" node apps/brave-search-mcp/dist/index.js --http ``` ### Usage with ChatGPT The Brave Search MCP Server can be used with the web UI of ChatGPT. It takes a few steps. #### 1. Enable Developer Mode in ChatGPT Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode Additional instructions [here](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/developer-mode) #### 2. Run the Brave Search MCP in HTTP mode and UI mode ```bash BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp --http --ui ``` #### 3. Create a local tunnel to expose the MCP Server to ChatGPT Sign up and configure [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/), the free plan works. ```bash ngrok http 3001 ``` Take note of the forwarding URL. ```bash ... Forwarding https://john-joe-asdf.ngrok-free.dev -> http://localhost:3001 ... ``` #### 4. Add Brave Search MCP as a Connector to ChatGPT Open [ChatGPT Apps settings](https://chatgpt.com/#settings/Connectors) Click Apps Click Create Apps Fill out the form using the URL from step 3 as the MCP Server URL, but add `/mcp`. ``` https://john-joe-asdf.ngrok-free.dev/mcp ``` For Authentication, select 'No Auth' Tick the checkbox for 'I understand and want to continue' Then click Create. #### 5. Using the Brave Search MCP Server In the ChatGPT UI, click the '+' button, scroll to '...more', select the newly created Brave Search app, and enter your query. ### Usage with Claude Code For [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code) users, run this command: **Windows:** ```bash claude mcp add-json brave-search '{"command":"cmd","args":["/c","npx","-y","brave-search-mcp"],"env":{"BRAVE_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"}}' ``` **Linux/macOS:** ```bash claude mcp add-json brave-search '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","brave-search-mcp"],"env":{"BRAVE_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"}}' ``` Replace `YOUR_API_KEY_HERE` with your actual Brave Search API key. ### Usage with Claude Desktop #### MCP Bundle (MCPB) 1. Download the `mcpb` file from the [Releases](https://github.com/mikechao/brave-search-mcp/releases) 2. Open it with Claude Desktop or Go to File -> Settings -> Extensions and drag the .mcpb file to the window to install it #### Docker 1. Clone the repo 2. Build the image from the repo root ```bash docker build -t brave-search-mcp:latest -f apps/brave-search-mcp/Dockerfile . ``` 3. Run it directly if you want HTTP mode: ```bash docker run --rm -p 3001:3001 -e BRAVE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" brave-search-mcp:latest --http ``` 4. Add this to your `claude_desktop_config.json` for stdio mode: ```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 Add this to your `claude_desktop_config.json`: ```json { "mcp-servers": { "brave-search": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "brave-search-mcp" ], "env": { "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR API KEY HERE" } } } } ``` ### Usage with LibreChat Add this to librechat.yaml ```yaml brave-search: command: sh args: - -c - BRAVE_API_KEY=API KEY npx -y brave-search-mcp ``` ## Contributing Contributions are welcome! See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for development setup, monorepo structure, and release instructions. For UI build workflow details, including the entrypoint orchestrator, see [UI Build Orchestrator](CONTRIBUTING.md#ui-build-orchestrator). ## Disclaimer This library is not officially associated with Brave Software. It is a third-party implementation of the Brave Search API with a MCP Server. ## License This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.