Brave Search MCP Server

An MCP Server implementation that integrates the Brave Search API, providing, Web Search, Local Points of Interest Search, Video Search, Image Search and News Search capabilities

Features

Web Search: Perform a regular search on the web
Image Search: Search the web for images. Image search results will be available as a Resource
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

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
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 3, default 1)
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)
  - 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
brave_local_search
- Search for local businesses, services and points of interest
- REQUIRES subscription to the Pro api plan for location results
- Falls back to brave_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)
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)
  - 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

Configuration

Getting an API Key

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

Usage with Claude Desktop

Docker

Clone the repo
Docker build

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

Add this 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

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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage with LibreChat

Add this to librechat.yaml

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

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Debugging

Clone the repo
Install Dependencies and build it

npm install

Build the app

npm run build

Use the VS Code Run and Debug Function

⚠ Does not seem to work on Windows 10/11, but works in WSL2

Use the VS Code Run and Debug launcher with fully functional breakpoints in the code:

Locate and select the run debug.
Select the configuration labeled "MCP Server Launcher" in the dropdown.
Select the run/debug button. We can debug the various tools using MCP Inspector and VS Code.

VS Code Debug setup

To set up local debugging with breakpoints:

Store Brave API Key in the VS Code
- Open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P).
- Type Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON).
- Add the following snippet:
```
{
  "brave.search.api.key": "your-api-key-here"
}
```
Create or update .vscode/launch.json:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "MCP Server Launcher",
      "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"],
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/inspector/cli/build/cli.js",
      "outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${config:brave.search.api.key}",
        "DEBUG": "true"
      },
      "args": ["dist/index.js"],
      "sourceMaps": true,
      "console": "integratedTerminal",
      "internalConsoleOptions": "neverOpen",
      "preLaunchTask": "npm: build:watch"
    },
    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "attach",
      "name": "Attach to Debug Hook Process",
      "port": 9332,
      "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"],
      "sourceMaps": true,
      "outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"]
    },
    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "attach",
      "name": "Attach to REPL Process",
      "port": 9333,
      "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"],
      "sourceMaps": true,
      "outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"]
    }
  ],
  "compounds": [
    {
      "name": "Attach to MCP Server",
      "configurations": ["Attach to Debug Hook Process", "Attach to REPL Process"]
    }
  ]
}

Create .vscode/tasks.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "type": "npm",
      "script": "build:watch",
      "group": {
        "kind": "build",
        "isDefault": true
      },
      "problemMatcher": ["$tsc"]
    }
  ]
}

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 file for details.

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