Brave Search MCP Server

Install Brave Search MCP Server in your MCP client

Brave Search MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server. Add it to your MCP client config once, restart, and the server's tools become available to your AI assistant. The same JSON snippet below works across all four major clients — only the config file path differs.

1. Locate your client's MCP config file.
   • Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json
   • Claude Desktop (macOS): ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Claude Desktop (Windows): %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
   • VS Code: Settings → Extensions → MCP
   • Windsurf: Settings → MCP Servers
2. Add Brave Search MCP Server to the mcpServers map — paste the snippet below into your config file. If you already have other MCP servers, merge the entry into the existing mcpServers object.
3. Restart your client so it picks up the new server.
4. Verify — ask the assistant to list available tools; Brave Search MCP Server's tools should appear.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave-search-mcp-server/mcp-server"
      ],
      "note": "Replace with the actual package name from the server's documentation.",
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-brave-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools exposed by Brave Search MCP Server

Once installed, Brave Search MCP Server exposes the following MCP tools to your AI assistant. Each tool can be called directly by the assistant whenever its capability is relevant to your prompt.

• brave_web_search

  Performs comprehensive web searches with rich result types and advanced filtering options.

• brave_local_search

  Searches for local businesses and places with detailed information including ratings, hours, and AI-generated descriptions.

• brave_video_search

  Searches for videos with comprehensive metadata and thumbnail information.

• brave_image_search

  Searches for images with automatic fetching and base64 encoding for direct display.

• brave_news_search

  Searches for current news articles with freshness controls and breaking news indicators.

• brave_summarizer

  Generates AI-powered summaries from web search results using Brave's summarization API.

Required environment variables

Brave Search MCP Server needs the following environment variables set before it can run. Add them to the env block of your mcpServers entry, or export them in your shell before launching the client.

• BRAVE_API_KEY

Your Brave Search API key is required.

Transport

Brave Search MCP Server supports the following MCP transports. Most AI clients use stdio by default for locally-installed servers.

More analyze.research.web_summary MCP servers

Other Model Context Protocol servers in the same space as Brave Search MCP Server. Each one adds different capabilities to your AI assistant — pick based on the data sources or workflows you need.

• openarchieven-mcp-server

  MCP server for the Open Archives genealogical search engine.

• cinderwright-api

  x402 Discovery Hub. Agent economy search engine. 1450+ services.

• wayforth

  Search engine and payment rail for AI agents. 2,300+ services, semantic ranking.

• Giskard Search

  Pay-per-use web search for AI agents. Lightning invoice, Ed25519 signature, karma discounts.

• Google Search Console

  Google Search Console MCP server: SEO audits, performance queries, URL inspection, indexing checks.

• mcp-server-gsc

  A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server providing access to Google Search Console

• mcp-deepwebresearch

  MCP Web Research Server with Deep Research capabilities

• just-every-mcp-deep-search

  MCP server for deep web search using @just-every/search

Browse the full MCP server directory or use Stork's one-line install to let your agent pick the right server automatically.