# Brave Search MCP Server

> Brave's own MCP server for Brave Search: your agent searches the web, news, images, videos and places from Brave's independent index.

The Brave Search MCP Server is Brave's open-source MCP server for the Brave Search API. It gives your agent live results from Brave's own independent search index: the web, news, images, videos, local businesses and places, plus AI summaries and page content ready for grounding answers.

What you can do with it
- Search the web, with filters for country, language, freshness and safe search
- Find current news articles, images and videos
- Look up local businesses and points of interest, with addresses, opening hours, contact details and ratings
- Pull ranked, extracted page content to ground an answer (Brave's LLM Context)
- Summarize web results with Brave's AI summarizer
- Re-rank results with Goggles, Brave's custom re-ranking rules

How it connects
It runs on your machine with npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server (or Brave's Docker image, mcp/brave-search) and talks to your agent over stdio. Brave documents setup for Claude Desktop and VS Code.

Signing in
It needs a Brave Search API key. Create one in Brave's API dashboard and set it as BRAVE_API_KEY. The API runs on prepaid credits, and Brave's plans include free credits every month.

Good to know
- It only searches and reads; it doesn't change anything.
- You can limit which tools it offers with BRAVE_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS or BRAVE_MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS.
- It can also run as an HTTP server you host yourself (--transport http).

- Type: Plugin
- Made by: Brave
- Category: Web & browser
- Formats: Remote MCP, Local MCP
- Version: 2.1.3
- Website: https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server
- Source: https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server
- Page: https://pluginboard.ai/plugins/brave-search-mcp

## Works with

- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Muse
- Grok Bot
- Gemini
- Grok
- GitHub Copilot
- Cursor
- Claude Code
- Codex
- Antigravity
- Gemini CLI
- Replit
- OpenClaw
- OpenCode
- Hermes Agent

## Install

You'll need:

- `BRAVE_API_KEY` (required): Your API key for the service

Replace each `<NAME>` placeholder with your own value.

### Claude

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### GitHub Copilot

Add to VS Code: vscode:mcp/install?%7B%22name%22%3A%22brave-search-mcp-server%22%2C%22command%22%3A%22npx%22%2C%22args%22%3A%5B%22-y%22%2C%22%40brave%2Fbrave-search-mcp-server%402.1.3%22%5D%2C%22env%22%3A%7B%22BRAVE_API_KEY%22%3A%22%3CBRAVE_API_KEY%3E%22%7D%7D

Run in your terminal:

```shell
code --add-mcp '{"name":"brave-search-mcp-server","command":"npx","args":["-y","@brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3"],"env":{"BRAVE_API_KEY":"<BRAVE_API_KEY>"}}'
```

Copilot CLI:

```shell
copilot mcp add brave-search-mcp-server --env BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3
```

### Cursor

Add to Cursor: cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=brave-search-mcp-server&config=eyJjb21tYW5kIjoibnB4IiwiYXJncyI6WyIteSIsIkBicmF2ZS9icmF2ZS1zZWFyY2gtbWNwLXNlcnZlckAyLjEuMyJdLCJlbnYiOnsiQlJBVkVfQVBJX0tFWSI6IjxCUkFWRV9BUElfS0VZPiJ9fQ%3D%3D

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Claude Code

Run in your terminal:

```shell
claude mcp add -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> brave-search-mcp-server -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3
```

### Codex

Run in your terminal:

```shell
codex mcp add --env BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> brave-search-mcp-server -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3
```

### Antigravity

Add to ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Gemini CLI

Run in your terminal:

```shell
gemini mcp add -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> brave-search-mcp-server npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3
```

### OpenClaw

In a terminal: Run openclaw mcp add brave-search-mcp-server --command npx, with --arg before each argument (-y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3) and --env NAME=value for each variable it needs.

### OpenCode

Run in your terminal:

```shell
opencode mcp add brave-search-mcp-server --env BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3
```

### Hermes Agent

Add to ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

```json
{
  "mcp_servers": {
    "brave-search-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server@2.1.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

---
From Pluginboard (https://pluginboard.ai).