Log inSubmit server
Brave Search MCP logo

Brave Search MCP

by mikechao

Searches the web, images, news, videos, local places, and extracted page content through Brave Search API.

InstallRepositoryWebsite
Full README Compare alternatives Embed widget Claim this listing

Install Brave Search MCP

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mikechao-brave-search-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "brave-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Values are written into the snippet above so you can paste it as is. They never leave your browser.

We couldn’t confirm it starts correctly

We ran the install command but it didn't respond within our test window — this can mean a slow first-time install rather than a real problem.

npx -y brave-search-mcp

No response to initialize.

This is an experimental automated check and can have false negatives — missing environment variables, a slow cold install, etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean something’s wrong. Last checked 26d ago.

Overview

The mikechao/brave-search-mcp MCP server connects MCP clients to Brave Search API for web, image, news, video, local point-of-interest, and LLM context searches. It runs over stdio by default and can also expose a Streamable HTTP endpoint. Reach for it when an agent needs current search results, local businesses, media discovery, or web content prepared for grounding and RAG workflows. A Brave Search API key is required.

Use cases

  • Search the web for current technical information
  • Find images, videos, or recent news
  • Locate nearby businesses and services
  • Retrieve extracted page content for RAG pipelines

Key features

  • Brave web search with freshness and pagination controls
  • Image, news, and video search
  • Local business and point-of-interest search
  • LLM context retrieval with snippet and token limits
  • Stdio and Streamable HTTP runtime modes
  • Optional request policies, rate limits, and audit logging

Tools2

What Brave Search MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Self-reported~30 tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked Today

Recent health check succeeded.

21/22 checks healthy over the last 80d

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 11d ago via OSV.dev · brave-search-mcp (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars130Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads1.3kPackage downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit5mo agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Install checkInconclusiveDidn't respond in our test window — often a slow first install.
Tools exposed2Callable tools this server registers over MCP.
Directory activity3 viewsConfig copies, upvotes, and views on AllMCPs.

How Brave Search MCP works

What mikechao/brave-search-mcp MCP server does

The mikechao/brave-search-mcp MCP server exposes Brave Search API operations as MCP tools. It supports ordinary web searches, image discovery, news lookup, video searches, and searches for local businesses, services, restaurants, and other points of interest. Local search can fall back to a web search when the initial request does not produce location results.

Its context-oriented search tool is intended for agent grounding and retrieval-augmented generation. It can return extracted snippets from matching pages, optionally target one exact URL, and limit the response by result count, URL count, snippets, tokens, and output size. Compact mode applies relevance filtering and local truncation; full mode returns raw snippets without those local reductions.

How it works

The process receives MCP tool calls and sends corresponding requests to Brave Search API. The default transport is stdio, which suits desktop and editor clients that launch local MCP processes. An HTTP flag enables Streamable HTTP mode instead, with the server listening on port 3001 by default at /mcp and binding to 0.0.0.0 unless configured otherwise.

Search tools support result limits, and several support pagination through an offset. Web, news, and video searches can filter results by discovery date, including predefined periods or a custom date range. The image, local, and video tools have their own result limits.

Setup and configuration

The mikechao/brave-search-mcp MCP server requires a Brave Search API account, a selected plan, and an API key from the Brave developer dashboard. Set BRAVE_API_KEY before starting it:

bash
BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp

Use HTTP mode with:

bash
BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp --http

PORT changes the HTTP port, while HOST changes the bind interface. HTTP deployments can restrict accepted hostnames with ALLOWED_HOSTS. Feature settings may be supplied through environment variables or through a TOML file selected by BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG; file mode makes that file the source of truth for overlapping feature settings.

Optional controls include request limits, cooldown windows, policy files, audit logging, query redaction, and requiring a justification string on tool calls. These settings are available in environment mode as documented by the project.

Tools and capabilities

  • brave_web_search: web results with count, pagination, and freshness filters.
  • brave_image_search: image results, with up to 50 results requested.
  • brave_news_search: news results with pagination and freshness filters.
  • brave_video_search: video results with pagination and freshness filters.
  • brave_local_search: local businesses, services, and points of interest.
  • brave_llm_context_search: extracted web snippets for AI grounding, with URL, token, snippet, and response-mode controls.

The project also documents OpenAI Apps and MCP Apps support. When UI mode is enabled for a tool, a corresponding widget can control what is added to model context.

Limitations and notes

All searches depend on Brave Search API access and the limits of the selected API plan. Individual tools cap result counts and pagination values, while context search enforces bounds on queries, tokens, URLs, snippets, and output size. The context query is limited to 400 characters and 50 words. HTTP mode should be configured deliberately, especially its bind host and allowed-host list, when exposed beyond a local process.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

Reviews

No reviews yet — be the first to share how it worked for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Brave Search MCP

mikechao/brave-search-mcp is an MCP server that connects AI clients to Brave Search API. Its main tools search the web, images, news, videos, and local points of interest, while a context search tool returns extracted web content for grounding and retrieval-augmented generation workflows.

Run it with npx after setting a Brave API key: `BRAVE_API_KEY="your_key_here" npx -y brave-search-mcp`. The default transport is stdio, and the command can launch Streamable HTTP mode with the `--http` flag.

`BRAVE_API_KEY` is required. It must contain a Brave Search API key obtained through a Brave Search API account and developer dashboard. `PORT`, `HOST`, and `BRAVE_MCP_CONFIG` are optional environment-only settings.

Yes, it provides `brave_local_search` for businesses, services, restaurants, and other local points of interest. The tool accepts a query, result count, and pagination offset, and falls back to a web search if no location results are found.

Related MCP servers

All in Search & Data Extraction All alternatives
Add a badge to your READMEShow it’s listed — live SVG, Markdown or HTML.

AllMCPs Directory Badge

Full Badge Customizer

Showcase your server listing on GitHub or your project documentation. Embed this dynamic SVG badge to highlight official listing status and live engagement.

Badge Style:
Live Dynamic SVG PreviewBrave Search MCP AllMCPs Directory Badge
Markdown (GitHub README)
[![AllMCPs](https://allmcps.com/api/badge/mikechao-brave-search-mcp?style=directory)](https://allmcps.com/mcp/mikechao-brave-search-mcp)
HTML Embed
<a href="https://allmcps.com/mcp/mikechao-brave-search-mcp"><img src="https://allmcps.com/api/badge/mikechao-brave-search-mcp?style=directory" alt="Brave Search MCP on AllMCPs" /></a>