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Agent Search MCP

Agent Search MCP is an MCP server that adds search and knowledge tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Free-first Chinese and English web search MCP using zero-key sources and inspectable evidence. It has 112 GitHub stars, is released under the Apache-2.0 license and runs locally with npx -y agent-search-mcp.

github.com/lennney/agent-search-mcp (opens in a new tab)

Data as of from the GitHub API and the official MCP registry; description from the project's repository. Report an error

View on GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Install Agent Search MCP

Generated from the server's MCP registry entry. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agent-search-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "YDC_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "TENCENT_WSA_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "BOCHA_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env BRAVE_API_KEY=your-value --env TAVILY_API_KEY=your-value --env EXA_API_KEY=your-value --env YDC_API_KEY=your-value --env TENCENT_WSA_API_KEY=your-value --env BOCHA_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio agent-search-mcp -- npx -y agent-search-mcp

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agent-search-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "YDC_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "TENCENT_WSA_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "BOCHA_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "brave_api_key",
      "description": "BRAVE_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "tavily_api_key",
      "description": "TAVILY_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "exa_api_key",
      "description": "EXA_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "ydc_api_key",
      "description": "YDC_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "tencent_wsa_api_key",
      "description": "TENCENT_WSA_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "bocha_api_key",
      "description": "BOCHA_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "agent-search-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${input:brave_api_key}",
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "${input:tavily_api_key}",
        "EXA_API_KEY": "${input:exa_api_key}",
        "YDC_API_KEY": "${input:ydc_api_key}",
        "TENCENT_WSA_API_KEY": "${input:tencent_wsa_api_key}",
        "BOCHA_API_KEY": "${input:bocha_api_key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

Environment variables

Variables the server reads at startup.

NameRequiredDescription
BRAVE_API_KEYsecretNoBrave Search API key (optional, enables Brave engine)
TAVILY_API_KEYsecretNoTavily Search API key (optional, enables Tavily engine)
EXA_API_KEYsecretNoExa Search API key (optional, enables Exa engine)
YDC_API_KEYsecretNoYou.com Search API key (optional, enables You.com engine)
TENCENT_WSA_API_KEYsecretNoTencent Web Search API key (optional, enables Tencent WSA engine)
BOCHA_API_KEYsecretNoBocha Web Search API key (optional, enables Bocha engine)
SERPER_API_KEYsecretNoSerper API key (optional, enables Google SERP search)
SEARCH_PROVIDER_MODENoProvider policy: freefirst, qualityescalation, paidfirst, or freeonly
PAID_ENGINE_ORDERNoComma-separated optional-provider preference order

Tools (7)

Parsed from the Tools section of the README; check the repository for the current list.

  • free_search

    Multi-engine Web Search with bounded fallback

  • free_search_advanced

    Filtered waterfall search and optional enrichment

  • free_extract

    Extract a URL as clean Markdown

  • fetch_github_readme

    Fetch a public GitHub repository README

  • fetch_csdn_article

    Fetch a CSDN article

  • fetch_juejin_article

    Fetch a Juejin article

  • search_with_synthesis

    Search evidence with an LLM synthesis hint

About Agent Search MCP

A Node.js MCP server and CLI for English and Chinese web search. Agent Search MCP starts without an API key. It returns compact multi-source evidence, records provider failures, and bounds work with request and evidence budgets. Paid providers run only when policy and credentials allow.

  • mcp
  • ai-agent
  • chinese-search
  • mcp-server
  • self-hosted
  • typescript
  • web-search
  • model-context-protocol
  • claude
  • codex

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FAQ

Agent Search MCP FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

How do I install the Agent Search MCP MCP server?

Add the command npx -y agent-search-mcp to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is Agent Search MCP free?

The server is open source under the Apache-2.0 license, so running it is free. It does not declare any required API key.

Is Agent Search MCP actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Sep 16, 2026. The latest release is v3.2.1, published Aug 11, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months.