# Brave Search MCP Server (MCP server) > Brave Search MCP Server is an MCP server that adds search and knowledge tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Brave Search MCP Server: web results, images, videos, rich results, AI summaries, and more. It has 1,485 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server. An MCP server implementation that integrates the Brave Search API, providing comprehensive search capabilities including web search, local business search, place search, image search, video search, news search, LLM context, and AI-powered summarization. This project supports both STDIO and HTTP transports, with STDIO as the default mode. ## Key facts | Fact | Value | |---|---| | Repository | https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server | | GitHub stars | 1,485 | | License | MIT | | Language | TypeScript | | Transport | stdio | | Packages | npm: @brave/brave-search-mcp-server | | Remote URL | none | | Needs API key | yes | | Official | yes | | Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code | | Category | AI & search | | Latest release | v2.1.4 (Sep 17, 2026) | | Last commit | Oct 5, 2026 | | MCP registry name | io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server | ## Install ### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json) ```json { "mcpServers": { "brave-search-mcp-server": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server" ], "env": { "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-value" } } } } ``` Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards. ### Claude Code ```sh claude mcp add --env BRAVE_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio brave-search-mcp-server -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server ``` ### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json) ```json { "mcpServers": { "brave-search-mcp-server": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server" ], "env": { "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-value" } } } } ``` Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project. ### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json) ```json { "inputs": [ { "type": "promptString", "id": "brave_api_key", "description": "BRAVE_API_KEY", "password": true } ], "servers": { "brave-search-mcp-server": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server" ], "env": { "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${input:brave_api_key}" } } } } ``` Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07. ## Environment variables - `BRAVE_API_KEY` (secret) (required): Your API key for the service ## Tools - `query`: Search terms (max 400 chars, 50 words) - `country`: Country code (default: "US") - `search_lang`: Search language (default: "en") - `ui_lang`: UI language (default: "en-US") - `count`: Results per page (1-20, default: 10) - `offset`: Pagination offset (max 9, default: 0) - `safesearch`: Content filtering ("off", "moderate", "strict", default: "moderate") - `freshness`: Time filter ("pd", "pw", "pm", "py", or date range) - `text_decorations`: Include highlighting markers (default: true) - `spellcheck`: Enable spell checking (default: true) - `result_filter`: Filter result types (default: ["web", "query"]) - `goggles`: Custom re-ranking definitions - `units`: Measurement units ("metric" or "imperial") - `extra_snippets`: Get additional excerpts (Pro plans only) - `summary`: Enable summary key generation for AI summarization - `entity_info`: Include entity information (default: false) - `inline_references`: Add source URL references (default: false) - `latitude`: Latitude of the search center (-90 to 90). Typically paired with longitude. - `longitude`: Longitude of the search center (-180 to 180). Typically paired with latitude. - `location`: Location string used as an alternative to latitude/longitude. For US locations prefer the form (e.g., san francisco ca… - `radius`: Search radius around the supplied coordinates, in meters. If omitted, the search is performed globally. - `geoloc`: Optional geolocation token used to refine results. - `api-version`: Brave API version (YYYY-MM-DD) - `accept`: Response media type (application/json or /) - `cache-control`: Use no-cache to request fresh content - `user-agent`: User agent originating the request - `maximum_number_of_urls`: Maximum number of URLs to include (1-50) - `maximum_number_of_tokens`: Approximate maximum number of context tokens (1024-32768) - `maximum_number_of_snippets`: Maximum number of snippets to include (1-256) - `context_threshold_mode`: Threshold mode ("disabled", "strict", "lenient", "balanced") - `maximum_number_of_tokens_per_url`: Maximum tokens per URL (512-8192) - `maximum_number_of_snippets_per_url`: Maximum snippets per URL (1-100) - `enable_local`: Enable local recall - `enable_source_metadata`: Include source metadata enrichment - `x-loc-lat`: Client latitude (-90 to 90) - `x-loc-long`: Client longitude (-180 to 180) - `x-loc-city`: Client city name - `x-loc-state`: Client state or region code - `x-loc-state-name`: Client state or region name - `x-loc-country`: Client country code ## Similar MCP servers - [Context7](https://appsgit.com/mcp-servers/context7): Up-to-date code docs for any prompt. 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