# Tinysearch (MCP server)

> Tinysearch is an MCP server that adds tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Self-hosted web research for MCP agents. It has 230 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with uvx tinysuite-search.

TinySearch searches, crawls, and reranks the web locally, then gives your agent only the evidence worth putting in its context.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/TinySuiteHQ/TinySearch |
| GitHub stars | 230 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | Python |
| Transport | stdio |
| Packages | docker: docker.io/marcellm01/tinysearch:v0.4.0; pypi: tinysuite-search |
| Remote URL | none |
| Needs API key | no |
| Official | yes |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code |
| Category | Other |
| Latest release | v0.6.5 (Sep 21, 2026) |
| Last commit | Sep 21, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | io.github.MarcellM01/tinysearch |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tinysearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "tinysuite-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_CONFIG_PATH": "your-value",
        "SEARXNG_URL": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_BACKEND": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_MODEL": "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 MCP_TRANSPORT=your-value --env TINYSEARCH_CONFIG_PATH=your-value --env SEARXNG_URL=your-value --env TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_BACKEND=your-value --env TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_MODEL=your-value --transport stdio tinysearch -- uvx tinysuite-search
```

### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tinysearch": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "tinysuite-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_CONFIG_PATH": "your-value",
        "SEARXNG_URL": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_BACKEND": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_MODEL": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

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

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "tinysearch": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "tinysuite-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_CONFIG_PATH": "your-value",
        "SEARXNG_URL": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_BACKEND": "your-value",
        "TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_MODEL": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07.

## Environment variables

- `MCP_TRANSPORT`: MCP transport to serve: stdio (default), sse, or streamable-http.
- `TINYSEARCH_CONFIG_PATH`: Path to a tinysearch_config.json inside the container, for overriding search/embedding defaults.
- `SEARXNG_URL`: SearXNG search endpoint URL. Only needed if not using the bundled Compose SearXNG service.
- `TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_BACKEND`: Embedding implementation: onnx (default) or openai_compatible.
- `TINYSEARCH_EMBEDDING_MODEL`: Local ONNX preset (fast, balanced, quality) or a Hugging Face ONNX repository id.

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