Brave Search MCP Server

Content

Brave Search MCP Server is Brave's official Model Context Protocol server for the Brave Search API. It gives Claude and other MCP clients access to web search, local search, place search, image search, video search, news search, LLM-context retrieval, and summarizer tools.

Version 2.x defaults to stdio transport to match common MCP client conventions. HTTP transport remains available when configured with an environment variable or runtime argument. The server requires a Brave Search API key.

Source Review

• https://brave.com/search/api/
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server#readme
• https://registry.npmjs.org/%40brave%2Fbrave-search-mcp-server
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/blob/main/README.md
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/blob/main/server.json
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/blob/main/package.json
• https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/blob/main/LICENSE

These sources were reviewed on 2026-06-06. Prefer the Brave Search API page, repository README, MCP metadata, package metadata, and license for current setup commands, tool names, transport behavior, API key requirements, and plan limitations.

Features

• Official MCP server from brave/brave-search-mcp-server.
• Stdio transport by default, with optional HTTP transport.
• NPM package @brave/brave-search-mcp-server.
• Required BRAVE_API_KEY environment variable.
• Web search with country, language, result count, freshness, safe search, result filters, goggles, and summary-key options.
• Local business search and place search with location-aware parameters.
• Image, video, and news search tools.
• LLM-context retrieval for RAG and grounded agent workflows.
• Summarizer tool for AI-powered summaries based on summary keys.
• Tool whitelist and blacklist controls through environment variables or command-line options.
• Docker and VS Code installation examples in the README.

Installation

For local stdio usage, configure an MCP client with the official npm package and provide a Brave Search API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-brave-search-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

To run HTTP transport instead, follow the README's BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT or --transport http guidance and bind the server only where trusted clients can reach it.

Use Cases

• Ground Claude answers with current Brave web search results.
• Retrieve LLM-optimized context for a research query.
• Search current news with freshness controls.
• Look up places, local businesses, ratings, hours, and contact metadata.
• Compare image or video search results before selecting sources.
• Generate a summary from a Brave web-search summary key.
• Restrict an MCP client to only web search or LLM-context tools through tool whitelisting.
• Use safe-search, country, language, and freshness options for repeatable research workflows.

Safety and Privacy

Search MCP servers are read-only in the sense that they do not mutate a local project, but they still send user intent and sometimes location context to a third-party API. Treat queries as potentially sensitive, especially for product research, investigations, legal questions, medical topics, security research, or people-search workflows.

Keep BRAVE_API_KEY secret, review plan limits before high-volume agent loops, and require source citation review before trusting generated summaries. If using HTTP transport, bind it carefully and avoid exposing the server to untrusted networks or clients.

Duplicate Check

No Brave Search MCP Server, brave/brave-search-mcp-server, @brave/brave-search-mcp-server, or Brave Search API MCP entry was found in content/mcp, content/tools, content/guides, content/agents, or content/skills.