Brave Search MCP Server

Name: Brave Search MCP Server
Author: Brave Software

Brave's own MCP server for querying its search API: web, news, images, video, places and summaries

Official · Brave Software TypeScript Remote (hosted) · Streamable HTTP Local · stdio Web search

GitHub npm Docker Hub Website

94 popularity score ★ 1.6k ↓ 61k/wk

Connect your client

Local (npm)

Add in one click

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code Add to LM Studio Add to Goose

Opens the app, which asks before it adds the server. Then replace each <NAME> in its settings with your value.

Or add it by command or config

It needs BRAVE_API_KEY. Replace each <NAME> with your value.

Claude CodeTerminal

claude mcp add brave-search -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio

Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json

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

Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.json

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

VS Code.vscode/mcp.json

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

Codex~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.brave-search]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio"]

[mcp_servers.brave-search.env]
BRAVE_API_KEY = "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"

Gemini CLITerminal

gemini mcp add --scope user -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> brave-search npx -- -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio

Local (Docker)

Add in one click

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code Add to LM Studio Add to Goose

Opens the app, which asks before it adds the server. Then replace each <NAME> in its settings with your value.

Or add it by command or config

It needs BRAVE_API_KEY. Replace each <NAME> with your value.

Claude CodeTerminal

claude mcp add brave-search -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> -- docker run -i --rm -e BRAVE_API_KEY mcp/brave-search

Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "mcp/brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "mcp/brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "mcp/brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.brave-search]
command = "docker"
args = ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "BRAVE_API_KEY", "mcp/brave-search"]

[mcp_servers.brave-search.env]
BRAVE_API_KEY = "<BRAVE_API_KEY>"

Gemini CLITerminal

gemini mcp add --scope user -e BRAVE_API_KEY=<BRAVE_API_KEY> brave-search docker -- run -i --rm -e BRAVE_API_KEY mcp/brave-search

Settings 11

`BRAVE_API_KEY`	Required: Brave Search API key. Not needed if BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE is set.
`BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE`	Optional: Path to a file holding the API key; takes precedence over BRAVE_API_KEY (for Docker secrets).
`BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT`	Optional: stdio (default) or http.
`BRAVE_MCP_PORT`	Optional: Port for the HTTP transport, default 8080.
`BRAVE_MCP_HOST`	Optional: Bind address for HTTP, default 127.0.0.1; 0.0.0.0 exposes it on all interfaces.
`BRAVE_MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	Optional: Extra Origin values accepted by the HTTP transport.
`BRAVE_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS`	Optional: Host header values accepted by the HTTP transport; unset means not checked.
`BRAVE_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS`	Optional: Space-separated list of the only tools to enable.
`BRAVE_MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS`	Optional: Space-separated list of tools to disable.
`BRAVE_MCP_LOG_LEVEL`	Optional: Logging level, default info.
`BRAVE_MCP_STATELESS`	Optional: Stateless HTTP mode, default true.

In a container, a setting goes in with -e NAME=value after docker run.

What it does

This is Brave's server for its Brave Search API. It gives an assistant eight search tools that each call one part of that API: general web results, news, images, videos, local businesses, points of interest around a place or coordinates, a pre-extracted page-content endpoint meant for grounding model answers, and a summariser that turns an earlier web search into a written answer with optional source links.

The tools take most of the API's own options: country, language, safe-search level, time window (last day, week, month, year or a date range), result counts, paging and Goggles for custom re-ranking. The summariser works in two steps: a web search run with summary turned on returns a key, and that key is passed to brave_summarizer.

It runs on your own machine from npm or the mcp/brave-search Docker image and talks over stdio by default; an HTTP mode can be switched on with a flag or setting. Individual tools can be switched on or off with allow and deny lists. Version 2 changed the default transport from HTTP to stdio and stopped returning base64 image data from brave_image_search, so configurations written for 1.x may need updating. A hosted copy is also listed on Smithery.

What it needs

To run it yourself	Node.js 22+orDocker

A Brave Search API account and API key from brave.com/search/api, on a Search or Answers plan. Node.js 22 or newer for the npm package (the README's development prerequisites), or Docker for the container image. Some features need a Pro plan.

Limits

Each query is capped at 400 characters and 50 words, and paging stops at offset 9. Full local business search needs a Pro plan and otherwise falls back to ordinary web results; extra snippets in web and news results are Pro-only too. brave_summarizer only works on a key returned by a web search run with summary enabled. Since 2.x, image search returns URLs and metadata rather than image data. The HTTP transport has no authentication of its own.

Who it suits

Suits anyone who already has, or is willing to get, a Brave Search API key and wants an assistant to look things up on the public web, in the news, in images and video, or around a place, from one vendor-maintained server. It only reads: nothing is posted or changed anywhere, so the main costs are API usage on your Brave plan and the queries Brave sees. Pick something else if you want search without signing up for a paid-tier API, or need to fetch and render arbitrary pages rather than search results; this server returns what Brave's index holds.

Tools 8

brave_web_search: Searches the web with filters for country, language, freshness, safe search and result types; can request a summary key.
brave_local_search: Finds local businesses with ratings and opening hours; falls back to web results without a Pro plan.
brave_video_search: Returns video results with metadata and thumbnails.
brave_image_search: Returns image results with URLs, sizes and confidence scores.
brave_news_search: Searches recent news articles, defaulting to the last 24 hours.
brave_summarizer: Writes a summary from an earlier web search's summary key, optionally with source links.
brave_place_search: Lists points of interest around coordinates or a named location, with address, hours and contact details.
brave_llm_context: Fetches pre-extracted page text for a query, with token, URL and snippet limits, for grounding answers.

Popularity

94 popularity score, on our list (the bar is 36)

★ 1.6k ↓ 61k/wk

GitHub stars	1,562	38.3 points
Stars in 30 days	+75	9.4 points
npm downloads, last week	60,702	38.3 points
Docker Hub pulls	295,869
Official server	Yes	8 points

Measured 2026-11-07. How the score works.

Where it is published

Code	brave/brave-search-mcp-server ★ 1.6k
npm	@brave/brave-search-mcp-server 2.1.4, 2026-09-17, the one the command runs
Docker Hub	mcp/brave-search

What it can reach

Runs	On your machine, or on the maker's servers
Reaches	The internet
Changes things	No: it reads only
Sign-in	OAuth sign-in for the hosted endpoint; an API key or token to run it yourself
Licence	MIT (npm)
Last code change	2026-11-06

Runs locally (npm or Docker) and sends each query to Brave's Search API using your API key; results come back from Brave. No tool changes anything. The key can be passed as an environment variable, a command-line flag or a file path. In HTTP mode the endpoint has no authentication: it binds to 127.0.0.1 by default and rejects browser requests from non-loopback origins, and Brave's README says to bind to 0.0.0.0 only on a trusted network. Host header checking is optional and off by default. Search queries and API usage are visible to Brave and count against your plan.

Over time

GitHub stars 1.6k +75 (+5 %)

1.6k1.5k

8 Oct 20267 Nov 2026

npm downloads a week 61k +52k (+596 %)

62k1.9k

20 Oct 20257 Nov 2026

Before the site measured it, read from npm's daily download counts.

Popularity score 94 +20 (+27 %)

9474

8 Oct 20267 Nov 2026

What is rising across the directory

Sources

Page checked 2026-10-13.

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MarkdownREADME.md

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Connect your client

Add in one click

Or add it by command or config

Add in one click

Or add it by command or config

Settings 11

What it does

What it needs

Limits

Who it suits

Tools 8

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