mcp servers · featured
Brave Search MCP Server
Official Brave Search MCP: web, local, image, video, news, places, summarizer, LLM context. STDIO default in 2.x. Needs a Brave Search API key.
install via your agent of choice
❯ npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio
## what it does
tl;dr: this is Brave’s own MCP, not the archived servers-archived Brave Search reference. Default transport is STDIO as of 2.x (BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT=http or --transport http if you still want HTTP). Image search in 2.x returns API-shaped results, not base64 blobs.
API key: Brave Search API → dashboard keys. Env: BRAVE_API_KEY or BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE.
Install (from their README)
{
"mcpServers": {
"brave-search": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio"],
"env": {
"BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}Docker image named in the README: mcp/brave-search (also docker.io/mcp/brave-search).
Tools (names from the README)
| Tool | Notes they document |
|---|---|
brave_web_search | Query max 400 chars / 50 words; optional summary for summarizer key |
brave_local_search | Pro plan for full local; else falls back to web |
brave_video_search | |
brave_image_search | 2.x: no base64 payload |
brave_news_search | Default freshness pd (last 24h) |
brave_summarizer | Needs key from a web search with summary: true |
brave_place_search | POIs; lat/long or location string |
brave_llm_context | Pre-extracted snippets for RAG |
Local search “full” capability is a Pro plan claim in their README. We did not run this server.
Related: Fetch MCP (URL fetch, not search).
## compatibility
claude-desktop ✓
cursor ✓
claude-code ✓
## exposed tools
→ brave_web_search
→ brave_local_search
→ brave_video_search
→ brave_image_search
→ brave_news_search
→ brave_summarizer
→ brave_place_search
→ brave_llm_context
## embed this badge
cache ✓ in cache.directory
