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Brave Search MCP

Brave's official MCP server for web, news, image, video and local search plus LLM-ready page context from the Brave Search API.

MCP server★ 1.6k starsMITResearchSoftware development

View on GitHub

Short answer: how to install Brave Search MCP

Brave Search MCP is an MIT-licensed, open-source MCP server on GitHub (brave/brave-search-mcp-server) with 1,552 stars as of November 1, 2026. Its last push was on October 30, 2026. To install it in Claude Code, run claude mcp add --transport stdio brave-search --env BRAVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio. Replace the placeholder API keys or tokens with your own. It works with Any MCP client, Claude Desktop, VS Code; steps for each are below.

Key facts

Type
MCP server
Jobs it fits
Research a market or topic; Search the web from an AI assistant
Fields
Research, Software development
Works with
Any MCP client, Claude Desktop, VS Code
GitHub
brave/brave-search-mcp-server
Licence
MIT
Stars
1,552 as of November 1, 2026
Last updated
October 30, 2026 (last push to GitHub)
Author
@brave
Submitted by
@aiteamguide
Added to the Hub
October 31, 2026

Needs a Brave Search API key (BRAVE_API_KEY).

Install / Use it

MITLocal MCP server

Download ZIP View source

Cursor

Add to Cursor

Replace the placeholder values (API keys, tokens) with your own after adding it.

Or paste into ~/.cursor/mcp.json

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

Claude Code

Run in your terminal

claude mcp add --transport stdio brave-search --env BRAVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio

Replace the placeholder values (API keys, tokens) with your own after adding it.

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config), then restart Claude

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

Replace the placeholder values (API keys, tokens) with your own after adding it.

VS Code

Add to VS Code

Replace the placeholder values (API keys, tokens) with your own after adding it.

Or from the command line

code --add-mcp '{"name":"brave-search","type":"stdio","command":"npx","args":["-y","@brave/brave-search-mcp-server","--transport","stdio"],"env":{"BRAVE_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"}}'

Codex

Run in your terminal

codex mcp add brave-search --env BRAVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio

Replace the placeholder values (API keys, tokens) with your own after adding it.

Safety: Runs code from a third-party repo. Review the source and the permissions before installing.

Commands and configs are taken from the project's README and re-wrapped in each app's documented format. If they differ, the README wins.

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Summary written by AITeamGuide in our own words. GitHub numbers come from the public GitHub API and refresh daily. Maintainer and want a correction or removal? Tell us. Got something similar? Submit it to the Hub.