MCP.Market

Brave Search MCP server

by brave·io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server·v2.1.3·1.6k stars

Brave Search MCP Server: web results, images, videos, rich results, AI summaries, and more.

A85/100grade A
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Safety scan
A85/100

full report

Adoption
Established

1.6k stars35k downloads/wk

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If you have run it, two minutes of your experience saves the next person an afternoon.

Brave Search tools (8)

write = sends, deletes, buys or posts

Read from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.

  • brave_image_search
  • brave_llm_context
  • brave_local_search
  • brave_news_search
  • brave_place_search
  • brave_summarizer
  • brave_video_search
  • brave_web_search

Public scan report

scanner v0.1.10 · 2026-11-02 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it

no findings
  • Code scan56 source files scanned25/25
  • –Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
  • –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
  • Auth qualitystatic API keys via environment variables6/15
  • Maintenancelast push 3 days ago15/15
  • Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner; GitHub account older than a year9/10
Overall 85/100. Components that don't apply are left out of the denominator. Any critical finding is an F.RubricAppeal a findingJSON

How Brave Search compares

Against every graded Web search MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.

Safety score
85/100
higher than 75% of 3,443 Web search servers
Tools
8
the typical Web search server has 5
Tools that change things
0%
typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break
GitHub stars
1,552
more than 95% of 1,781 Web search servers
Downloads a week
34,601
more than 97% of 994 Web search servers with a package

What its tools let an agent do: 8 read

Install Brave Search in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code

Runs npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server on your machine. Read the scan report first; the gateway never runs local packages.

claude mcp add brave-search-mcp-server -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server
Add to Cursor

What the publisher says

From the Brave Search repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub

Brave Search MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that integrates the Brave Search API, providing comprehensive search capabilities including web search, local business search, place search, image search, video search, news search, LLM context, and AI-powered summarization. This project supports both STDIO and HTTP transports, with STDIO as the default mode.

Migration

1.x to 2.x

Default transport now STDIO

To follow established MCP conventions, the server now defaults to STDIO. If you would like to continue using HTTP, you will need to set the BRAVEMCPTRANSPORT environment variable to http, or provide the runtime argument --transport http when launching the server.

Response structure of braveimagesearch

Version 1.x of the MCP server would return base64-encoded image data along with image URLs. This dramatically slowed down the response, as well as consumed unnecessarily context in the session. Version 2.x removes the base64-encoded data, and returns a response object that more closely reflects the original Brave Search API response. The updated output schema is defined in src/tools/images/schemas/output.ts.

Tools

Web Search (bravewebsearch)

Performs comprehensive web searches with rich result types and advanced filtering options.

Parameters:

  • query (string, required): Search terms (max 400 chars, 50 words)
  • country (string, optional): Country code (default: "US")
  • search_lang (string, optional): Search language (default: "en")
  • ui_lang (string, optional): UI language (default: "en-US")
  • count (number, optional): Results per page (1-20, default: 10)
  • offset (number, optional): Pagination offset (max 9, default: 0)
  • safesearch (string, optional): Content filtering ("off", "moderate", "strict", default: "moderate")
  • freshness (string, optional): Time filter ("pd", "pw", "pm", "py", or date range)
  • text_decorations (boolean, optional): Include highlighting markers (default: true)
  • spellcheck (boolean, optional): Enable spell checking (default: true)
  • result_filter (array, optional): Filter result types (default: ["web", "query"])
  • goggles (array, optional): Custom re-ranking definitions

Local Search (bravelocalsearch)

Searches for local businesses and places with detailed information including ratings, hours, and AI-generated descriptions.

Parameters:

  • Same as bravewebsearch with automatic location filtering
  • Automatically includes "web" and "locations" in result_filter

Note: Requires Pro plan for full local search capabilities. Falls back to web search otherwise.

Video Search (bravevideosearch)

Searches for videos with comprehensive metadata and thumbnail information.

Parameters:

  • query (string, required): Search terms (max 400 chars, 50 words)
  • country (string, optional): Country code (default: "US")
  • search_lang (string, optional): Search language (default: "en")
  • ui_lang (string, optional): UI language (default: "en-US")
  • count (number, optional): Results per page (1-50, default: 20)
  • offset (number, optional): Pagination offset (max 9, default: 0)
  • spellcheck (boolean, optional): Enable spell checking (default: true)
  • safesearch (string, optional): Content filtering ("off", "moderate", "strict", default: "moderate")
  • freshness (string, optional): Time filter ("pd", "pw", "pm", "py", or date range)

Image Search (braveimagesearch)

Searches for images with metadata including URLs, dimensions, and confidence scores.

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.

Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.

Brave Search: common questions

Is Brave Search MCP server safe?
Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (85/100). Read the Brave Search safety report
How do I install Brave Search?
It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.
Does Brave Search need an API key?
Yes. The registry entry asks for BRAVE_API_KEY.
Is Brave Search maintained?
The last commit was 16 days ago (2026-10-30). The latest release is v2.1.3.
What can I use instead of Brave Search?
Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Brave MCP server, Zotero MCP server and webclaw MCP server.
How does Brave Search compare with other Web search MCP servers?
safety score 85/100 (higher than 75% of 3,443 Web search servers); tools 8 (the typical Web search server has 5); tools that change things 0% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.

Alternatives to Brave Search

Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.

  • Brave
    Visit https://brave.com/search/api/ for a free API key. Search the web, local businesses, images,…
    A
  • Zotero MCP
    Search, read, annotate, and add to your Zotero research library, local or web.
    B
  • webclaw
    Web scraping, search, crawling, structured extraction and research for AI agents.
    A
  • Perplexity API Platform (moved to ai.perplexity/mcp-server)
    Real-time web search, reasoning, and research through Perplexity's API
    A
  • Perplexity API Platform
    Real-time web search, reasoning, and research through Perplexity's API
    A