Web & SearchMCP RegistryremoteA · 91

brave MCP server

ai.smithery · Updated 1y ago

Visit https://brave.com/search/api/ for a free API key. Search the web, local businesses, images,…

At a glance

brave is an MCP server in the Web & Search category. It is hosted remotely and connects over HTTP, and needs Authorization. It scores A (91/100) on the MCP Skills Hub health score as of Oct 28, 2026.

Source 1.5k

One-click install

VS Code VS Code Insiders Cursor

Opens your editor and pre-fills the config. Your editor will ask before adding it.

How to install brave in your AI client

Setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Cline and VS Code — copy-paste ready.

How to install brave in Claude CodeAnthropic's agentic CLI

Add the server

bash

claude mcp add --transport http brave https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp --header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>'

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
3
Verify it's connected
bash
```
claude mcp list
```
Sharing it with your team?
Add `--scope project` to write it to .mcp.json in the repository root, which you can commit (with the secrets left as environment variables).
Use it in a session
Ask Claude to use the tools this server exposes. It discovers them automatically.

How to install brave in Claude DesktopDesktop app (MCP config)

Open your MCP config
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add this server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Why the wrapper?
This is a remote (HTTP) server and Claude Desktop only launches local processes, so mcp-remote proxies the connection. It will open a browser window if the server needs OAuth.
Restart Claude Desktop
The tools appear under the 🔌 menu once the app reloads.

How to install brave in CursorAI-first code editor

Create / edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave": {
      "url": "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Enable it
Cursor Settings → MCP → toggle the server on. Tools become available to the Composer/Agent.

How to install brave in Codex CLIOpenAI coding agent

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml

toml

[mcp_servers.brave]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp", "--header", "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"]
env = { AUTH_HEADER = "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" }

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Why the wrapper?
Codex runs MCP servers as local processes, so mcp-remote bridges this HTTP endpoint to stdio.
Run Codex
Codex loads MCP servers from config.toml on startup and exposes their tools to the agent.

How to install brave in WindsurfCodeium's agentic IDE

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave": {
      "serverUrl": "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Reload
Windsurf → Cascade → refresh MCP servers. Cascade can now call the tools.

How to install brave in ClineVS Code autonomous agent

Open Cline → MCP Servers → Configure
Adds to cline_mcp_settings.json.

Add the server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.

How to install brave in VS CodeCopilot / MCP support

Create .vscode/mcp.json

json

{
  "servers": {
    "brave": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Start it
VS Code shows a ▶ Start action above the server entry. Agent mode (Copilot Chat) can then use the tools.

What does brave need from you?

Bearer token — Bearer token for Smithery authentication

AuthorizationrequiredsecretHTTP header
Bearer token for Smithery authentication

What tools does brave expose?

This server requires credentials before it will list its tools, so we cannot enumerate them here. Connect it in your client to see what it offers.

What the code can do

This is a remote server — nothing is installed or run on your machine, so there is no local code to analyze. What it can reach is described above: your requests go to the provider's host.

Before you install

Signals gathered from the source repo and package registry — not a safety verdict.

What it can reach

Third-party hosted service — Your requests and any data in them are sent to server.smithery.ai.
No local execution — Nothing is installed or run on your machine.

Last commit 2 days ago — Actively maintained.
1.5k GitHub stars — Community adoption signal.

Client compatibility

Claude Code: NativeClaude Desktop: Via mcp-remoteCursor: NativeCodex CLI: Via mcp-remoteWindsurf: NativeCline: NativeVS Code: Native

Health score

A · 91

Maintenance, adoption, transparency and packaging — not a safety audit. How this is calculated

Maintenance30%100%
Last commit 2 days ago.
Adoption20%97%
1540 stars.
Transparency20%75%
3/4: ✓ public source repo, ✓ declared license, ✓ documentation, ✗ discoverable tool list.
Provenance15%75%
Links to its own repository; package linkage unverified.
Packaging15%100%
Remote endpoint with documented authentication.

Documentation

Full README

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 BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT environment variable to http, or provide the runtime argument --transport http when launching the server.

Response structure of brave_image_search

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 (brave_web_search)

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
units (string, optional): Measurement units ("metric" or "imperial")
extra_snippets (boolean, optional): Get additional excerpts (Pro plans only)
summary (boolean, optional): Enable summary key generation for AI summarization

Local Search (brave_local_search)

Excerpt — the full document is on GitHub.

Alternatives to brave

Maintain brave? Add a badge to your README

Shows its health grade, and links readers to install steps for every client.

markdown

[![brave on MCP Skills Hub](https://mcp-skills-hub.vercel.app/badge/ai-smithery-brave)](https://mcp-skills-hub.vercel.app/mcps/ai-smithery-brave)

Catalog data refreshed Oct 28, 2026. Something wrong? Report it.