Brave Search

Visit https://brave.com/search/api/ and sign up for an API key. The free tier provides 2,000 queries per month. Copy your BRAVE_API_KEY for use in the configuration.

Add the Brave Search MCP server to your claude_desktop_config.json using npx. The server runs locally and calls the Brave API with your key.

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

Alternatively, run the server via Docker to avoid any local Node.js dependency.

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

Restart Claude Desktop or your MCP client. The eight Brave Search tools (brave_web_search, brave_local_search, brave_news_search, brave_video_search, brave_image_search, brave_summarizer, brave_place_search, brave_llm_context) will be available.

Use BRAVE_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS or BRAVE_MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS environment variables to control which tools Claude can use, reducing the tool surface if desired.

{
  "env": {
    "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE",
    "BRAVE_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS": "brave_web_search brave_news_search brave_summarizer"
  }
}