Perplexity
Exposes Perplexity AI's search capabilities to Claude, enabling real-time web search and information retrieval within the assistant. The project is currently in active development with plans to support Perplexity Spaces and multi-source data synthesi
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to exposes perplexity ai's search capabilities to claude, enabling real-time web search and information retrieval within the assistant. the project is currently in active development with plans to suppor...
Exposes Perplexity AI's search capabilities to Claude, enabling real-time web search and information retrieval within the assistant. The project is currently in active development with plans to support Perplexity Spaces and multi-source data synthesi
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Exposes Perplexity AI's search capabilities to Claude, enabl
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx perplexity-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Perplexity
The Perplexity MCP server gives Claude real-time web search capabilities backed by Perplexity AI's Sonar API. When Claude needs current information — recent news, live documentation, up-to-date pricing, or anything beyond its training cutoff — it calls the perplexity_search_web tool, which performs an online search and returns synthesized, cited results. The server supports multiple Sonar models including sonar-pro (200k context), sonar-deep-research, and sonar-reasoning, so you can tune the depth and cost of each search to your use case.
Prerequisites
- A Perplexity AI account with an API key (get one at https://www.perplexity.ai/settings/api)
- Python's uv package manager installed (https://github.com/astral-sh/uv)
- Claude Desktop, Cursor, or another MCP-compatible client
- PERPLEXITY_API_KEY environment variable set to your key
Obtain a Perplexity API key
Log in to perplexity.ai, go to Settings > API, and generate a new API key. Copy it for use in the server configuration.
Install via Smithery (recommended) or configure manually
The fastest path is the Smithery CLI installer. Alternatively, add the server block manually to your client config file.
npx -y @smithery/cli install perplexity-mcp --client claudeAdd the server configuration manually
If not using Smithery, edit your claude_desktop_config.json directly. On macOS the file is at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.
Optionally set the Perplexity model
The PERPLEXITY_MODEL variable defaults to 'sonar'. Set it to sonar-pro, sonar-reasoning, sonar-reasoning-pro, or sonar-deep-research for more powerful (and more expensive) searches.
# Available models: sonar, sonar-pro, sonar-reasoning, sonar-reasoning-pro, sonar-deep-research, r1-1776Restart your MCP client and verify
Restart Claude Desktop after saving the config. Ask Claude to search for something recent to confirm the perplexity_search_web tool is active.
Perplexity Examples
Client configuration
Add this block to claude_desktop_config.json to enable Perplexity web search in Claude Desktop.
{
"mcpServers": {
"perplexity-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["perplexity-mcp"],
"env": {
"PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-perplexity-api-key",
"PERPLEXITY_MODEL": "sonar"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Use these prompts in Claude once the server is connected to trigger live web searches.
- "Search the web for what's new at Anthropic in the past week"
- "Search the web for the latest Node.js LTS release notes"
- "Find recent news about OpenAI in the past day"
- "Search for the current price of the GPT-4o API and compare it to Claude Sonnet"Troubleshooting Perplexity
perplexity_search_web returns an authentication error
Double-check that PERPLEXITY_API_KEY is set correctly in the env block of your config and that the key is active in your Perplexity account. API keys are not automatically active — you may need to enable API access in your account settings.
uvx perplexity-mcp fails with 'No module named' error
Ensure uv is installed and up to date. Run 'uv self update' and then retry. If the issue persists, try installing explicitly: 'uv tool install perplexity-mcp'.
Search results seem outdated despite using the recency filter
The recency parameter accepts 'day', 'week', 'month', or 'year'. Explicitly specify the recency in your prompt, for example: 'search for ... in the past day'. The default recency when not specified is month.
Frequently Asked Questions about Perplexity
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes perplexity ai's search capabilities to claude, enabling real-time web search and information retrieval within the assistant. the project is currently in active development with plans to support perplexity spaces and multi-source data synthesi It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Perplexity?
Follow the installation instructions on the Perplexity GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Perplexity?
Perplexity works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Perplexity free to use?
Yes, Perplexity is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up Perplexity in Your Editor
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Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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