Brave Search

Recommended: Brave’s own MCP server, @brave/brave-search-mcp-server, over stdio with an API key.

The package name changed — do not use the old one

Configs and tutorials widely recommend @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search. That is the retired reference implementation. It was moved out of the modelcontextprotocol/servers repository when search vendors took ownership of their own servers, and it is no longer the maintained path. Brave’s package is @brave/brave-search-mcp-server, and it has a much larger tool surface.

config.json

{
  "type": "mcp",
  "name": "Brave Search",
  "slug": "brave-search",
  "provider": "brave",
  "icon": "https://brave.com/static-assets/images/brave-favicon.png",
  "tagline": "Web, news, image, video, and local search",
  "mcp": {
    "transport": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio"],
    "env": {
      "BRAVE_API_KEY": "…"
    },
    "authType": "none"
  }
}

authType is none because the credential travels in the environment, not through an auth flow. Nothing to trigger after source_test.

Getting an API key

1. https://brave.com/search/api/ → Get API Key
2. Create an account or sign in, and select a plan. The free plan allows 2,000 queries/month; some tools are Pro-only.
3. Copy the key from https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/keys

Alternatives to putting the key in env: BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE (a path to a file containing the key — it takes precedence, and is the better choice if the user would rather not have the key sitting in config.json), or the --brave-api-key flag.

Tools

brave_web_search, brave_local_search, brave_news_search, brave_image_search, brave_video_search, brave_place_search, brave_summarizer, brave_llm_context.

permissions.json (Explore mode)

{
  "allowedMcpPatterns": [
    { "pattern": "search", "comment": "All search operations" },
    { "pattern": "summarizer", "comment": "Summarization is read-only" },
    { "pattern": "llm_context", "comment": "Context retrieval is read-only" }
  ]
}

Every tool this server exposes is read-only, so it is safe to allow the full surface in Explore mode.

Gotchas

• Ask whether the user needs this at all. Vorno already has WebSearch and WebFetch, plus in-app browser tools. Brave is worth adding when the user wants a specific search index, structured result objects they can post-process, news or image or local-business verticals, or a quota they control. It is not a general upgrade over the built-in tools.
• The free tier’s 2,000 queries/month is easy to burn through in agent loops. Say so if the user plans automated use.
• --transport stdio is the default but stating it explicitly avoids ambiguity if the user later copies the config somewhere expecting HTTP.
• If run in HTTP mode instead, BRAVE_MCP_HOST defaults to 127.0.0.1. It only needs 0.0.0.0 inside a container — do not set that on a desktop.
• Requires npx on PATH. Check node --version before writing the config.

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Verified 2026-08-17 against the brave/brave-search-mcp-server README and the modelcontextprotocol/servers repository (which confirms the old package’s removal).