search2ai MCP Server: Web Search, News and Page Fetch Through Your Own Provider Keys
Lets Claude, Cursor and other assistants search the web, read news and fetch page text through the search providers you choose.
search2ai is a self-hosted search gateway, and the MCP part is one of its ways in. The simple route runs it on your computer with npx, and your assistant gets three tools. You need a key for at least one supported search provider, such as Search1API, Tavily, Brave or Exa.
If one provider is rate limited or fails, it tries the next one in the order you set and reports which one answered. You can also deploy the HTTP service and connect clients to its /mcp address. Your searches and links go to the provider you configure.
Good for
- People who want web search in Claude Desktop or Cursor with their own provider key
- Developers who want one search setup that switches providers when one fails
- Teams that already run search2ai as a gateway and want assistants to use it too
Works in
12 should work
Tap an app to see how to set it up and any known problems.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Supports local MCP servers.
Client does not support this transport.
Client does not support this transport.
Install search2ai MCP
Claude Code
- 1
Copy this prompt.
Add the search2ai MCP server to Claude Code. Run this command: claude mcp add search2ai -e SEARCH1API_KEY=<SEARCH1API_KEY> -- npx -y search2ai mcp Ask me for SEARCH1API_KEY and only put the values in that config, nowhere else. Then check that it loaded and tell me if I need to sign in or restart.
- 2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.
Requires Node.js.
The config for Claude Desktop and Cursor matches the README example, which runs npx -y search2ai mcp. Other clients use the same command and env in their own format; those are adapted by us and not named in the README. Replace the key with one for your provider. Any supported provider key works, such as TAVILY_KEY or BRAVE_KEY, as listed in the README. Needs Node.js 22.18 or newer.
Built from the package data we hold. Not yet tested by us.
Tools
Searches the web and returns ranked results
Runs a web search through the first search provider you configured that answers, and falls back to the next one if it fails. Each result has a title, link, snippet and date, and you can filter by country, language, domain, recency or date range.
Try: “Search the web for the latest Hono release notes and give me the top 5 links.”
Network ·
searchSearches recent news only
Takes the same inputs as the web search but asks the provider for news sources only. Use it for current events instead of general pages.
Try: “Find news from the past week about Cloudflare Workers outages.”
Network ·
newsFetches a page and returns its main text
Sends a link to your configured page-extraction provider, which returns the page title and its main text as markdown or plain text. The page is fetched by the provider, not by your computer.
Try: “Fetch https://hono.dev/docs/getting-started/cloudflare-workers and summarize the setup steps.”
Network ·
crawl
Read from the source code
Permissions
low risk · 2 things to watch
Low risk
All 3 tools only read from the web through your search provider, so the main risks are the key you supply and what you send to that provider. If you run the HTTP service, bind it to 127.0.0.1 or set AUTH_KEYS.
What it can do
- Read your data
- Create and change things
- Delete things
- Read-only modeHow to turn it on
Watch out for
The HTTP mode listens on all interfaces
Running the serve command binds to 0.0.0.0 by default, and without AUTH_KEYS anyone who can reach the port can spend your provider quota. Start it with --host 127.0.0.1 or set AUTH_KEYS. github.com
Your searches go to a third-party provider
Every query and every link you fetch is sent to the provider you configured, under that provider's terms. Pick a provider you are comfortable sharing queries with. github.com
Security advisories
No published security advisories as of Nov 1, 2026.
Technical details
| Turning on read-only | All 3 tools only read, so there is nothing to switch off. |
|---|---|
| Talks to | The search or page-extraction provider you configure (for example Search1API, Tavily, Brave or Exa) receives each query and link |
| Sign-in and keys | You put the provider key in the env block of your MCP client config (or a .env file in the working directory). The gateway reads it from the environment. |
Questions
Is search2ai official?
No. It is an independent open source project from fatwang2, not made by Search1API, Tavily, Brave or any other search company. The README does say Search1API is its companion hosted service.
Do I need an API key?
Yes, in most cases. You need a key for at least one supported provider, for example SEARCH1API_KEY, TAVILY_KEY, BRAVE_KEY or EXA_KEY. The Parallel provider needs no key but is only used when you name it in SEARCH_SERVICE.
Which providers does it support?
Search1API, Tavily, Brave, Exa, Serper, SerpAPI, Google, SearXNG, Jina, Firecrawl and Parallel. Not every provider covers search, news and page extraction, so each tool needs a provider that supports it.
Can it change or delete anything?
No. The search, news and crawl tools only read.
Does it run locally or in the cloud?
Locally by default: your assistant starts it with npx and it talks to your search provider. You can also deploy the HTTP service yourself and connect to its /mcp address, which needs a client that supports Streamable HTTP.
Does it work with ChatGPT or the Claude web app?
Only if you deploy the HTTP service somewhere those apps can reach and they accept a custom address. The README documents the local setup for Claude Desktop and Cursor, and does not name ChatGPT or Claude on the web.
How do I add it to Claude Desktop or Cursor?
Use the install box above. Add your provider key to the env block of the config.
Information
updated Nov 2, 2026
- Publisher
- Community
- Package
search2ai- Registry
- npm
- Transport
- stdio, Streamable HTTP
- Auth
- API key
- Version
- 0.3.2
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- Oct 22, 2026
- Open issues
- 14
Sources
Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from. Issues, quotes and findings above link to their own source.
Show all 3Hide
- search2ai README · github.com
- search2ai CLI (v0.3.2) · github.com
- search2ai MCP tool registrations (v0.3.2) · github.com