Brave Search MCP Server

An Apify Actor that provides web and local search capabilities through the Brave Search API via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Features

• Web Search: General queries, news, articles with pagination and freshness controls
• Local Search: Find businesses, restaurants, services with detailed information (addresses, ratings, hours, phone numbers)
• Smart Fallbacks: Local search automatically falls back to web search when no local results are found
• Rate Limiting: Built-in rate limit protection (1 req/sec, 15K/month for free tier)
• MCP Compatible: Works with Claude Desktop, VS Code, LangGraph, and any MCP-compatible client

Tools

brave_web_search

Execute web searches with pagination and filtering.

Inputs:

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	Yes	-	Search terms (max 400 chars)
count	number	No	10	Results per page (1-20)
offset	number	No	0	Pagination offset (0-9)
freshness	string	No	-	Filter: pd (day), pw (week), pm (month), py (year)
safesearch	string	No	moderate	off, moderate, or strict
country	string	No	-	2-letter country code (US, GB, DE, etc.)
searchLang	string	No	-	Language preference (en, es, fr, etc.)

Example:

{
  "query": "artificial intelligence news",
  "count": 5,
  "freshness": "pw",
  "country": "US"
}

brave_local_search

Search for local businesses and places.

Inputs:

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	Yes	-	Local search query
count	number	No	5	Number of results (1-20)

Example:

{
  "query": "pizza near Times Square",
  "count": 10
}

Returns: Business names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings, reviews, price range, opening hours, and AI-generated descriptions.

Getting Started

1. Get a Brave API Key

1. Sign up at Brave Search API
2. Choose a plan (Free tier: 2,000 queries/month)
3. Generate your API key from the developer dashboard

2. Run on Apify

1. Go to this Actor on Apify Store
2. Enter your Brave API key in the input
3. Start the Actor in standby mode
4. Use the MCP endpoint URL with your AI client

3. Configure with Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "url": "https://actors.apify.com/jaclyn/brave-search-mcp/runs/live/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Input Schema

{
  "braveApiKey": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY"
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
braveApiKey	string	Yes	Your Brave Search API key

Rate Limits

The free Brave Search API tier includes:

• 1 request per second
• 2,000 queries per month

For higher limits, upgrade your Brave API plan.

Use Cases

• Research Assistant: Help AI agents find current information on any topic
• News Monitoring: Track recent news with freshness filters
• Local Discovery: Find businesses, restaurants, and services by location
• Content Creation: Gather sources and references for writing
• Competitive Analysis: Research companies and products

Technical Details

• Protocol: Model Context Protocol (MCP) over HTTP
• Transport: StreamableHTTPServerTransport
• Endpoint: /mcp (POST)
• Runtime: Node.js 20+ on Apify platform

Pay Per Event Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Each tool call is charged as one event. See .actor/pay_per_event.json for the pricing schema.

Running Locally

npm install
export BRAVE_API_KEY=your_api_key
npm run start:dev

The server will start at http://localhost:3000/mcp

Deploying to Apify

apify login
apify push

License

MIT License - Based on the official MCP Brave Search server implementation by Anthropic.

Resources

• Brave Search API Documentation
• MCP Protocol Documentation
• Apify MCP Server Documentation