websearch-mcp-server

Standalone MCP server for Exa/Parallel free web search. Works with Cursor, Claude Code, Cline, Continue, opencode, and any MCP-compatible AI client.

Install

From npm (recommended)

npm install -g @clint419/websearch-mcp-server

From source

git clone https://github.com/clint419/websearch-mcp-server.git
cd websearch-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

Configure

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@clint419/websearch-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@clint419/websearch-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Cline / Continue

Same pattern. Add to their MCP config with the command above.

Local development

If running from source instead of npm:

{
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["tsx", "/path/to/websearch-mcp-server/src/server.ts"]
}

Environment Variables

| Variable | Values | Default | Description | |----------|--------|---------|-------------| | WEBSEARCH_PROVIDER | exa, parallel | exa | Which upstream to use | | EXA_API_KEY | string | (none) | Optional Exa API key | | PARALLEL_API_KEY | string | (none) | Optional Parallel API key |

Tool

websearch - Search the web

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | query | string | yes | - | Search query | | numResults | number | no | 8 | Number of results (max: 20) | | type | string | no | auto | auto, fast, deep | | livecrawl | string | no | fallback | fallback, preferred | | contextMaxCharacters | number | no | 10000 | Max context chars for LLM |

How It Works

AI Client (Cursor/Claude Code/etc.)
    ↓ stdio JSON-RPC
[websearch-mcp-server]
    ↓ retry + failover
    ↓ HTTP POST JSON-RPC 2.0
Exa / Parallel remote MCP endpoint
    ↓ results
[websearch-mcp-server] → AI Client

Reliability

• Retry: Up to 2 retries with exponential backoff (1s, 2s) on network errors
• Failover: If primary provider fails, automatically tries the other provider
• Timeout: 25s per request
• Free tier: No API key required by default

License

MIT