🖼️ Google Images Search MCP

Search. See. Save. – The only MCP that shows Google Images results directly in your chat as actual images, not just links!

Unlike other tools that return text descriptions or links, this MCP displays search results as actual images in your conversation. Works with Cline and Windsurf.

Perfect for getting visual inspiration, finding assets for projects, or quickly browsing images without leaving your IDE.

Demo

Usage & Requirements

Requirements

• Node.js v20+
• Google Cloud Platform account (free tier sufficient)
• Compatible IDE: Cline or Windsurf

Setup Guide

Follow these steps to set up this MCP:

Step 1: create Google Custom search engine

1. Go to Google Programmable Search Engine
2. Click "Add" to create a new search engine
3. In "Sites to search", enter * (asterisk) to search the entire web
4. Give your search engine a name (e.g., "My Image Search")
5. In the search engine settings, enable "Image search" option
6. Click "Create"
7. Copy the Search engine ID - you'll need this for configuration

Step 2: Get Google API Key

1. Go to Google Cloud Console API Credentials
2. If you don't have a project, create one
3. Click "+ CREATE CREDENTIALS" → "API key"
4. Copy the generated API key
5. (Optional) Restrict the API key to "Custom Search API" for security

Step 3: Configure MCP in Your IDE

Add the following configuration to your MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "googleImagesSearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@srigi/mcp-google-images-search"],
      "env": {
        "API_KEY": "your-google-api-key-here",
        "SEARCH_ENGINE_ID": "your-search-engine-id-here"
      },
      "autoApprove": ["search_image", "persist_image"]
    }
  }
}

Replace your-google-api-key-here and your-search-engine-id-here with the values from steps 1 and 2.

Usage Example

Here's how to use the MCP once configured:

1. Search for images: Ask your AI assistant to search for images

   Find 5 images of F-22

2. Get more results: Request additional search results

   Find 5 more images

3. Save an image: Ask to save a specific result to your project

   Save the 3rd image to the "assets" folder

The MCP will display the search results as actual images in your chat history, and you can easily save any of them to your local project directory.

🚀 Development

Want to contribute? Great! Quality contributions are welcomed.

Requirements: Node.js v20+, direnv, PNPM v10

Quick start:

1. Copy .envrc (example) to .envrc and add your Google API credentials
2. Run pnpm install && pnpm dev
3. Update your MCP configuration for development:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "googleImagesSearch": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/project/src/index.js", "--debug", "--pretty-print"],
      "env": {
        "API_KEY": "your-google-api-key-here",
        "SEARCH_ENGINE_ID": "your-search-engine-id-here"
      },
      "autoApprove": ["search_image", "persist_image"]
    }
  }
}

Debug and logging options:

• No --debug flag provided - logging is disabled
• --debug without argument - enable logging into debug.log in current working directory the running MCP
• --debug /absolute/path/to/debug.log - enable logging and write logs to the specified absolute path
• --pretty-print - Format logs for better readability (formatted JSON output)

note: only absolute path is allowed when providing a path to --debug. Relative paths will cause the server to exit with an error!

Writing TypeScript code:

The pnpm dev auto-recompile all changes to .ts files. But you must reload your MCP server manually for changes to be reflected in your IDE.

Use pnpm dev:inspector for interactive testing in the browser.

🛠️ Available Tools

🔍 search_image - Find images using Google's vast database

• query (required) - What you're looking for
• count (1-10, default: 2) - How many results
• safe ('off'/'medium'/'high') - Filter level
• startIndex - For pagination

💾 persist_image - Download and save images to your project

• url (required) - Image URL to download
• targetPath (required) - Where to save it (folder or full path)

Security features: Path validation, MIME type checking, 10MB size limit, supports all major image formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG, etc.)

🔗 Links: GitHub • NPM • Issues