browseai-dev

Reliable research infrastructure for AI agents. The research layer your agents are missing.

MCP server with real-time web search, evidence extraction, and structured citations. Drop into Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, LangChain, CrewAI, or any agent pipeline.

What it does

Instead of letting your AI hallucinate, browseai-dev gives it real-time access to the web with structured, cited answers:

Your question → Web search → Neural rerank → Fetch pages → Extract claims → Verify → Cited answer (streamed)

Every answer includes:

• Claims with source URLs, verification status, and consensus level
• 8-factor confidence score (0-1) — evidence-based, not LLM self-assessed, auto-calibrated from feedback
• Source quotes verified against actual page text via hybrid BM25 + NLI matching
• Atomic claim decomposition — compound facts split and verified independently
• Execution trace with timing
• 3 depth modes — "fast" (default), "thorough" (auto-retry with rephrased queries), "deep" (premium multi-step agentic research: iterative think-search-extract-evaluate cycles with gap analysis, up to 4 steps, targets 0.85 confidence — requires BAI key + sign-in, 3x quota cost, falls back to thorough when exhausted)

Premium Features (with BROWSE_API_KEY)

Users with a BrowseAI Dev API key (bai_xxx) get enhanced verification:

• Neural cross-encoder re-ranking — search results re-scored by semantic query-document relevance
• NLI semantic reranking — evidence matched by meaning, not just keywords
• Multi-provider search — parallel search across multiple sources for broader coverage
• Multi-pass consistency — claims cross-checked across independent extraction passes
• Deep reasoning mode — multi-step agentic research with iterative think-search-extract-evaluate cycles, gap analysis, and cross-step claim merging (up to 4 steps, 3x quota cost, 100 deep queries/day)
• Research Sessions — persistent memory across queries

Free BAI key users get a generous daily quota (100 premium queries/day, or ~33 deep queries/day at 3x cost each). When exceeded, queries gracefully fall back to BM25 keyword verification (deep falls back to thorough). Quota resets every 24 hours.

No account needed — all tools work with BYOK (your own Tavily + OpenRouter keys) with no signup, no limits, and BM25 keyword verification. Sign in at browseai.dev for a free BAI key to unlock premium features.

Quick Start

npx browseai-dev setup

This auto-configures Claude Desktop. You'll need:

• Tavily API key (free tier available)
• OpenRouter API key

Manual Setup

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browseai-dev": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "browseai-dev"],
      "env": {
        "SERP_API_KEY": "tvly-your-key",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "your-openrouter-key",
        "BROWSE_API_KEY": "bai_xxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

BROWSE_API_KEY is optional for search/answer but required for Research Memory (sessions). Get one free at browseai.dev/dashboard.

Cursor / Windsurf

Add to your MCP settings:

{
  "browseai-dev": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "browseai-dev"],
    "env": {
      "SERP_API_KEY": "tvly-your-key",
      "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "your-openrouter-key",
      "BROWSE_API_KEY": "bai_xxx"
    }
  }
}

Add BROWSE_API_KEY to enable Research Memory (sessions). Get one free at browseai.dev/dashboard.

HTTP Transport

Run as an HTTP server for browser-based clients, Smithery, or any HTTP-capable agent:

# Start with HTTP transport
npx browseai-dev --http

# Or set the port via environment variable
MCP_HTTP_PORT=3100 npx browseai-dev --http

The server exposes:

• POST /mcp — MCP Streamable HTTP endpoint
• GET /health — Health check

Docker

docker build -t browseai-dev ./apps/mcp
docker run -p 3100:3100 -e BROWSE_API_KEY=bai_xxx browseai-dev

MCP Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | browse_search | Search the web via multi-provider search | | browse_open | Fetch and parse a page into clean text | | browse_extract | Extract structured knowledge from a page | | browse_answer | Full pipeline: search + extract + cite. depth: "fast", "thorough", or "deep" | | browse_compare | Compare raw LLM vs evidence-backed answer | | browse_clarity | Clarity — anti-hallucination answer engine. Three modes: mode: "prompt" (enhanced prompts only), mode: "answer" (LLM answer, default), mode: "verified" (LLM + web fusion) | | browse_session_create | Create a research session (persistent memory across queries) | | browse_session_ask | Research within a session (recalls prior knowledge, stores new claims) | | browse_session_recall | Query session knowledge without new web searches | | browse_session_share | Share a session publicly (returns share URL) | | browse_session_knowledge | Export all claims from a session | | browse_session_fork | Fork a shared session to continue the research | | browse_feedback | Submit accuracy feedback on a result |

Note: Session tools (browse_session_*) require a BrowseAI Dev API key (bai_xxx) for identity and ownership. Set BROWSE_API_KEY in your env config. BYOK users can use search/answer but cannot use sessions. Get a free API key at browseai.dev/dashboard.

Examples

Quick lookup:

"Use browse_answer to explain what causes aurora borealis"

Higher accuracy:

"Use browse_answer with depth thorough to research quantum computing"

Deep research (multi-step, requires BAI key):

"Use browse_answer with depth deep to compare CRISPR approaches for sickle cell disease"

Deep mode runs iterative think-search-extract-evaluate cycles: gap analysis identifies missing info, follow-up queries fill the gaps, and claims/sources are merged across steps with final re-verification. Targets 0.85 confidence across up to 4 steps. Falls back to thorough without a BAI key or when quota is exhausted.

Contradiction detection:

"Use browse_answer with depth thorough to check if coffee is good for health, and show me any contradictions"

Research session:

"Create a session called quantum-research, then ask about quantum entanglement, then ask how entanglement is used in computing"

Enterprise search:

"Use browse_answer to search our Elasticsearch at https://es.company.com/kb/_search for our refund policy"

Response structure

{
  "answer": "Aurora borealis occurs when charged particles from the Sun...",
  "confidence": 0.92,
  "claims": [
    {
      "claim": "Aurora borealis is caused by solar wind particles...",
      "sources": ["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora"],
      "verified": true,
      "verificationScore": 0.82,
      "consensusLevel": "strong"
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora",
      "title": "Aurora - Wikipedia",
      "domain": "en.wikipedia.org",
      "quote": "An aurora is a natural light display...",
      "verified": true,
      "authority": 0.70
    }
  ],
  "contradictions": [],
  "reasoningSteps": []
}

Why browseai-dev?

| Feature | Raw LLM | browseai-dev | |---------|---------|-----------| | Sources | None | Real URLs with quotes | | Citations | Hallucinated | Verified from pages | | Confidence | Unknown | 8-factor evidence-based score | | Depth | Single pass | 3 modes: fast, thorough, deep reasoning | | Freshness | Training data | Real-time web | | Claims | Mixed in text | Structured + linked |

Reliability

All API calls include automatic retry with exponential backoff on transient failures (429 rate limits, 5xx server errors). Auth errors fail immediately — no wasted retries.

Tech Stack

• Search: Multi-provider (parallel search across sources)
• Parsing: @mozilla/readability + linkedom
• AI: OpenRouter (100+ models)
• Verification: Hybrid BM25 + NLI semantic entailment
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Agent Skills

Pre-built skills that teach coding agents when to use BrowseAI Dev tools:

npx skills add BrowseAI-HQ/browseAIDev_Skills

Skills work with Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and more. View skills →

Community

• Discord
• GitHub

License

MIT