websearch-mcp-server

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

Tools

Tool	Description
websearch	Search the web via Exa or Parallel free MCP endpoints
webfetch	Fetch content from an HTTP/HTTPS URL as text/markdown/html

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

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

HTTP Streamable (remote / shared)

Start the HTTP server:

npx @clint419/websearch-mcp-server-http
# or: npm run start:http

Add to MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websearch": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp",
      "transport": "streamable-http"
    }
  }
}

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
MCP_PORT	number	3000	HTTP Streamable listen port
MCP_HOST	string	127.0.0.1	HTTP Streamable bind address

Source Structure

src/
  index.ts      – stdio MCP entry point
  http.ts       – HTTP Streamable MCP entry point (stateful)
  server.ts     – shared MCP server: tool registration
  websearch.ts  – Exa/Parallel MCP client with retry + failover
  webfetch.ts   – URL content fetcher (HTML→text/markdown conversion)

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