mcp-tavily-search

⚠️ Notice

This repository is no longer maintained.

The functionality of this tool is now available in mcp-omnisearch, which combines multiple MCP tools in one unified package.

Please use mcp-omnisearch instead.

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for integrating Tavily's search

API with LLMs. This server provides intelligent web search

capabilities optimized for high-quality, factual results, including

context generation for RAG applications and direct question answering.

Features

• 🔍 Advanced web search capabilities through Tavily API
• 🤖 AI-generated summaries of search results
• 🎯 Domain filtering for higher quality results
• 📊 Configurable search depth and parameters
• 🧠 Context generation for RAG applications
• ❓ Direct question answering capabilities
• 💾 Response caching with TTL support
• 📝 Multiple response formats (text, JSON, markdown)
• 🔄 Structured result formatting optimized for LLMs
• 🏗️ Built on the Model Context Protocol

Configuration

This server requires configuration through your MCP client. Here are

examples for different environments:

Cline Configuration

Add this to your Cline MCP settings:

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"mcp-tavily-search": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "mcp-tavily-search"],
			"env": {
				"TAVILY_API_KEY": "your-tavily-api-key"
			}
		}
	}
}

Claude Desktop with WSL Configuration

For WSL environments, add this to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"mcp-tavily-search": {
			"command": "wsl.exe",
			"args": [
				"bash",
				"-c",
				"source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && TAVILY_API_KEY=your-tavily-api-key /home/username/.nvm/versions/node/v20.12.1/bin/npx mcp-tavily-search"
			]
		}
	}
}

Environment Variables

The server requires the following environment variable:

• `TAVILY_API_KEY`: Your Tavily API key (required)

API

The server implements three MCP tools with configurable parameters:

tavily_search

Search the web using Tavily Search API, optimized for high-quality,

factual results.

Parameters:

• `query` (string, required): Search query
• `search_depth` (string, optional): "basic" (faster) or "advanced"

(more thorough). Defaults to "basic"

• `topic` (string, optional): "general" or "news". Defaults to

"general"

• `days` (number, optional): Number of days back to search (news topic

only). Defaults to 3

• `time_range` (string, optional): Time range for results ('day',

'week', 'month', 'year' or 'd', 'w', 'm', 'y')

• `max_results` (number, optional): Maximum number of results.

Defaults to 5

• `include_answer` (boolean, optional): Include AI-generated summary.

Defaults to true

• `include_images` (boolean, optional): Include related images.

Defaults to false

• `include_image_descriptions` (boolean, optional): Include image

descriptions. Defaults to false

• `include_raw_content` (boolean, optional): Include raw HTML content.

Defaults to false

• `include_domains` (string[], optional): List of trusted domains to

include

• `exclude_domains` (string[], optional): List of domains to exclude
• `response_format` (string, optional): 'text', 'json', or 'markdown'.

Defaults to 'text'

• `cache_ttl` (number, optional): Cache time-to-live in seconds.

Defaults to 3600

• `force_refresh` (boolean, optional): Force fresh results ignoring

cache. Defaults to false

tavily_get_search_context

Generate context for RAG applications using Tavily search.

Parameters:

• `query` (string, required): Search query for context generation
• `max_tokens` (number, optional): Maximum length of generated

context. Defaults to 2000

• `search_depth` (string, optional): "basic" or "advanced". Defaults

to "advanced"

• `topic` (string, optional): "general" or "news". Defaults to

"general"

• Other parameters same as tavily_search

tavily_qna_search

Get direct answers to questions using Tavily search.

Parameters:

• `query` (string, required): Question to be answered
• `include_sources` (boolean, optional): Include source citations.

Defaults to true

• `search_depth` (string, optional): "basic" or "advanced". Defaults

to "advanced"

• `topic` (string, optional): "general" or "news". Defaults to

"general"

• Other parameters same as tavily_search

Domain Filtering

The server supports flexible domain filtering through two optional

parameters:

• `include_domains`: Array of trusted domains to include in search

results

• `exclude_domains`: Array of domains to exclude from search results

This allows you to:

• Target specific trusted sources for academic or technical searches
• Exclude potentially unreliable or irrelevant sources
• Customize sources based on your specific needs
• Access all available sources when no filtering is specified

Example domain filtering:

{
	"include_domains": ["arxiv.org", "science.gov"],
	"exclude_domains": ["example.com"]
}

Development

Setup

1. Clone the repository

2. Install dependencies:

pnpm install

3. Build the project:

pnpm build

4. Run in development mode:

pnpm dev

Publishing

The project uses changesets for version management. To publish:

1. Create a changeset:

pnpm changeset

2. Version the package:

pnpm changeset version

3. Publish to npm:

pnpm release

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built on the

Model Context Protocol

• Powered by Tavily Search API