Web Researcher Mcp

web-researcher-mcp

Your AI research assistant that cites real sources and stays honest.

Search the entire web or narrow it down to just the sites you trust; medical journals, court databases, news outlets, academic papers. Analyze the full source, not just snippets. Links that work, citations you can trust, no made up closed garden pre-synthesized results.

Get started in 30 seconds

Python users — uvx (no compile, any OS):

# One-time: install uv (skip if you already have it)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh        # macOS/Linux  (Windows: winget install astral-sh.uv)

claude mcp add --scope user web-researcher -- uvx web-researcher-mcp

uv fetches the right prebuilt binary for your platform and runs it — no Go, no compile, no manual PATH. Point any MCP client at uvx web-researcher-mcp. Also works with uv tool install web-researcher-mcp or pip install web-researcher-mcp.

Python SDK

from web_researcher_mcp import WebResearcherClient

async with WebResearcherClient() as client:
    response = await client.web_search("CRISPR off-target effects 2024", num_results=5)
    for r in response.results:
        verified = await client.verify_citation(r.url)
        print(r.title, "—", "✓" if verified.exists else "?")

Full documentation: [docs/PYTHONCLIENT.md](docs/PYTHONCLIENT.md)

[](https://colab.research.google.com/github/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/blob/main/examples/webresearchersdk_examples.ipynb)

Sync wrapper (for scripts and notebooks that don't use async):

with WebResearcherClient.sync() as client:
    response = client.web_search("climate change 2024")
    print(response.results[0].title)

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install zoharbabin/tap/web-researcher-mcp
claude mcp add --scope user web-researcher -- web-researcher-mcp

macOS / Linux (no package manager):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/main/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/main/install.ps1 | iex"

No dev tools needed — every method ships the same signed binary (the PyPI wheels vendor it; the others download it and verify its checksum) and puts it on your PATH. The curl/PowerShell installers also register it with Claude Code automatically when the claude CLI is present; Homebrew installs the binary, so run the claude mcp add line above to connect it.

One-click install:

The Cursor / VS Code / LM Studio buttons install the zero-config uvx setup (your editor prompts to confirm before adding it; needs uv — see above). It runs DuckDuckGo web search with no API key — great to try instantly; image_search/news_search and richer providers need a key (2 min, see [Configuration](#configuration)). Claude Desktop: download the .mcpb bundle for your platform and double-click it (Settings → Extensions), or use the uvx line above.

Using a different MCP client or want to pass API keys? See [Connect to Your AI Assistant](#connect-to-your-ai-assistant) for the per-app config, and [Configuration](#configuration) to pick a search provider.

Your AI can now search the web, read full articles, find academic papers, look up patents, and run multi-step research — only from sources you pick.

---

Why does this exist?

Perplexity gets its citations wrong over a third of the time. It links to papers that don't exist, invents DOIs, and presents SEO spam with the same confidence as peer-reviewed research. ChatGPT's web search isn't much better — it can't tell a blog post from a court filing.

If your work gets cited, published, submitted to a court, or shown to a client — you can't afford "probably real" sources.

This tool fixes the root cause: instead of searching the entire web and hoping, you tell your AI exactly which sources to search. We call these "search lenses" — curated lists of trusted sites for each field.

| What you get | What that means for you | |---|---| | Search lenses — choose your sources by field | Your AI only sees the sites you trust (PubMed, SEC.gov, arXiv — not random blogs) | | Research tools for every source type | Papers, patents, SEC filings, US court records, economic data, news, web pages, images, full-text reading, grounded answers with citations, structured extraction, and multi-step deep research | | Always has a backup | Multiple search engines working together — if one has issues, the others pick up automatically | | Reads full articles | Doesn't just give you snippets — extracts and reads entire pages, PDFs, Word docs, even YouTube transcripts and Hacker News threads | | Real citations, formatted | Every source comes with a proper APA/MLA citation and a link that actually works | | Your queries stay private | Runs on your machine — nobody sees what you're researching. Not us, not anyone. | | Paper trail | Every search is logged so you can reproduce your research process months later |

Works with Claude, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any AI assistant that supports tool use.

Who uses this

• Academic researchers — "I need a literature review with real DOIs, not made-up citations"
• Business analysts — "My deliverable needs sources a client can actually click and verify"
• Lawyers — "If I cite a case that doesn't exist, I get fined $50,000"
• Journalists — "I need to cross-check government records and court filings, not Perplexity summaries"
• Medical researchers — "Clinical decisions based on a health blog could hurt someone"
• Graduate students — "I spent 3 hours tracking down a citation my AI invented"
• Enterprise teams — "Our competitive research can't go through a third party's servers"

---

---

How It Compares

| | web-researcher-mcp | Perplexity | Scite.ai | Elicit | |---|---|---|---|---| | You pick which sources are searched | Yes (built-in + custom lenses) | No | No | No | | Makes up citations | Never — every link is real | ~37% incorrect | Rare (journals only) | Rare | | Works across all fields | Yes — legal, medical, news, patents, everything | Yes | Journals only | Papers only | | Keeps your research private | Yes — runs on your machine | No (they see everything) | No | No | | Works inside your existing AI (Claude, Cursor, etc.) | Yes | No (separate app) | Partially | No (separate app) | | Can read full articles, not just snippets | Yes — pages, PDFs, Word docs, YouTube | No | No | Limited | | Cost | Free forever (open source) | $20/mo | $20/mo | $10-49/mo |

When to use what

• Perplexity — Quick casual lookups where you don't need to cite your sources
• Scite.ai / Elicit — Browsing a specific database of academic papers
• web-researcher-mcp — Anything where your reputation is attached to the research: client work, court filings, publications, grant proposals, medical decisions, journalism
• Claude built-in search — Quick one-off lookups mid-conversation

---

What your AI can do with this

| Tool | What it does | |------|-------------| | web_search | Search the web — optionally restricted to only the sources you trust via lenses | | scrape_page | Read any URL in full — web pages, PDFs, Word docs, slideshows, YouTube transcripts, Hacker News threads (read natively via the HN API); supports mode: raw for verbatim, unsanitized source (e.g. inspecting JSON or HTML) | | search_and_scrape | Search and then read the best results — with quality scoring to surface the most reliable sources | | image_search | Find images by size, type, color, or format | | news_search | Search recent news with date controls and source filtering | | academic_search | Find real papers with real DOIs — authors, citation counts, open-access links | | citation_graph | Walk a paper's citation neighborhood — works it cites and works that cite it, with intent/influence signals | | patent_search | Search patent offices (US, Europe, international) with classification codes | | filing_search | Search SEC EDGAR for US public-company filings (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, …) — or pull structured XBRL company facts | | legal_search | Search US court opinions and dockets via CourtListener — real cases with real citations | | econ_search | Look up economic data — World Bank global development indicators, OECD economic indicators, Eurostat European statistics (all keyless), and FRED US macro series (GDP, CPI, unemployment, rates; requires FREDAPIKEY) | | clinical_search | Search ClinicalTrials.gov — clinical-trial registrations with status, phase, sponsor, and whether results are posted (discovery, not medical advice) | | local_search | Search for physical places (restaurants, shops, services, points of interest) by local intent query — structured POI details and descriptions. Requires BRAVE_API_KEY | | brand_research | Research a company's complete brand identity — colors (hex), logos, typography, tone of voice, and social handles — from any domain or company name. Returns structured JSON for AI content generation. No API key required; BrandFetch key optional for richer data | | verify_citation | Check a citation before you rely on it — does it exist, match a real record, and is it retracted or a dead link? Evidence, not a verdict | | audit_bibliography | Audit a whole reference list in one pass — paste a CSL-JSON/RIS/BibTeX file (or a session) and get per-entry + corpus-level flags for retracted, dead-link, and unverifiable citations | | verify_recommendation | Audit an AI-generated recommendation list (listicle, product ranking) for self-promotion, author conflicts of interest, domain reputation, and dead links — catches GEO-gamed picks. Evidence, not a verdict | | archive_source | Capture a fresh Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) snapshot of a URL via Save Page Now so a cited source stays verifiable if the page later changes or disappears — returns snapshot URL + timestamp (write tool) | | answer | Ask a factual question and get one synthesized answer with citations — the direct answer, not a reading list | | structured_search | Search and extract structured JSON per result (supply a schema), or pull entities by category (company, people, …) | | sequential_search | Multi-step deep research — your AI remembers what it already found and builds on it | | get_research_session | Recover a research session after context loss — picks up right where you left off | | research_export | Export a research session as a shareable report (markdown or JSON), with full per-step provenance | | format_bibliography | Turn collected sources into a formatted bibliography — APA, MLA, BibTeX, RIS, or CSL-JSON (Zotero/EndNote/Mendeley-ready) |

Most tools above are always available. A few activate only when the right provider or config is present: citation_graph requires a citation-capable academic provider (OpenAlex or Semantic Scholar); filing_search requires EDGAR_CONTACT_EMAIL; local_search requires BRAVE_API_KEY; answer and structured_search require a provider that supports those capabilities (e.g. Exa). Operators can also enable opt-in, consent-gated tools (per-user analytics, long-term memory, shared workspaces) that appear only when their feature is turned on — see [docs/TOOLS.md](docs/TOOLS.md) for the authoritative, CI-verified tool list and full schemas.

Ready-made research templates

The server also ships guided prompt templates your AI assistant can pull in with one click — they walk it through a proven, multi-step process so you don't have to spell out every instruction:

| Template | What it guides your AI to do | |----------|------------------------------| | comprehensive-research | Run a structured, multi-step deep dive on a topic | | fact-check | Verify a claim against multiple independent sources | | competitive-analysis | Size up a company and its market (news, patents, web) | | literature-review | Systematically review academic literature on a topic | | brand-guidelines | Research a brand and produce use-case-specific creative direction (landing page, email, video brief) — calls brand_research and interprets the structured JSON for you | | company-recon | Deep OSINT reconnaissance on a company — maps infrastructure, filings, personnel, and public footprint |

In most AI apps these show up wherever you pick a prompt or "/" command. The server exposes live status resources (stats://tools, stats://sessions, stats://rate-limits, stats://providers), a lens catalog (lenses://catalog), diagnostics (diagnostics://errors/recent, diagnostics://health), and a large-payload artifact store (research://artifact/{id}) so you — or your AI — can check usage, limits, and which providers are active. See [docs/DEPLOYMENT.md](docs/DEPLOYMENT.md#mcp-resources--prompts) for the full list.

---

Quick Start

Option 1: Homebrew (macOS / Linux — recommended)

brew install zoharbabin/tap/web-researcher-mcp
claude mcp add --scope user web-researcher -- web-researcher-mcp

Homebrew handles trust, updates, and PATH for you — no signing warnings.

Option 2: One-command install (any OS — no dev tools needed)

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/main/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/main/install.ps1 | iex"

Downloads the binary, verifies its SHA-256 checksum against the signed release, puts it on your PATH, and registers it with Claude Code if installed. Customize the install location:

INSTALL_DIR=/opt/tools curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/main/install.sh | sh

Other install methods

AUR (Arch Linux):

# Using any AUR helper (yay, paru, etc.)
yay -S web-researcher-mcp

Or manually: git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/web-researcher-mcp.git && cd web-researcher-mcp && makepkg -si

Nix / NixOS:

# Run without installing
nix run github:zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp

# Add to your flake inputs
nix profile install github:zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp

See [packaging/nix/flake.nix](packaging/nix/flake.nix) for NixOS module usage.

Continue.dev: Add to your Continue ~/.continue/config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "web-researcher": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["web-researcher-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or copy [packaging/continue/config.json](packaging/continue/config.json) as a starting point.

WinGet (Windows):

winget install zoharbabin.web-researcher-mcp

Scoop (Windows):

scoop bucket add zoharbabin https://github.com/zoharbabin/scoop-bucket
scoop install web-researcher-mcp

Homebrew Cask (macOS — Developer ID-signed + notarized binary):

brew install --cask zoharbabin/tap/web-researcher-mcp

The cask ships the notarized darwin binary (Gatekeeper-clean). Most users want the formula above (brew install zoharbabin/tap/web-researcher-mcp), which the bare name resolves to; pass --cask explicitly for the notarized artifact.

Go install (if you have Go):

go install github.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp/cmd/web-researcher-mcp@latest
claude mcp add --scope user web-researcher -- web-researcher-mcp

Docker:

# STDIO mode needs -i so the container's stdin stays attached for MCP JSON-RPC
docker run -i --rm \
           -e GOOGLE_CUSTOM_SEARCH_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY \

…

## Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [zoharbabin](https://github.com/zoharbabin)
- **Source:** [zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp](https://github.com/zoharbabin/web-researcher-mcp)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://zoharbabin.github.io/web-researcher-mcp/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.