| name | brave-search |
| description | Guide for using Brave Search MCP tools (`brave_web_search`, `brave_news_search`, `brave_image_search`, `brave_video_search`, `brave_local_search`, `brave_summarizer`). Invoke when the user asks to search the web, news, images, videos, or local results AND Brave Search MCP is available. Do NOT trigger for generic lookups when other search tools (Tavily, built-in WebSearch) are more appropriate. Requires `BRAVE_API_KEY`. |
Brave Search MCP
Tools
| Tool | When to use |
|---|
brave_web_search | General web search — pages, docs, APIs |
brave_news_search | Recent news, events, announcements |
brave_video_search | Video content, tutorials |
brave_image_search | Image lookup |
brave_local_search | Location-based results (businesses, places) |
brave_summarizer | Summarize a web result (requires prior brave_web_search with summary: true) |
Search Operators
Operators go inside the query string:
| Operator | Example | Effect |
|---|
site: | site:github.com react hooks | Restrict to domain |
ext: | ext:pdf typescript handbook | Filter by file type |
"..." | "exact phrase" | Exact match |
intitle: | intitle:migration guide | Term must be in title |
AND | react AND vue | Both terms required |
OR | pnpm OR yarn | Either term |
NOT | javascript NOT typescript | Exclude term |
lang: | lang:en react tutorial | Filter by language |
Operators combine: site:docs.anthropic.com "tool use" ext:md
Key Params
freshness — filter by recency:
pd past day, pw past week, pm past month, py past year- Date range:
2024-01-01to2024-06-30
count — results per request:
- Web/news: 1-20 (default 20)
- Video: 1-50
- Image: 1-200
safesearch — off, moderate (default), strict
country — 2-letter code or ALL (default: US)
result_filter — comma-separated: web,news,videos,discussions,faq,infobox,locations
goggles — custom result ranking. Boost trusted sources, suppress spam, or focus on specific domains. Pass a Goggle URL or inline rules.
summary — set true on brave_web_search, then call brave_summarizer with the returned key.
extra_snippets — longer snippet text for each result (useful for extracting more context without visiting pages).
Examples
Recent docs for a library:
brave_web_search(query: "vite 6 migration guide", freshness: "pm", count: 5)
Search within a specific site:
brave_web_search(query: "site:docs.anthropic.com tool use streaming")
News from past week:
brave_news_search(query: "anthropic claude", freshness: "pw", count: 10)
PDF files only:
brave_web_search(query: "ext:pdf machine learning survey 2024", count: 5)
Search + summarize:
brave_web_search(query: "react server components", summary: true, count: 3)
brave_summarizer(key: <summary_key from result>)
Response
Results include: title, URL, description, published date, thumbnail, and structured data (products, recipes, articles, ratings, FAQs). Check has_more for pagination via offset.
