MCP Server

Give your AI assistants the power to help you more effectively. This server lets them safely access
websites and search the web - with clear feedback about what's happening and helpful error messages
when things go wrong.

- 🛠️ What tools does this server offer?
- 🏎️ How can I run it?
- 🐋 Using Docker (recommended)
- 💻 Running locally
- 🔌 How to connect
- 📚 Learn more about MCP
- 📄 License

🛠️ What tools does this server offer?

The server provides two powerful tools that help AI assistants solve real-world problems:

| Tool | What it can do |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Search | Search the web via SearXNG for current information, specific resources, or to perform calculations. |
| Web | Access websites and process their content. Can convert pages to markdown for easy reading, get the raw content, or extract links. |

🏎️ How can I run it?

🐋 Using Docker (recommended)

The server runs in Docker containers to keep things safe and simple. Here's how to get started:

1. Install Docker if you haven't already
2. Create a file called docker-compose.yml with:

``yaml:docker-compose.yml
services:
mcp-server:
environment:
# Required: URL for your SearXNG instance's Search API
- SEARXNG_QUERY_URL=http://searxng:8080
# Optional: Configure network mode (SSE) for LibreChat etc.
- SSE_HOST=0.0.0.0
- SSE_PORT=8080
# Optional: Set a custom User-Agent for web requests
- USER_AGENT=MCP-Server/1.0 (github.com/tcpipuk/mcp-server)
image: ghcr.io/tcpipuk/mcp-server/server:latest
ports: # Only needed if using SSE_HOST/SSE_PORT
- "8080:8080" # Expose port 8080 on host
restart: unless-stopped
stop_grace_period: 1s

   > Important: You must provide the SEARXNG_QUERY_URL environment variable, pointing to

   > the Search API endpoint of your SearXNG instance (usually ending in / or /search).

   >

   > Setting SSE_HOST and SSE_PORT enables network mode (Server-Sent Events), recommended for

   > multi-container setups like LibreChat. If omitted, the server uses standard I/O.

3. Run docker compose up -d to start the server container (and optionally SearXNG).

Most people use this with either:
- Claude Desktop - connects directly via stdio

  (omit SSE_HOST/SSE_PORT in docker-compose.yml).

- LibreChat - connects over the network via SSE.

For LibreChat, add this to your librechat.yaml (assuming SSE_PORT=8080):

💻 Running locally

1. Install uv (requires Python 3.13+):

   > Note: If you already have uv installed, update it with uv self update.

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

3. Install dependencies from the lockfile:

4. Set required environment variables:

5. Run the server:

# For direct stdio mode (e.g., for Claude Desktop)
mcp-server
`

- --sse-host: SSE listening address (e.g., 0.0.0.0). Enables SSE mode.
- --sse-port: SSE listening port (e.g., 3001). Enables SSE mode.
- --user-agent: Custom User-Agent string (overrides USER_AGENT env var).

> Note: If neither --sse-host nor --sse-port are provided (and SSE_HOST/SSE_PORT env
> vars are not set), the server defaults to stdio mode. The SEARXNG_QUERY_URL` environment
> variable is always required.

🔌 How to connect

You can connect to the server in two ways:

| Method | What it means | When to use it |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| Network connection (SSE) | The server listens on a network port for connections. | Best for LibreChat or other networked clients. |
| Direct connection (stdio) | The server communicates directly via standard input/out. | Useful for local testing or Claude Desktop. |

📚 Learn more about MCP

Here are a few resources to get you started:

- MCP Specification
- MCP Python SDK
- MCP Example Servers

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3. See the LICENSE file for full details.