search-engine-tool-mcp 0.4.1

A Python MCP Server for web search and extraction with Jina and Tavily providers

Search Engine Tool MCP

A Python MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server for web search and extraction with multiple providers.

Version

Current version: 0.4.1

Features

• 🔍 Web Search: Search the web using You.com or Tavily APIs
• 📄 Content Extraction: Extract clean content from any URL (free local extraction or Tavily API)
• 🔄 Auto Provider Selection: Automatically chooses the best available provider
• 🔑 Optional API Keys: Works without API keys using local extraction (Tavily requires API key for enhanced extraction)
• 🚀 MCP Compatible: Full support for Model Context Protocol

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

# Using pip
pip install search-engine-tool-mcp

# Or using uv (recommended)
uv pip install search-engine-tool-mcp

From Source

git clone https://github.com/YiHarvest/search-engine-tool.git
cd search-engine-tool

# Using uv (recommended)
uv sync

# Or using pip
pip install -e .

Configuration

Environment Variables

• SEARXNG_BASE_URL (recommended): Your SearXNG instance URL. Example: http://127.0.0.1:8080
• TALORDATA_API_KEY (recommended): Your TalorData SERP API key for web search. Get it at https://dashboard.talordata.com. Note: TalorData only supports web_search, not web_extract.
• YDC_API_KEY (recommended): Your You.com API key. Get it at https://you.com/platform.
• TAVILY_API_KEY (optional): Your Tavily API key for advanced features and fallback extraction.

Auto Provider Selection Logic:

For web_search:

• If SEARXNG_BASE_URL exists → uses SearXNG (free, self-hosted)
  • If SearXNG fails or returns empty results → falls back to TalorData, Tavily, or You.com
• If TALORDATA_API_KEY exists → uses TalorData (SERP API provider)
  • If TalorData fails or returns empty results → falls back to Tavily or You.com
• If TAVILY_API_KEY exists → uses Tavily
• If YDC_API_KEY or YOU_API_KEY exists → uses You.com
• If none configured → throws error

For web_extract:

• Default provider is local (free, no API key required)
• If provider="auto" and local extraction fails:
  • Falls back to Tavily if TAVILY_API_KEY is available
  • Otherwise returns error
• If provider="tavily" → requires TAVILY_API_KEY
• Note: TalorData does NOT support web_extract

Quick Configuration

1. Copy the example configuration file:

cp .env.example .env

2. Edit the .env file and fill in your API keys:

YDC_API_KEY="your-ydc-api-key-here"
TAVILY_API_KEY="your-tavily-api-key-here"
SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"
TALORDATA_API_KEY="your-talordata-api-key-here"

Or Set Environment Variables Manually

# Set SearXNG base URL (recommended for free self-hosted search)
export SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"

# Set TalorData API key (recommended for SERP API search)
export TALORDATA_API_KEY="your-talordata-api-key"

# Set You.com API key (alternative)
export YDC_API_KEY="ydc-sk-your-api-key"

# Or set Tavily API key (alternative)
export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-your-api-key"

MCP Client Configuration

Add to your MCP client configuration (e.g., Claude Desktop, Cursor, or other MCP-compatible clients):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "search-engine-tool": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "search-engine-tool-mcp==0.4.1",
        "search-engine-tool-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TALORDATA_API_KEY": "your-talordata-api-key",
        "TALORDATA_BASE_URL": "https://serpapi.talordata.net/serp/v1/request",
        "TALORDATA_TRIAL_EXPIRES_AT": "2026-07-15T06:05:25+08:00",
        "SEARXNG_BASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

Available Tools

The MCP server exposes two tools:

1. web_search

Search the web for information.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	✅	-	Search query string
provider	string	❌	"auto"	Provider to use: "auto", "searxng", "talordata", "you", or "tavily"
max_results	integer	❌	5	Maximum number of results (1-20)
search_depth	string	❌	"basic"	Search depth: "basic" or "advanced" (Tavily only)
include_answer	boolean	❌	false	Include AI-generated answer (Tavily and TalorData only)

Response:

{
  "query": "search query",
  "provider": "jina",
  "count": 5,
  "results": [
    {
      "href": "https://example.com",
      "title": "Result Title",
      "abstract": "Result snippet..."
    }
  ]
}

2. web_extract

Extract content from a specific URL.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	✅	-	URL to extract content from
provider	string	❌	"auto"	Provider to use: "auto", "local", or "tavily"

Provider Options:

• local (default free provider): Free local extraction, no API key required. Uses trafilatura + BeautifulSoup for content extraction.
  • ⚠️ Limitations:
    • Does not execute JavaScript
    • Cannot bypass login walls, paywalls, or CAPTCHA
    • Dynamic/spa-style pages may have incomplete extraction
    • Timeout: 20 seconds (default)
• tavily (enhanced provider): Tavily API extraction, requires TAVILY_API_KEY.
  • ✅ Better for complex/dynamic pages
  • ✅ Can handle more challenging sites
• auto (default): Tries local first, falls back to Tavily if TAVILY_API_KEY is available and local fails.

Response:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "content": "Extracted content...",
  "provider": "local"
}

Provider Selection Logic

• provider="searxng": Always use SearXNG (requires SEARXNG_BASE_URL)
  • ⚠️ Limitations:
    • Requires self-hosted SearXNG instance
    • Timeout: 15 seconds
    • If returns empty results → throws error
• provider="you": Always use You.com (requires YDC_API_KEY)
• provider="tavily": Always use Tavily (requires TAVILY_API_KEY)
• provider="auto"** (default):
  • If SEARXNG_BASE_URL environment variable is set → use SearXNG
    • If SearXNG fails or returns empty results → fallback to TalorData, Tavily, or You.com
  • If TALORDATA_API_KEY exists → use TalorData
    • If TalorData fails or returns empty results → fallback to Tavily or You.com
  • If TAVILY_API_KEY exists → use Tavily
  • If YDC_API_KEY or YOU_API_KEY exists → use You.com
  • Otherwise → throws error

TalorData SERP API

TalorData is a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) API provider that offers structured search results from Google, Bing, and other search engines. Important: TalorData is ONLY for web_search, NOT for web_extract.

Features

• ✅ High quality: Top-ranked SERP API provider
• ✅ Multi-engine support: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and more
• ✅ Structured output: Clean JSON format with detailed metadata
• ✅ AI Overview: Supports AI-generated answers (include_answer parameter)
• ✅ Optional fields: Returns position, source, display_link for advanced analysis
• ✅ Fast response: Average response time under 1 second
• ✅ Pay for success: Only charges for successful requests
• ⚠️ API key required: Requires TALORDATA_API_KEY
• ⚠️ Web search only: Does NOT support web_extract

Get API Key

1. Visit TalorData Dashboard
2. Sign up for a free account
3. Navigate to API Playground to get your API token
4. Set the environment variable:

export TALORDATA_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Usage Example

# Web search with TalorData
results = await web_search(
    query="OpenAI",
    provider="talordata",
    max_results=10,
    include_answer=True  # Get AI-generated overview
)

# Response includes:
# - href: URL of the result
# - title: Title of the result
# - abstract: Description or snippet
# - position: Position in search results (optional)
# - source: Source name (optional)
# - display_link: Displayed link (optional)
# - answer: AI-generated overview (if include_answer=True)

SearXNG Setup

SearXNG is a free, self-hosted metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple search engines.

Installation

1. Using Docker (recommended):

docker run -d --name searxng -p 8080:8080 searxng/searxng:latest

2. Manual installation: Follow the SearXNG documentation

Configuration

After setting up SearXNG, set the environment variable:

export SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"

Features

• ✅ Free: No API key required
• ✅ Privacy-focused: No tracking
• ✅ Multiple engines: Aggregates results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.
• ✅ Customizable: Choose specific engines with engines parameter
• ⚠️ Self-hosted: Requires running your own instance
• ⚠️ Timeout: 15-second limit to prevent MCP hanging

Development

Setup Development Environment

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/YiHarvest/search-engine-tool.git
cd search-engine-tool

# Using uv (recommended)
uv sync --all-extras

# Or using pip
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run Tests

# Using uv
uv run pytest

# Or using pytest directly
pytest

Build Package

# Using uv (recommended)
uv build

# Or using build directly
python -m build

Check Package

# Using uv
uv run twine check dist/*

# Or using twine directly
twine check dist/*

API Reference

Jina Provider

• Search API: https://api.jina.ai/search
• Reader API: https://r.jina.ai/{url}
• Requirements: No API key needed
• Rate Limits: Subject to Jina's public API limits

Tavily Provider

• Search API: https://api.tavily.com/search
• Extract API: https://api.tavily.com/extract
• Requirements: API key required (TAVILY_API_KEY)
• Features: Advanced search depth, AI-generated answers

Project Structure

search-engine-tool/
├── src/search_engine_tool_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── server.py          # MCP server implementation
│   ├── search.py          # Web search functionality
│   ├── extract.py         # Content extraction
│   ├── schemas.py         # Pydantic data models
│   └── providers/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── you.py         # You.com provider (search)
│       ├── tavily.py      # Tavily provider (search + extract)
│       └── local_extract.py  # Local extraction provider (free)
├── tests/
│   ├── test_search.py
│   └── test_providers.py
│   └── test_extract.py
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

License

MIT License

Contributing

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

Support

For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub Issues page.