Google Custom Search

What is mcp-google-search?

mcp-google-search is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides web search capabilities using the Google Custom Search API and webpage content extraction functionality. It allows applications to integrate Google search results and extract content from web pages.

How to use mcp-google-search?

To use mcp-google-search, you first need to set up a Google Cloud Project, enable the Custom Search API, obtain an API Key, and create a Custom Search Engine. Once these prerequisites are met, you can install the server via Smithery CLI and configure it with your Google API credentials in your Claude Desktop configuration file. The server exposes two main tools: search for performing web searches and read_webpage for extracting content from URLs.

Key Features of mcp-google-search

• Search Tool: Performs web searches using Google Custom Search API, allowing searches across the entire web or specific sites. It supports controlling the number of results (1-10) and provides structured results including title, link, and snippet.
• Webpage Reader Tool: Extracts content from any webpage by fetching and parsing its content. It extracts the page title and main text, cleans the content by removing scripts and styles, and returns structured data with the title, text, and URL.

Use Cases of mcp-google-search

• Integrating Google search functionality into applications.
• Building tools that require extracting clean text content from web pages for analysis or display.
• Developing AI agents or chatbots that need to access real-time web information.

FAQ from mcp-google-search

Q: How do I get a Google API Key and Search Engine ID? A: You need to create a Google Cloud Project, enable the Custom Search API, get an API Key from the Credentials section, and create a Custom Search Engine through the Programmable Search Engine platform.

Q: How can I debug the MCP server? A: Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. It is recommended to use the MCP Inspector, which can be run via npm run inspector and provides a URL for browser-based debugging tools.

mcp-google-server A MCP Server for Google Custom Search and Webpage Reading

A Model Context Protocol server that provides web search capabilities using Google Custom Search API and webpage content extraction functionality.

Setup

Getting Google API Key and Search Engine ID

1. Create a Google Cloud Project:

   • Go to Google Cloud Console
   • Create a new project or select an existing one
   • Enable billing for your project

2. Enable Custom Search API:

   • Go to API Library
   • Search for "Custom Search API"
   • Click "Enable"

3. Get API Key:

   • Go to Credentials
   • Click "Create Credentials" > "API Key"
   • Copy your API key
   • (Optional) Restrict the API key to only Custom Search API

4. Create Custom Search Engine:

   • Go to Programmable Search Engine
   • Enter the sites you want to search (use www.google.com for general web search)
   • Click "Create"
   • On the next page, click "Customize"
   • In the settings, enable "Search the entire web"
   • Copy your Search Engine ID (cx)

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the server:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run watch

Features

Search Tool

Perform web searches using Google Custom Search API:

• Search the entire web or specific sites
• Control number of results (1-10)
• Get structured results with title, link, and snippet

Webpage Reader Tool

Extract content from any webpage:

• Fetch and parse webpage content
• Extract page title and main text
• Clean content by removing scripts and styles
• Return structured data with title, text, and URL

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Google Custom Search Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @adenot/mcp-google-search --client claude

To use with Claude Desktop, add the server config with your Google API credentials:

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@adenot/mcp-google-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here",
        "GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE_ID": "your-search-engine-id-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

Search Tool

{
  "name": "search",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "your search query",
    "num": 5  // optional, default is 5, max is 10
  }
}

Webpage Reader Tool

{
  "name": "read_webpage",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com"
  }
}

Example response from webpage reader:

{
  "title": "Example Domain",
  "text": "Extracted and cleaned webpage content...",
  "url": "https://example.com"
}

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector, which is available as a package script:

npm run inspector

The Inspector will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser.