Brave · official

Brave Search

Live web search results inside your assistant.

The Brave Search skill lets an assistant run real web searches and read the results — news, current prices, fresh documentation. It needs a free API key from Brave (no credit card for the free tier). Once connected, prompts like "search the web for X and summarize" actually work instead of being answered from stale training data.

Install Brave Search

You need: an AI app that supports skills (pick yours above) · Node.js (LTS) — one-time install from nodejs.org. Check with `node -v` in a terminal. · An API key (BRAVE_API_KEY) — free tier available, get it at https://brave.com/search/api/

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config in Claude Desktop (this opens claude_desktop_config.json) and merge this block, then fully restart the app:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Before saving, replace YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY with your key from Brave Search API (free tier).

Recipes using this skill

Give your AI assistant live web search

Your assistant answers from training data that is months old. You want it to search the web right now — news, prices, fresh documentation — and answer with sources.

~5 min · step-by-step with copy-paste prompt
Vendor
Brave
Category
Web search & scraping
API key
BRAVE_API_KEY
Source
Open ↗

FAQ

What is the Brave Search skill?
The Brave Search skill lets an assistant run real web searches and read the results — news, current prices, fresh documentation. It needs a free API key from Brave (no credit card for the free tier). Once connected, prompts like "search the web for X and summarize" actually work instead of being answered from stale training data.
How do I install Brave Search in Claude Desktop?
Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config in Claude Desktop and add a brave-search entry under mcpServers (the install widget on this page generates the exact block). Fully restart the app afterwards. Local skills run on Node.js — install the LTS version from nodejs.org once.
Does Brave Search need an API key?
Yes — BRAVE_API_KEY (free tier available, from https://brave.com/search/api/). The install widget shows where to put it.
Which apps can use Brave Search?
Brave Search works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code — any app that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Is my site ready for AI agents like the ones using Brave Search?
Run a free check at https://agentics.page — it audits whether your robots.txt allows the right bots, whether you publish llms.txt and JSON-LD, and whether AI agents can actually consume your site.

Is your domain ready for AI agents?

Assistants equipped with skills like Brave Search are already visiting your site. agentics checks whether they can read, find, and trust your domain — free, no signup.

Run free check →

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