Metadata-Version: 2.4
Name: web-search-plus-mcp
Version: 3.4.0
Summary: Source-only multi-provider web search, extraction, evidence receipts, and onboarding for MCP clients
Project-URL: Homepage, https://websearchplus.xyz
Project-URL: Repository, https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/web-search-plus-mcp
Project-URL: Documentation, https://websearchplus.xyz
License: MIT License
        
        Copyright (c) 2026 robbyczgw-cla
        
        Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
        of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
        in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
        to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
        copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
        furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
        
        The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
        copies or substantial portions of the Software.
        
        THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
        IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
        FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
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        OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
        SOFTWARE.
License-File: LICENSE
Requires-Python: >=3.10
Requires-Dist: httpx<1,>=0.27.0
Requires-Dist: mcp<2,>=1.26.0
Provides-Extra: test
Requires-Dist: pytest; extra == 'test'
Requires-Dist: ruff==0.15.12; extra == 'test'
Requires-Dist: tomli; (python_version < '3.11') and extra == 'test'
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown

# 🔍 web-search-plus-mcp

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/assets/web-search-plus-logo.png" alt="Web Search Plus" width="180">
</p>

[![PyPI version](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/web-search-plus-mcp.svg)](https://pypi.org/project/web-search-plus-mcp/)
[![Python 3.10+](https://img.shields.io/badge/python-3.10%2B-blue.svg)](https://www.python.org/downloads/)
[![MCP](https://img.shields.io/badge/MCP-compatible-green.svg)](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)
[![CI](https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/web-search-plus-mcp/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/web-search-plus-mcp/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](./LICENSE)
[![Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/robbyczgw-cla/web-search-plus-mcp/badge)](https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/robbyczgw-cla/web-search-plus-mcp)

**Give your AI app better web search and clean page reading.** `web-search-plus-mcp` works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, NanoBot, Hermes, and other MCP apps. It searches across the services you choose, returns the original sources, and can try another service when one fails.

`web-search-plus-mcp 3.4.0` brings the Web Search Plus v3.4.0 engine to MCP apps without changing its two tools.

## 🚀 Quick Start

```bash
# Run it without installing anything
uvx web-search-plus-mcp

# Or install it normally
pip install web-search-plus-mcp
web-search-plus-mcp
```

Add at least one search provider. You can start with one and add more later.

## ✨ What it does

- **14 search providers** — use one service or let Web Search Plus choose
- **9 page-reading providers** — turn web pages into clean text
- **Automatic fallback** — try another provider when the first one fails
- **Real sources** — keep the links and text the result came from
- **Research mode** — search several providers for broader questions
- **Optional details** — see which provider ran and how the result was found
- **Simple setup tools** — check your config and create a starter setup
- **Optional local search** — connect a separately installed Hound service

Version 3.4 adds explicit-only Octen source search through Monid without changing automatic routing or the two-tool MCP surface. See the [3.4 release notes](docs/RELEASE_3_4.md) for setup, security boundaries, compatibility notes, and credits.

## 🧭 Easier onboarding

Check configured providers:

```bash
web-search-plus-mcp status
```

List providers or presets:

```bash
web-search-plus-mcp list providers
web-search-plus-mcp list presets
```

Write a starter `.env` template and print a canonical MCP stdio snippet:

```bash
web-search-plus-mcp setup --preset starter
```

The recommended starter preset is **You.com + Serper + Linkup**. It gives a practical source-only baseline for fast current search, Google-style discovery, and extraction workflows without wiring every provider on day one.


`status` returns a non-zero exit code when no search provider is configured, which makes it usable as a config check in scripts.

Persistent routing preferences live in `config.json` rather than `.env`:

```bash
web-search-plus-mcp config show
web-search-plus-mcp config set-default you        # strict fixed-provider mode
web-search-plus-mcp config set-routing on         # restore auto-routing
web-search-plus-mcp config set-priority you,serper,exa,firecrawl,tavily,linkup,parallel,brave,keenable
web-search-plus-mcp config set-extract-priority serper,tavily,exa,linkup,parallel,firecrawl,you,keenable
web-search-plus-mcp config set-fallback serper
web-search-plus-mcp config disable parallel
web-search-plus-mcp config enable parallel
web-search-plus-mcp config set-auto-allow parallel on
web-search-plus-mcp config set-threshold 0.45
web-search-plus-mcp config reset --yes
```

Use `--config-path /path/to/config.json` or `WEB_SEARCH_PLUS_CONFIG=/path/to/config.json` for isolated MCP host installs. Provider secrets stay in environment variables; routing behavior stays in `config.json`. Search and extraction priorities are independent. If an extraction priority lists only selected providers, the remaining extract-capable providers are appended in the public registry order.

Other presets:

- `minimal` — You.com only
- `lean` — You.com + Linkup
- `starter` — You.com + Serper + Linkup
- `all` — every supported provider env var

## ⚙️ MCP host config

Canonical stdio snippet for Claude Desktop, Cursor, NanoBot, or Hermes native MCP:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "web-search-plus": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["web-search-plus-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "YOU_API_KEY": "your_you_key",
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_serper_key",
        "LINKUP_API_KEY": "your_linkup_key"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Common places to paste this snippet:

- Claude Desktop macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
- Claude Desktop Windows: `%APPDATA%\\Claude\\claude_desktop_config.json`
- Claude Desktop Linux: `~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
- Cursor: project/user MCP config using the same `mcpServers` shape
- Hermes native MCP: `~/.hermes/config.yaml` under `mcp_servers` with equivalent command/env fields

You can also place a `.env` file next to the package/project with the same variables.

## 🔎 Search Providers

- **You.com** — fast source-result provider for current and multilingual search
- **Serper** — Google-style facts, news, shopping, local queries
- **Exa** — semantic discovery, GitHub/docs, arXiv/academic, and OSS discovery
- **Firecrawl** — web search plus scrape-ready content
- **Parallel** — explicit-only LLM-ready web search with long excerpts (`PARALLEL_API_KEY`, `auto_allow=false`)
- **Tavily** — research and analysis
- **Linkup** — source-backed grounding/citations
- **Brave** — explicit-only independent web index by default (`BRAVE_API_KEY`, `auto_allow=false`)
- **SearXNG** — privacy-first self-hosted meta-search
- **SerpBase** — explicit-only Google SERP API (`SERPBASE_API_KEY`, `auto_allow=false`)
- **Querit** — explicit-only multilingual, real-time AI search (`QUERIT_API_KEY`, `auto_allow=false`)
- **Keenable** — independent web index with search and extraction (`KEENABLE_API_KEY`, or opt-in keyless public tier; off by default)
- **Hound** — explicit-only local keyless metasearch through a separately installed loopback MCP sidecar (`HOUND_MCP_URL`)
- **Octen via Monid** — explicit-only source-result web search with native recency and domain filters (`MONID_API_KEY`, `auto_allow=false`)

### Octen source search via Monid

The adapter executes Octen's `/search` endpoint through [Monid's documented HTTP API](https://docs.monid.ai/api/run.html) for ranked links and highlights. It explicitly disables full-content retrieval and does not call Octen's answer or Broad Search APIs. Configure `MONID_API_KEY` from [Monid](https://app.monid.ai/access/api-keys), then select `provider="octen"`; automatic routing remains unchanged unless you deliberately enable `auto_allow`. Access and billing use Monid's prepaid wallet; see Monid for current pricing and terms.

## 📄 Extract Providers

- **Tavily** — public default first choice; fastest reliable extraction in the v2.1 benchmark
- **Exa** — fast contents API, strong for docs/academic pages
- **Linkup** — clean markdown and source-grounded fetches
- **Parallel** — docs-focused fallback with full-content defaults of 60k characters per result / 120k total
- **Firecrawl** — robust scrape fallback, useful for JS-heavy/blocked pages
- **You.com** — LLM-ready snippets/content where available
- **Keenable** — keyed or explicitly opted-in public extraction
- **Serper** — fast webpage scraper extraction
- **Hound** — explicit-only local fetch, browser rendering, PDF, and OCR fallback through MCP

`auto_routing.extract_provider_priority` can override the auto-extraction order without changing search routing. Explicit provider calls still try the requested provider first.

### Keenable keyless public access

Keenable exposes authenticated endpoints via `KEENABLE_API_KEY`. It also has keyless `/public` endpoints, but those are **opt-in and disabled by default**. Without a key, Keenable is treated as unconfigured unless you explicitly enable public egress:

```json
{ "keenable": { "allow_public": true } }
```

or set:

```bash
KEENABLE_ALLOW_PUBLIC=1
```

Use an API key for private or production use. The public endpoint sends queries and fetched URLs to a shared unauthenticated service and remains near the tail of the public default fallback order unless the operator configures a different extraction priority.

### Hound local keyless sidecar

[Hound / Master Fetch](https://github.com/dondai1234/master-fetch) is an
independent MIT-licensed project created and maintained by
[Bishesh Bhandari (`dondai1234`)](https://github.com/dondai1234). It is not
bundled with this package. Web Search Plus connects to a separately installed
Hound service through an uncredentialed loopback-only MCP endpoint.

Hound avoids commercial search API credentials, but uses local resources and
public network egress; engines may throttle or change behavior, browser-backed
fetches can be slow, and no SLA is implied. Hound therefore remains
`explicit-only` unless the operator enables `auto_allow`.

See the [Hound setup and security guide](docs/HOUND.md) for installation,
configuration, trade-offs, and tested versions.

### Private/internal extraction target guard

`web_extract` blocks user-supplied target URLs that point at private or internal networks before any provider is called. This covers loopback, RFC1918, CGNAT/shared-address ranges, IPv6 local/mapped-private ranges, multicast, cloud metadata hosts, and hostnames resolving to private/internal IPs.

Operator-configured provider endpoints are separate: local Firecrawl-compatible backends can still run on `127.0.0.1` through provider config. If you intentionally need to extract trusted intranet URLs, opt in explicitly:

```json
{ "extract": { "allow_private_urls": true } }
```

Leave this off for public/agent-controlled URL extraction.

### GroktoCrawl / local Firecrawl-compatible backends

The Firecrawl provider can target a local Firecrawl-v2-compatible backend by overriding its search and scrape URLs in `config.json`. For example, a local [GroktoCrawl](https://github.com/groktopus/groktocrawl) instance listening on `127.0.0.1:8080` can be used without adding a separate provider:

```json
{
  "firecrawl": {
    "api_url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/v2/search",
    "scrape_url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/v2/scrape"
  }
}
```

Keep `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` configured if your backend enforces bearer authentication; local development instances may ignore the header. This does not make GroktoCrawl the default and does not claim coverage for every Firecrawl endpoint.

## 🛠 MCP Tool Reference

This MCP server exposes exactly two stable, source-only tools: `web_search` and `web_extract`. Use `web_search` for source discovery and let the MCP host synthesize from those sources when needed; the server itself does not generate answers or truth claims.

The Hermes plugin exposes the same stable capability as `web_search_plus` and `web_extract_plus`; the names differ because MCP and Hermes use different tool surfaces.

### `web_search`

Use for source discovery, current events, prices, weather, sports lineups, schedules, and whenever you want the raw search landscape first.

Parameters:

- `query` — required search query
- `provider` — `auto`, `serper`, `serpbase`, `brave`, `tavily`, `querit`, `linkup`, `exa`, `firecrawl`, `parallel`, `you`, `searxng`, `keenable`, `hound`, `octen`
- `count` — results to return, default `5`, max `20`
- `depth` — Exa depth: `normal`, `deep`, `deep-reasoning`
- `time_range` — `hour`, `day`, `week`, `month`, `year`
- `freshness` — unified `day`, `week`, `month`, or `year` recency request
- `search_type` — `search` or Serper-native `news`
- `country` / `language` — explicit locale overrides
- `include_domains` / `exclude_domains` — domain allow/deny lists
- `mode` — `normal` or `research`
- `quality_report` — include routing/result diagnostics
- `research_time_budget` — best-effort wall-clock budget for research mode

Example MCP arguments:

```json
{
  "query": "latest AI hardware news",
  "provider": "auto",
  "count": 5,
  "quality_report": true
}
```

### `web_extract`

Parameters:

- `urls` — required list of URLs
- `provider` — `auto`, `tavily`, `exa`, `linkup`, `parallel`, `firecrawl`, `you`, `keenable`, `serper`, `hound`
- `format` — `markdown` or `html`
- `include_images` — include image metadata when supported
- `include_raw_html` — include raw HTML when supported
- `render_js` — render JavaScript before extraction when supported
- `spans` — select deterministic semantic spans from extracted text
- `spans_query` — optional query used to rank semantic spans

Example MCP arguments:

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://example.com"],
  "provider": "auto",
  "format": "markdown"
}
```

## 🧠 Classic Routing v2 examples

- `東京 AI ニュース 今日` → You.com multilingual/current search
- `arXiv 2024 LLM scaling laws` → Exa academic discovery
- `CVE-2025 openssl advisory` → Serper security/current search
- `best bookshelf speakers under 1000 EUR Austria` → Serper/Firecrawl shopping/local search
- `open source alternatives to Linear` → Exa/Firecrawl OSS discovery
- `recent RAG vs fine-tuning benchmark sources` → source-result discovery; the MCP host may synthesize from returned sources

Guarded providers can still be called explicitly. To let one participate in `provider="auto"`, opt in:

```bash
web-search-plus-mcp config set-auto-allow parallel on
web-search-plus-mcp config set-auto-allow parallel off
web-search-plus-mcp config set-auto-allow hound on
web-search-plus-mcp config set-auto-allow hound off
```

## Development

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for project boundaries, portable-engine sync rules, provider requirements, security constraints, and pull-request expectations.

Run the same gates as CI:

```bash
python -m pip install --upgrade pip build
python -m pip install -e ".[test]"
python -m pytest tests/ -q -p no:cacheprovider
ruff check --config pyproject.toml .
python -m compileall -q web_search_plus_mcp tests
python scripts/gen_contract_v3_schemas.py --check
python -m build
```

The GitHub Actions workflow runs the test suite on Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12, then verifies Ruff, byte-compilation, wheel creation, source-distribution creation, and wheel/sdist parity.

## Credits

Built on the Web Search Plus routing engine and packaged as a standalone MCP server.

## License

MIT © 2026 robbyczgw-cla
