📌Overview

Purpose: To provide an MCP server that enables web search functionality using Perplexity AI's API for enhanced information retrieval.

Overview: The Perplexity MCP server integrates with the Anthropic Claude desktop client, allowing users to perform web searches effortlessly. By leveraging the API from Perplexity AI, it effectively facilitates real-time access to updated information, enabling users to query the web for recent developments in specified domains.

Key Features:

• Web Search Functionality: Users can execute web searches through the perplexity_search_web command by providing a search query. This feature is critical for seeking out the latest information across various topics.

• Recency Filtering: The tool allows users to filter search results based on recency (last 24 hours, last week, etc.), enhancing the relevance of the retrieved data according to the user's needs.

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perplexity-mcp MCP server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides web search functionality using Perplexity AI's API. Works with the Anthropic Claude desktop client.

Example

You can use prompts like:
"Search the web to find out what's new at Anthropic in the past week."

Components

Prompts

The server provides a single prompt:

• perplexity_search_web: Search the web using Perplexity AI
  • Required "query" argument for the search query
  • Optional "recency" argument to filter results by time period:
    • 'day': last 24 hours
    • 'week': last 7 days
    • 'month': last 30 days (default)
    • 'year': last 365 days
  • Uses Perplexity's API to perform web searches

Tools

The server implements one tool:

• perplexity_search_web: Search the web using Perplexity AI
  • Takes "query" as a required string argument
  • Optional "recency" parameter to filter results (day/week/month/year)
  • Returns search results from Perplexity's API

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Perplexity MCP for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install perplexity-mcp --client claude

Requires UV (Fast Python package and project manager)

If uv isn't installed:

# Using Homebrew on macOS
brew install uv

or

# On macOS and Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# On Windows
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Environment Variables

The following environment variable is required in your claude_desktop_config.json. You can obtain an API key from Perplexity:

• PERPLEXITY_API_KEY: Your Perplexity AI API key

Optional environment variables:

• PERPLEXITY_MODEL: The Perplexity model to use (defaults to "sonar" if not specified)

Available models:

• sonar-deep-research: 128k context - Enhanced research capabilities
• sonar-reasoning-pro: 128k context - Advanced reasoning with professional focus
• sonar-reasoning: 128k context - Enhanced reasoning capabilities
• sonar-pro: 200k context - Professional grade model
• sonar: 128k context - Default model
• r1-1776: 128k context - Alternative architecture

Updated list of models is available: https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/model-cards

Cursor & Claude Desktop Installation

Add this tool as a MCP server by editing the Cursor/Claude config file:

  "perplexity-mcp": {
    "env": {
      "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "PERPLEXITY_MODEL": "sonar"
    },
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "perplexity-mcp"
    ]
  }

Cursor config file locations:

• On macOS: /Users/your-username/.cursor/mcp.json
• On Windows: C:\Users\your-username\.cursor\mcp.json

Claude Desktop config file locations:

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

To verify the server is working, open the Claude client and use a prompt like:
"search the web for news about openai in the past week". You should see an alert box asking to confirm tool usage. Click "Allow for this chat".