📌Overview

Purpose: To provide an efficient Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates DuckDuckGo search functionality.

Overview: This TypeScript-based MCP server allows users to perform web searches through DuckDuckGo’s API. It incorporates essential MCP principles, offering a straightforward search tool interface along with support for rate limiting and error handling.

Key Features:

• Search Tool: The duckduckgo_search function enables users to execute web searches via the DuckDuckGo API by specifying a search query. Optional parameters allow customization of the number of results and safe search levels, returning results in a formatted Markdown style.

• Rate Limits: To ensure fair use, the server implements a rate limit of one request per second and allows a maximum of 15,000 requests per month.

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duckduckgo-search MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server for DuckDuckGo Search.

This TypeScript-based MCP server provides DuckDuckGo search functionality and demonstrates core MCP concepts through:

• Integration with DuckDuckGo Search
• Easy-to-use search tool interface
• Rate limiting and error handling support

Features

Search Tool

• duckduckgo_search - Perform web searches using DuckDuckGo API
  • Required parameter: query (search query, max 400 characters)
  • Optional parameter: count (number of results, 1-20, default 10)
  • Optional parameter: safeSearch (safety level: strict/moderate/off, default moderate)
  • Returns formatted Markdown search results

Rate Limits

• Maximum 1 request per second
• Maximum 15000 requests per month

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• pnpm >= 8.0.0

Installation

# Install pnpm if not already installed
npm install -g pnpm

# Install project dependencies
pnpm install

Build and Run

Build the server:

pnpm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

pnpm run watch

Setup in Claude Desktop

To use with Claude Desktop, add the server config:

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

Example configuration:

# online
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "duckduckgo-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "duckduckgo-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

# local
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "duckduckgo-search": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/duckduckgo-search/build/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. It is recommended to use the MCP Inspector, available as a package script:

pnpm run inspector

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