Search1API MCP Server
The official MCP server for Search1API — web search, news, page retrieval, sitemap discovery, and trending topics in one API.
Authentication
- OAuth-aware clients can connect to the Remote MCP URL directly, then sign in and approve access in the browser.
- Existing integrations can continue to use an API key from the Search1API dashboard.
- Every MCP request — including tool discovery (
initialize,tools/list) — requires a credential. Unauthenticated requests draw the OAuth challenge, which is how clients trigger sign-in; pre-connect inspection is served by the static server card instead.
Quick Start (Remote MCP)
No installation required. Configure your MCP client with the remote URL. Use OAuth when the client supports it, or provide an API key.
Authentication
Three methods are supported — use whichever your client supports:
Prefer OAuth or the Authorization header. Query-parameter credentials can be exposed in URLs, logs, and shell history.
Optional search and news UI
Remote MCP exposes render_results at the standard endpoint above. Data tools such as search, news and ask return results without automatically showing cards. When a source list helps, the model can select or combine existing results and pass them to render_results. It returns source cards in MCP Apps clients and a complete readable text list elsewhere. Rendering does not repeat a search or consume search credits; no UI URL parameter is required.
Both HTTP and stdio advertise the square Search1API logo through standard serverInfo.icons metadata. The 512×512 PNG is served publicly at https://mcp.search1api.com/assets/icon-square.png, without authentication or redirects. The server card and registry manifest use the same icon. Clients choose whether to display it; this does not replace an icon stored separately by a plugin directory.
See the rendering contract for arguments, limits and fallback behavior. The npm package includes this renderer from version 0.8.0. Update existing installations and restart the MCP connection; npx -y search1api-mcp@latest starts the latest published package.
After changing the URL, reconnect or refresh the connector's tool definitions; clients may cache them. This URL setting applies to Remote MCP only; local stdio behavior is unchanged. See MCP Apps UI for details and release status.
Claude Desktop
{
"mcpServers": {
"search1api": {
"url": "https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
}
}
}
}
Claude.ai (Web)
Install Search1API from the Claude directory, click Connect, and sign in with your Search1API account.
Avoid adding https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp through Add custom connector: that creates a separate custom connector, which Claude names after the URL's host (mcp.search1api.com) unless you type a name.
Cursor
Install as a Cursor plugin (recommended): this repo includes Agent Plugins plugin.json + mcp.json (portable) and .cursor-plugin/plugin.json (Cursor Marketplace metadata / logo) for Remote MCP with OAuth. Submit or install from cursor.directory / the Cursor Marketplace, then sign in when prompted.
For local testing, copy the plugin files into ~/.cursor/plugins/local/search1api (plugin.json, .cursor-plugin/, mcp.json, assets/). Do not symlink from outside that directory — Cursor rejects external symlink targets.
Or configure manually:
{
"mcpServers": {
"search1api": {
"url": "https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
}
}
}
}
VS Code
{
"servers": {
"search1api": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
}
}
}
}
Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http search1api https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
Windsurf
{
"mcpServers": {
"search1api": {
"serverUrl": "https://mcp.search1api.com/mcp?apiKey=YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
}
}
}
Agent Skill
The Agent Skill has moved to search1api-cli. Install it with:
npm install -g search1api-cli
npx skills add superagents-lab/search1api-cli
Local Mode (stdio)
If you prefer to run the server locally, use Node.js 20 or newer with npx — no cloning required:
{
"mcpServers": {
"search1api": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "search1api-mcp"],
"env": {
"SEARCH1API_KEY": "YOUR_SEARCH1API_KEY"
}
}
}
}
For self-hosted HTTP deployments behind a proxy, add any internal hostnames
that reach the Node.js process to the comma-separated MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS
environment variable. mcp.search1api.com and localhost addresses are allowed
by default. Browser-based clients that send an Origin header must also have
their trusted origin hostnames added to the comma-separated
MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS variable. Requests from server-side MCP clients normally
omit Origin and do not require an entry.
Tools
search
Search the web using Search1API. Results include a citable id/title/url structure. Pass a result URL to crawl when you need the full page.
Results carry published_date in metadata when the engine exposes one; github results add kind, stars, language, and num_comments.
news
Search for news articles. hackernews results link to the discussion thread and add story_url, points, and num_comments to metadata.
crawl
Extract content from a URL.
sitemap
Get all related links from a URL.
trending
Get trending topics from popular platforms.
ask
Agentic search: describe the need in natural language and Search1API picks up to five engines and a time window, drops off-topic results, and returns at most 10 citable results ranked by relevance. The result also carries intent (keywords, engines, and window used) and errors (engines that failed while others completed). Costs 5 credits per completed request; use search when you already know the engine.
send_feedback
Report a wrong, empty or incomplete result, an error you could not resolve, documentation that did not match behavior, or a missing capability to the Search1API team. Free; it spends no credits. When the server has a Search1API credential, the report is linked to that account so the team can follow up. Do not include credentials or private data.
Version History
-
v0.7.0: New
asktool for agentic search.searchadds thebingcn,yandex, andgrokipediaengines and apageparameter;searchandnewsaccepttime_range: "week"and passpublished_date, GitHub, and Hacker News fields through in resultmetadata -
v0.6.1: Bug fix — MCP discovery (
initialize,tools/list,resources/*,prompts/list,server/discover) requires a credential again. Serving it anonymously made clients that equate "tools listed" with "signed in" show a connected state with no way to trigger the OAuth flow; the 401 challenge now answers every unauthenticated request, restoring OAuth sign-in at connect time. Directory visibility is unchanged via the static server card and registry metadata -
v0.6.0: MCP discovery (
initialize,tools/list,resources/*,prompts/list,server/discover) is served without a credential so clients and directories can enumerate tools before signing in; tool calls still require OAuth or an API key. Stdio mode starts withoutSEARCH1API_KEYand serves tool metadata, refusing only at call time. Malformed requests answer as JSON-RPC instead of an HTML error page -
v0.5.4: OAuth issuer moved to
clerk.s1.devand is configurable withOAUTH_AUTHORIZATION_SERVER; MCP server card published at/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json; OAuth discovery documents now send cache headers -
v0.5.3: OAuth resource and tool metadata no longer require OIDC session scopes; Smithery and Glama registry badges added
-
v0.5.2: MCP
Originvalidation now runs before request parsing and authentication; self-hosted HTTP deployments can configure trusted browser origins withMCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS -
v0.5.1: Documentation, LobeHub manifest, and MCP Registry metadata synchronized;
robots.txtserved on the transport host -
v0.5.0: MCP 2026-07-28 support with automatic protocol negotiation; stateless compatibility for 2025-era HTTP clients; request-level authentication
-
v0.4.0: Structured output schemas, OAuth security schemes, safety annotations, and Official MCP Registry metadata
-
v0.3.1: OAuth 2.1 support for Remote MCP; retired reasoning tool removed
License
MIT
UI and third-party credits
The render_results MCP Apps view shows existing sources as cards with titles and domains. Every client also receives the full text and structured result list. The component is adapted from Rare UI, by Swami Malode. Its MIT + Commons Clause + Attribution terms are reproduced in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
UI setup, sandbox origin, and release checks: MCP Apps UI.
