google-surf-mcp

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Demo only. Actual searches run headless by default (no visible browser). Set SURF_HEADLESS=false to make Chrome visible like in the clip above.

Google search MCP. No API key. Just works.

One MCP replaces three: search + URL fetcher + academic-paper extractor.

• ✅ Actually works (tested 6 free Google search MCPs, all failed)

• ✅ Search + URL + academic PDF extract in one MCP (replaces the search MCP + fetch MCP + academic-search MCP combo)

• ✅ Academic PDFs extracted inline: arxiv, biorxiv, Nature, OpenReview, NeurIPS, JMLR, PMLR, Springer, PubMed (via PMC)

• ✅ search_extract defaults to abstract mode (~1500 chars/result, token-cheap), mode="full" for whole bodies

• ✅ Sponsored ads + knowledge panels dropped (geometric verification, not just text matching)

• ✅ CAPTCHA recovery in 4 modes: OS notification (default) / SURF_HEADLESS=false / SURF_REMOTE_DEBUG / SURF_CLOUD_MODE (fail-fast)

• ✅ No API key, no proxies, no solver

5 tools: search / search_parallel / extract / search_extract / health

What

Plug it into any MCP client and you get Google search as a tool.

No CAPTCHA solver. When CAPTCHA fires on any tool, a Chrome window opens for a human to solve. Each solve preserves the profile's reputation with Google.

First call auto-bootstraps the warm profile. Designed for local use. For headless / serverless environments set SURF_CLOUD_MODE=true (fail-fast on CAPTCHA, worker pool disabled).

Related MCP server: Brave Search MCP Server

Numbers

Measured on a workstation with a 1Gb/s connection.

Stack

• Playwright + persistent Chrome profile

• playwright-extra stealth as a cascade fallback tier

• Multi-strategy SERP parser + geometric verification (drops sponsored / knowledge_panel / related)

• unpdf for PDF text extraction; Mozilla Readability + Turndown for HTML

• Resource-blocked images / media / fonts for speed

• Auto-bootstrap on first call; pool falls back to single-context after repeated warm failures

• Self-healing: runtime parser-strategy reorder (deterministic) + daily cron repair PR (synthesis → optional LLM → triple-gate validation, human review)

Install

Requires Node 18+ and Google Chrome (or Chromium) on the system.

npx google-surf-mcp   # actual MCP - register in client config

First tool call auto-bootstraps the warm profile (you may see Chrome open briefly).

Or local clone:

git clone https://github.com/HarimxChoi/google-surf-mcp
cd google-surf-mcp
npm install

If auto-bootstrap fails (rare), run it manually:

npm run bootstrap

Override paths if needed:

CHROME_PATH=/path/to/chrome SURF_TZ=America/New_York npm run bootstrap

Use with Claude Code

Paste this into your ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-surf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "google-surf-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Code. Done. search, search_parallel, extract, search_extract, health are now available.

For other MCP clients, use the same JSON shape in their config file.

Local clone variant:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-surf": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/abs/path/to/google-surf-mcp/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

• search(query, limit?) - single query, ~1.5s. Returns title / url / snippet. Sponsored ads + knowledge-panel dropped (response includes dropped count + dropped_reasons). Results cached 24h (SURF_CACHE_TTL_SEARCH_MS=0 to bypass).

• search_parallel(queries[], limit?) - pool of 4, max 10 queries per call.

• extract(url, max_chars?, mode?) - fetch a URL, return article content.

  • mode="full" (default): whole body. HTML via Readability, PDFs via unpdf.

  • mode="abstract": ~1500-char survey (PDF page 1 or HTML meta description). Triage relevance before paying for full text.

  • mode="metadata": PDF page count only.

  • Response: content, title, excerpt, length, is_pdf, page_count, extraction_quality. Failures return { error }, never throw.

• search_extract(query, limit?, max_chars?, mode?) - search + parallel extract in one call. Default mode="abstract" returns SERP enriched with ~1500-char summaries (cheap triage). Use mode="full" when you actually need the article texts (slower, more tokens).

• health() - server status. Response: cascade / pool (warmFailures + fallback) / rateLimiter / cache / telemetry / selfHealing (current strategy order + stats) / config. Call it if searches start failing — pool.fallback=true or rising cascade.totalCaptchas are the usual culprits.

Env vars

Troubleshooting

• CAPTCHA in 4 modes (picked automatically from env):

  • default (local desktop): OS notification fires, headed Chrome opens, human solves, call retries

  • SURF_HEADLESS=false: headed Chrome opens, no notification (user is already watching)

  • SURF_REMOTE_DEBUG=true: DevTools port + instructions printed, attach chrome://inspect locally to solve

  • SURF_CLOUD_MODE=true: fail-fast with CAPTCHA_REQUIRED error

• Headed Chrome opens to a plain search box instead of CAPTCHA: just type any query in the box and press Enter. Subsequent calls work.

• "Chrome not found": install Chrome or set CHROME_PATH.

• Stale selectors: two-layer mitigation — runtime per-strategy reorder (SURF_SELF_HEALING, deterministic) + daily cron that opens draft PRs with candidate fixes (SURF_LLM_HEAL optional, human review required, never auto-merged).

• Searches feel slower than the Numbers table: check health().pool.fallback. true means the worker pool gave up after 3 warm failures and is using a single context. Usually fixed by npm run bootstrap to refresh the seed profile.

• SSRF: extract blocks localhost, private IPs, AWS metadata by default. Set SURF_ALLOW_PRIVATE=true to allow them.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT