perplexity-mcp
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP_PROXY | No | Standard HTTP proxy environment variable | |
| HTTPS_PROXY | No | Standard HTTPS proxy environment variable | |
| PERPLEXITY_PROXY | No | Proxy URL for corporate networks (e.g., https://proxy-host:8080) | |
| PERPLEXITY_API_KEY | Yes | Your Perplexity API key | |
| PERPLEXITY_BASE_URL | No | Custom base URL for API requests | https://api.perplexity.ai |
| PERPLEXITY_LOG_LEVEL | No | Log level: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, or ERROR | ERROR |
| PERPLEXITY_TIMEOUT_MS | No | Timeout in milliseconds for API requests (default: 5 minutes) | 300000 |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": true
} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| perplexity_askA | Answer a question using web-grounded AI (Sonar Pro model). Best for: quick factual questions, summaries, explanations, and general Q&A. Returns a text response with numbered citations. Fastest and cheapest option. Supports filtering by recency (hour/day/week/month/year), domain restrictions, and search context size. For in-depth multi-source research, use perplexity_research instead. For step-by-step reasoning and analysis, use perplexity_reason instead. |
| perplexity_researchA | Conduct deep, multi-source research on a topic (Sonar Deep Research model). Best for: literature reviews, comprehensive overviews, investigative queries needing many sources. Returns a detailed response with numbered citations. Significantly slower than other tools (30+ seconds). For quick factual questions, use perplexity_ask instead. For logical analysis and reasoning, use perplexity_reason instead. |
| perplexity_reasonA | Analyze a question using step-by-step reasoning with web grounding (Sonar Reasoning Pro model). Best for: math, logic, comparisons, complex arguments, and tasks requiring chain-of-thought. Returns a reasoned response with numbered citations. Supports filtering by recency (hour/day/week/month/year), domain restrictions, and search context size. For quick factual questions, use perplexity_ask instead. For comprehensive multi-source research, use perplexity_research instead. |
| perplexity_searchA | Search the web and return a ranked list of results with titles, URLs, snippets, and dates. Best for: finding specific URLs, checking recent news, verifying facts, discovering sources. Returns formatted results (title, URL, snippet, date) — no AI synthesis. For AI-generated answers with citations, use perplexity_ask instead. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 4 tools
Each tool has a clearly distinct purpose: ask for quick Q&A, research for deep multi-source, reason for step-by-step analysis, and search for raw results. The descriptions explicitly cross-reference each other to guide selection, eliminating ambiguity.
All tool names follow the consistent pattern 'perplexity_' plus a distinct verb (ask, research, reason, search). Naming is uniform, lowercase, and underscores are used consistently.
Four tools is an ideal scope for a search/answer server. Each tool covers a different mode (quick, deep, reasoning, raw) with no redundancy, and the count feels complete without being bloated.
The tool surface covers the full spectrum from raw search results to AI-synthesized quick answers, deep research, and reasoning. There are no obvious dead ends; citations and source info are included in outputs.