mcp-retriever

One MCP server for web search, page extraction, and cited research. Use your own providers, combine their results, and keep API keys out of client configs.

• Search together: query two or three providers, deduplicate URLs, and merge rankings with web_search_fused.

• Read more: extract pages, crawl sites, and recover 404/410 pages from Wayback Machine snapshots when archive fallback is enabled.

• Control usage: optional spending caps for provider-reported usage, cooldowns, and paged access to large results.

Supports Tavily, Brave, Exa, You.com, SearXNG, GitHub, Linkup, Firecrawl, and Context.dev. Configure only what you use.

Quickstart

Requires Node.js 22+ and a provider key, or your own SearXNG instance.

npx -y mcp-retriever setup

Choose providers, save keys privately, and connect your MCP client. The wizard writes Claude Desktop and Cursor entries, or shows the command/configuration for Claude Code and Codex. Billable key checks require consent.

Keys are stored in ~/.config/mcp-retriever/credentials.env, not in client configs. Restart your client after setup.

Add, test, or remove keys:

npx mcp-retriever keys

Screenshots show a demo session with fixture credentials and a mocked key-check response, not a live provider validation.

Related MCP server: Web Search MCP

Example

Call web_search_fused with two configured search providers:

{
	"query": "reciprocal rank fusion hybrid search",
	"providers": ["brave", "exa"],
	"limit": 3
}

Results include source providers and merged rankings. If a provider fails, available results are returned with per-provider status.

Documentation

• Configuration: keys, manual client setup, providers, and spending controls.

• Search and read: retrieving pages and handling large results.

• Tool groups: choose which capabilities to expose.

• Deployment: remote HTTP access and operations.

• Contributing: build from source and run checks.

Each server instance shares one trust boundary. Do not use its result store for mutually untrusted clients. Spending caps depend on provider-reported usage, not estimated costs.

License and origins

MIT. Formerly named mcp-omnisearch; a maintained fork of Scott Spence's mcp-omnisearch. When upgrading this fork, rename OMNISEARCH_* settings to RETRIEVER_*, omnisearch:// resources to retriever://, and _meta.omnisearch to _meta.retriever. Preserve the old result store and spending ledger when moving to ~/.cache/mcp-retriever/results; Docker/MCPO clients must also change /omnisearch to /retriever.