Serper Search and Scrape MCP Server

A TypeScript-based MCP server that provides web search and webpage scraping capabilities using the Serper API. This server integrates with Claude Desktop to enable powerful web search and content extraction features.

Features

Tools

• google_search - Perform web searches via Serper API

  • Rich search results including organic results, knowledge graph, "people also ask", and related searches

  • Supports region and language targeting

  • Optional parameters for location, pagination, time filters, and autocorrection

  • Supports advanced search operators:

    • site: Limit results to specific domain

    • filetype: Limit to specific file types (e.g., 'pdf', 'doc')

    • inurl: Search for pages with word in URL

    • intitle: Search for pages with word in title

    • related: Find similar websites

    • cache: View Google's cached version of a specific URL

    • before: Date before in YYYY-MM-DD format

    • after: Date after in YYYY-MM-DD format

    • exact: Exact phrase match

    • exclude: Terms to exclude from search results

    • or: Alternative terms (OR operator)

• scrape - Extract content from web pages

  • Get plain text and optional markdown content

  • Includes JSON-LD and head metadata

  • Preserves document structure

Related MCP server: Serpex MCP

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18

• Serper API key (set as SERPER_API_KEY environment variable)

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the server:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run watch

Run tests:

npm test                  # Run all tests
npm run test:watch       # Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:coverage    # Run tests with coverage
npm run test:integration # Run integration tests

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

SERPER_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector, which is available as a package script:

npm run inspector

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

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Serper Search and Scrape for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @marcopesani/mcp-server-serper --client claude

Claude Desktop

Add the server config at:

• MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serper-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "serper-search-scrape-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cline

1. Open the Cline extension settings

2. Open "MCP Servers" tab

3. Click on "Configure MCP Servers"

4. Add the server config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github.com/marcopesani/mcp-server-serper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "serper-search-scrape-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": ["google_search", "scrape"]
    }
  }
}

Additional Cline configuration options:

• disabled: Set to false to enable the server

• autoApprove: List of tools that don't require explicit approval for each use

Cursor

1. Open the Cursor settings

2. Open "Features" settings

3. In the "MCP Servers" section, click on "Add new MCP Server"

4. Choose a name, and select "command" as "Type"

5. In the "Command" field, enter the following:

env SERPER_API_KEY=your_api_key_here npx -y serper-search-scrape-mcp-server

Docker

You can also run the server using Docker. First, build the image:

docker build -t mcp-server-serper .

Then run the container with your Serper API key:

docker run -e SERPER_API_KEY=your_api_key_here mcp-server-serper

Alternatively, if you have your environment variables in a .env file:

docker run --env-file .env mcp-server-serper

For development, you might want to mount your source code as a volume:

docker run -v $(pwd):/app --env-file .env mcp-server-serper

Note: Make sure to replace your_api_key_here with your actual Serper API key.