Research MCP Server — 23 Research Tools for AI Agents

One endpoint. 23 tools. Web, social, academic, and financial data — for any MCP client.

Give your AI agent the ability to search the web, extract content, find academic papers, verify citations, scan social media, pull SEC filings, and more — all through a single MCP server. Works with Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and any MCP-compatible client.

Why This Exists

AI agents are only as good as their data. Without research tools, they hallucinate. With this MCP server, your agent can:

• Search the web and extract clean content from any URL

• Find academic papers on arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv and verify citations against Crossref/OpenAlex

• Scan social platforms — Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, Bluesky, Telegram, Mastodon, VK, Substack

• Pull financial data — SEC EDGAR filings by ticker

• Find geographic data — OpenStreetMap POIs and amenities

• Detect trends across multiple platforms simultaneously

• Resurrect dead links via the Wayback Machine

• Score source reliability with rule-based tier scoring

Related MCP server: agent101-mcp

Quick Start

# 1. List all 23 tools
curl -X POST https://mcp.apify.com/mcp?tools=research-mcp-server \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list","id":1}'

# 2. Call web_search
curl -X POST https://mcp.apify.com/mcp?tools=research-mcp-server \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"web_search","arguments":{"query":"AI agents 2025"}},"id":2}'

If you see a JSON response with 23 tool definitions, your token works. Then configure your MCP client below.

Use Cases

• Research assistant: web_search → extract_content → score_reliability → find_counter_arguments → verify_citations → format_citations

• Market intelligence: detect_trends → search_reddit → search_hackernews → search_news

• Academic workflow: search_preprints → search_datasets → find_counter_arguments → validate_bibliography

• Financial research: search_sec_filings → extract_content → score_reliability

• Social listening: search_bluesky → search_telegram → search_mastodon → search_vk

• Link rescue: resurrect_dead_link → extract_content (read archived content)

• Location research: search_osm → extract_content (pull details from POI websites)

Tools

Web & Content — $0.01/call

Social & Discussion — $0.02/call

Academic & Research — $0.03/call

Specialized Data — $0.02/call

Response Format

All tools return { query, count, results }. Errors return { query, count: 0, results: [], error: "message" }. You only pay for successful calls — errors are free.

Example — web_search({ query: "rust async runtime" }):

{
  "query": "rust async runtime",
  "count": 3,
  "results": [
    { "title": "Tokio — Async runtime for Rust", "url": "https://tokio.rs", "snippet": "Tokio is an async runtime...", "source": "duckduckgo" },
    { "title": "async-std — Alternative async runtime", "url": "https://async.rs", "snippet": "async-std provides...", "source": "duckduckgo" }
  ]
}

Example — score_reliability({ urls: ["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust"] }):

{
  "query": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust",
  "count": 1,
  "results": [
    { "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust", "reliabilityScore": 1.0, "reliabilityTier": "HIGH", "domain": "en.wikipedia.org" }
  ]
}

Presets

Reduce token overhead by loading only needed tools. Configure via Actor input JSON {"preset": "web"} in Apify Console.

MCP Client Setup

Claude Desktop

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=research-mcp-server",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Cursor

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "research": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=research-mcp-server",
            "headers": {
                "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
            }
        }
    }
}

LangChain

from langchain_mcp import MCPClient

client = MCPClient("https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=research-mcp-server",
                   headers={"Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"})
tools = await client.get_tools()

LlamaIndex

from llama_index.tools.mcp import McpToolSpec

tool_spec = McpToolSpec(
    server_url="https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=research-mcp-server",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"},
)
tools = await tool_spec.to_tool_list()

Pricing

Pay only for successful calls. No subscription, no minimum. If a tool returns an error, you are not charged.

Cost examples:

• 100 web searches = $1.00

• 50 Reddit searches + 25 YouTube searches = $1.50

• 20 citation verifications + 10 bibliography validations = $0.90

• Full research workflow (search → extract → score → verify → format) = ~$0.08

Cost tips: Use presets to reduce token overhead. Lower maxResults for faster, cheaper calls. Use score_reliability before expensive citation tools. Simple lookups ($0.01) are cheapest — start there.

API Endpoints

Rate Limits

• 60 requests/minute per IP (global)

• HTTP 429 with Retry-After header when exceeded

• External API limits (Crossref, SEC, Wikipedia) handled with automatic retries

Troubleshooting

Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in values. Without Google API keys, web search falls back to DuckDuckGo.

Legal & Ethical Use

This actor respects robots.txt, rate limits, and platform terms of service. Users are responsible for compliance with applicable laws and the terms of service of platforms accessed (Reddit, YouTube, SEC, Crossref, etc.).

FAQ

How is this different from using SerpAPI or Serper? SerpAPI and Serper only do web search. This server covers 23 tools across web, social, academic, financial, and geographic data — all through one MCP endpoint. No need to manage multiple API keys, billing accounts, and integrations.

How is this different from building my own tools? Building 23 research tools from scratch takes weeks: API integrations, error handling, caching, rate limiting, testing, deployment. This server is production-ready, tested (71 tests), and deployed on Apify's infrastructure with standby mode for instant responses.

Do I pay for failed calls? No. You only pay for successful tool calls. If a tool returns an error (API down, invalid input, rate limited), you are not charged.

What MCP clients are supported? Any MCP-compatible client: Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Windsurf, and more. The server follows the MCP protocol specification.

Can I use only a subset of tools? Yes. Use presets (web, social, academic, data) to load only the tools you need. This reduces token overhead in your AI agent's context window.

Is there a free tier? Apify provides a free tier with $5 monthly credit. At $0.01–$0.03/call, that's 150–500 free calls per month.

What happens if an external API is down? The server retries on 429 and 5xx errors with exponential backoff. If the API remains unavailable, the tool returns a clear error message (no charge). Cached results may still be served.

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test
npm run start:dev

Deployment

This actor is configured for Apify's platform. To deploy:

# Install Apify CLI
npm i -g apify

# Login
apify login

# Push to Apify (builds and deploys)
apify push

# After deployment, set SEO title and description in:
# Apify Console → Actor → Publication → Display information

The actor uses standby mode for instant MCP responses. No cold-start delay after the first request.