web-basics-mcp

A self-hosted MCP server for web search and fetching. Runs entirely on your machine — no API keys, no accounts, no external calls.

What it is

Runs as a local MCP server over stdio. It exposes two tools to your AI:

• web_search — Sends your query to a local SearXNG instance and returns a list of results (title, link, snippet).

• fetch_url — Fetches a webpage, strips it down to clean markdown, and returns the content.

The SearXNG backend runs in Docker by default, but you can point it at any existing SearXNG instance via the SEARXNG_URL env var. The fetch tool has SSRF protection — it validates domains, resolves IPs, and blocks any request to private or reserved ranges.

Related MCP server: mcp-web-calc

Setup

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/web-basics-mcp.git
cd web-basics-mcp
npm install && npm run build

Optional — start the search backend:

docker compose up -d

Starts a local SearXNG instance at 127.0.0.1:8088. If you already have one, set the SEARXNG_URL env var instead.

Install

Replace ~/web-basics-mcp with wherever you cloned the repo.

claude mcp add web-basics -- node ~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js

codex mcp add web-basics -- node ~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js

Add to your opencode.json (usually ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "web-basics": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["node", "~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}