Perplexity Web Search

🚀 Perplexity Web Search MCP Server

A simple MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that uses the Perplexity API to provide web search capabilities. This server allows Claude or other MCP-compatible AI assistants to conduct web searches and obtain up-to-date information.

✨ Features

• Conduct web searches using Perplexity's powerful search capabilities.
• Obtain comprehensive search results, including sources and references.
• Filter results by time range (day, week, month, year).
• Provide ready-made web search prompt templates.
• Support loading API keys from environment variables or .env files.

📦 Installation

1. Clone this repository.
2. Install the dependencies:

   pip install -e .
   

   Or

   uv pip install -e .
   

📚 Configuration

You can set the PERPLEXITY_API_KEY environment variable to use your Perplexity API key:

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Or create a .env file in the project root directory with the following content:

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

An example .env.example file is provided for reference.

To obtain a Perplexity API key:

1. Visit Perplexity API settings.
2. Create an account if you don't have one.
3. Generate an API key.

💻 Usage Examples

Basic Usage

Run the server

python server.py

Test the server functionality

You can use the included test script to test the server functionality without running the full MCP server:

python test_server.py "your search query here" --recency month

Options for --recency are: day, week, month (default), year

Integrate into Claude Desktop

1. Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • On macOS: ~/Library/Application\ 支持/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the following configuration:

   {
     "perplexity-mcp": {
       "env": {
         "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
       },
       "command": "python",
       "args": [
         "/path/to/server.py"
       ]
     }
   }
   

3. Restart Claude Desktop

Example prompts (for Claude)

• "Search the web for the latest news about artificial intelligence."
• "Use Perplexity to find information about climate change in the past week."
• "Search for the latest research papers on quantum computing in the past month."

Advanced Usage

📄 API Documentation

Tool: search_web(query: str, recency: str = "month") -> str

Search the web using the Perplexity API and return the results.

Parameters:

• query: The search query string.
• recency: Filter results by time period - 'day', 'week', 'month' (default), or 'year'.

Returns: A comprehensive text response containing:

1. A detailed summary of the search results.
2. Key facts and information.
3. Source URLs for verification.
4. Any conflicting information, if available.

Prompt: web_search_prompt(query: str, recency: str = "month") -> str

Create a prompt template for conducting web searches using Perplexity.

Parameters:

• query: The search query.
• recency: The time range filter - 'day', 'week', 'month' (default), or 'year'.

Returns: A formatted prompt string instructing the AI to:

1. Search for the specified query.
2. Focus on results within the specified time period.
3. Summarize the key findings.
4. Indicate the importance of the information.
5. Provide specific details.