Connect the Brave Search MCP for Real-Time Web Research
Claude's training data has a cutoff — but with the Brave Search MCP server connected, it can look things up in real time before answering.
Add it to your Claude Code config with a free Brave Search API key:
{
"mcpServers": {
"brave-search": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"],
"env": {
"BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
Once connected, Claude can search the web mid-conversation without you having to leave the terminal:
What's the latest stable version of Bun, and has anything
changed in the HTTP server API since 1.0?
This is especially useful when working with fast-moving ecosystems — framework changelogs, new library APIs, recent CVEs, or package deprecation notices. Claude will search, read the relevant pages, and synthesise an answer grounded in current docs rather than memory.
You can get a free Brave Search API key at brave.com/search/api — the free tier covers 2,000 queries per month.
Stop copy-pasting docs into the chat — let Claude search for what it needs.
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Scaffold a custom MCP server with Claude to give it direct access to your internal APIs, dashboards, and microservices.
Use --strict-mcp-config to restrict Claude Code to only the MCP servers you explicitly provide, ignoring all other sources.
When an MCP server misbehaves, /mcp gives you a live view of every connected server, its status, and the tools it's exposing — right inside your session.