Tavily MCP

Name: Tavily MCP
Author: Tavily

Tavily's search, page extraction, site mapping and crawling for agents.

Started in our test
★ 2.5K GitHub stars
Last commit 22 Oct 2026

At a glance

Tavily is a search API built for AI agents, and this is the company's own server. Its search tool returns cleaned-up results with optional images and answer text, the extract tool pulls the readable content out of given pages, map lists the pages on a site, crawl walks a site and returns what it finds, and research gathers several sources into one written answer.

You need a Tavily API key, which you can get by signing up for a free account. Tavily also hosts the server at mcp.tavily.com, which you can sign into with OAuth instead of pasting a key.

Made by: Tavily
Licence: MIT
Latest version: 0.2.22 (5 Aug 2026)
npm package: tavily-mcp
GitHub stars: 2.5K
Last commit: 22 Oct 2026
Tools: 5
Runs on: Your computer or hosted

Our check: We ran this exact config on 27 Oct 2026: it started and answered with 5 tools.

What's in the pod: its tools

We found 5 tools when we started it on 27 Oct 2026. 0 only read. The rest can change things, so keep your app's "ask before each tool call" setting on for them.

Changes things5 tools · Can create, edit, send or delete.

Tool	What it is for
`tavily_crawl`	Crawls a site from a URL and returns the content of the pages it reaches.
`tavily_extract`	Pulls the readable content out of one or more URLs as Markdown or text.
`tavily_map`	Lists the pages on a site, starting from a URL.
`tavily_research`	Researches a question across many sources and writes up the answer.
`tavily_search`	Searches the web and returns snippets and links, with options for depth, topic, dates and images.

Grouped and described by us. The README on GitHub lists the inputs each tool takes.

How clearly it describes its tools to your assistant

Tools with a description: 5 of 5
Say if they change things: 0 of 5
Context it takes, at least: ~400 tokens

No tool says whether it only reads or can change things, so your client treats them all alike: keep approvals on.

From the tool list it sent us. The token figure counts names, descriptions and input names; the full schemas your client loads add more.

Set it up

Pick your app for the exact snippet and where it goes.

Where it goes: claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config)

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Where it goes: Your terminal, in the project folder

Claude Code

claude mcp add-json tavily '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","tavily-mcp@latest"],"env":{"TAVILY_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY"}}'

Where it goes: ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or .cursor/mcp.json in a project

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Where it goes: .vscode/mcp.json in your project

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "tavily": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Where it goes: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Windsurf

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set DEFAULT_PARAMETERS in env to a JSON object, such as {"search_depth": "advanced", "max_results": 10}, to change what every search asks for.

Remote option

Hosted by Tavily. Sign in with OAuth, or add ?tavilyApiKey= with your key to the address.

Server URL

https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/

New to this? See the setup guides for Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT.

Settings

Names are exactly as the project spells them. Required ones are marked.

Setting	What it does
`TAVILY_API_KEY`Environment variable · required	Your key from app.tavily.com.`tvly-...`
`DEFAULT_PARAMETERS`Environment variable	A JSON object of defaults applied to every search. The hosted server takes the same as a header.`{"search_depth": "advanced", "max_results": 10}`
`TAVILY_HUMAN_ID`Environment variable	An ID for the person the requests are for, sent to Tavily for per-user analytics. Tavily hashes it before storing it.
`?tavilyApiKey=`Config	Your key as a query string on the hosted URL, for clients without OAuth or header support.`https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/?tavilyApiKey=tvly-...`

What it can touch

It can read

The public web, through Tavily's search, extraction and crawling

It can change

Your Tavily credit balance

Safer setup: It does not change anything outside your Tavily account. Keep crawl limits low, since large crawls use more credits.

Before you start

A Tavily API key
Node.js 20 or newer, for the local version

If it does not work

Calls fail with an authentication error: Check TAVILY_API_KEY in the env block, or the key in the hosted URL.
The OAuth sign-in uses the wrong key: Name the key you want mcp_auth_default in your Tavily account. A personal key with that name wins over a team key.
OAuth gets stuck after a change: Clear the stored tokens with rm -rf ~/.mcp-auth and sign in again.

Peas in a pod: similar servers

How Tavily MCP lines up against other browser and web data servers on the shelf.

Server	Tools	Runs on	Licence	Stars
Tavily MCP	5	Your computer or hosted	MIT	2.5K
Playwright MCP	25	Your computer	Apache-2.0	38.7K
Firecrawl	28	Your computer	MIT	7.7K
Exa	2	Your computer or hosted	–	5.2K
Bright Data	32	Your computer	MIT	2.7K