An MCP server that provides AI-powered web search capabilities through the Tavily API, enabling LLMs to perform complex web searches, retrieve direct answers, and search for the latest news articles with AI-extracted content.

Installation

pip

pip install mcp-tavily

uv

uv add mcp-tavily

From source

git clone https://github.com/RamXX/mcp-tavily.git
cd mcp-tavily
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync
uv build

Docker

docker build -t mcp_tavily .
docker run -d --name mcp_tavily_container -e TAVILY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here -p 8000:8000 mcp_tavily

Configuration

Claude Desktop

"mcpServers": {
  "tavily": {
    "command": "python",
    "args": ["-m", "mcp_server_tavily"]
  },
  "env": {
    "TAVILY_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
  }
}

VS Code MCP

{
  "mcp": {
    "inputs": [
      {
        "type": "promptString",
        "id": "apiKey",
        "description": "Tavily API Key",
        "password": true
      }
    ],
    "servers": {
      "tavily": {
        "command": "uvx",
        "args": ["mcp-tavily"],
        "env": {
          "TAVILY_API_KEY": "${input:apiKey}"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description
tavily_web_search	Performs comprehensive web searches with AI-powered content extraction
tavily_answer_search	Performs web searches and generates direct answers with supporting evidence
tavily_news_search	Searches for the latest news articles with publication dates

Features

• AI-powered web search with content extraction
• Direct answer generation with supporting evidence
• Latest news article search with publication dates
• Domain inclusion and exclusion filtering
• Customizable search depth (basic or advanced)
• Query templates for each search type
• Support for up to 20 results per search

Environment Variables

Required

• TAVILY_API_KEY - API key for the Tavily search service

Usage Examples

Tell me about the recently released MCP protocol from Anthropic

Tell me about redwood trees. Please use MLA format in markdown syntax and include URLs in citations. Exclude Wikipedia sources.

I want a specific answer backed by current web sources: What is the average lifespan of redwood trees?

Give me the top 10 AI news stories from the last 5 days

Notes

This server is deprecated in favor of the official MCP server from Tavily. The server supports comprehensive testing with automated dependency compatibility testing and includes Docker support with make commands for easy deployment.