StackMCP

Set up Brave Search MCP in VS Code

Search the web using Brave Search API. Perform web searches and get results directly in your AI editor context.

1

Locate the config file

VS Code reads MCP server configuration from the following file:

.vscode/settings.json → mcp section

Create this file if it does not already exist. For VS Code, this is inside your workspace .vscode/settings.json file under the mcp section.

2

Add the configuration

Add the following to your VS Code config file:

json
{
  "servers": {
    "brave-search-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
3

Set up environment variables

Brave Search MCP requires the following environment variables:

BRAVE_API_KEYRequired

Brave Search API key

4

Verify it works

Restart VS Code. Brave Search MCP should appear in your MCP server list with 2 tools available.

This server adds approximately 1,030 tokens to your context window for tool definitions.

Set up Brave Search MCP in other editors

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