Google Surf MCP Server

What the code does

We read the source, 18 h ago · rules 3dff92dd89df

What this server is able to do. For an MCP server this is often the job itself — a terminal server runs commands because that is what it is for. Listed so you know what you are plugging in, not as an accusation.

      const p = spawn(cmd, args, {

  return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(process.env)

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Connect this server

This server runs on your own machine — install it with the package manager and the client starts it for you. Package name taken from the official registry entry.

claude mcp add google-surf-mcp -- npx -y google-surf-mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-surf-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "google-surf-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

[mcp_servers.google-surf-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "google-surf-mcp"]

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-surf-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "google-surf-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-surf-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "google-surf-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

This one needs environment variables set before it will start: SEARCH_API (SearchApi API key. Required only for SearchApi primary or fallback modes.), SURF_SEARCH_PROVIDER (Provider for search and search_parallel: browser, searchapi, or fallback. Defaults to browser.), SURF_SCHOLAR_PROVIDER (Provider for scholar_search: browser, searchapi, or fallback. Defaults to browser.), SURF_BROWSER_ENGINE (Browser engine: auto, native, or playwright. Auto uses one hidden native Chrome broker shared across local MCP sessions.), CHROME_PATH (Absolute path to the Chrome binary. Auto-detected on Windows/macOS/Linux when omitted.), SURF_PROFILE_ROOT (Directory for the warm Chrome profile. Defaults to ~/.google-surf-mcp.), SURF_RESEARCH (Enable local project memory and hybrid retrieval. Defaults to true.), SURF_RETRIEVAL_MODE (Shared route for search and search_parallel: live or hybrid. Defaults to hybrid.), SURF_RESEARCH_ROOT (Embedded SurrealDB data directory. Defaults to <profile>/research.), SURF_RESEARCH_VECTOR_MODEL (Local model for HNSW retrieval and shared reranking. Defaults to Xenova/multilingual-e5-small; use off to disable.), SURF_RESEARCH_VECTOR_LOW_MEMORY (Disable ONNX CPU memory arena and memory pattern. Defaults to true.), SURF_RESEARCH_VECTOR_THREADS (ONNX intra-op thread count from 1 to 16. Defaults to 4.), SURF_RESEARCH_REPO_AUTO (Sparse-index at most one eligible small GitHub repository per search call. Defaults to true.), SURF_RESEARCH_REPO_AUTO_MAX_MB (Maximum searchable repository source-text size in MB. Assets are excluded. Defaults to 20.), SURF_RESEARCH_REPO_AUTO_MAX_FILES (Maximum repository source file count for automatic indexing. Defaults to 2000.), SURF_RESEARCH_BROKER_IDLE_MS (Shared research broker idle lifetime in milliseconds. Defaults to 60000.), SURF_RESEARCH_READ_CONCURRENCY (Maximum concurrent research broker reads. Defaults to 4.), SURF_RESEARCH_QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS (Timeout per embedded SurrealDB query in milliseconds. Defaults to 120000; timed-out retrieval lanes are reported as partial.), GITHUB_TOKEN (Optional token that raises GitHub API limits for repository inspection.), SURF_LOCALE (Browser locale, e.g. en-US.), SURF_TZ (IANA timezone, e.g. America/New_York. Defaults to system timezone.), SURF_HEADLESS (Controls Playwright extraction, compatibility, and recovery paths. Native search hides normal system Chrome and shows it only for CAPTCHA recovery.), SURF_IDLE_CLOSE_MS (Idle ms before closing the sequential ctx and pool. 0 disables idle auto-close. Defaults to 30000.), SURF_ALLOW_PRIVATE (Set to 'true' to allow extract on private/loopback addresses (localhost, 10.x, 192.168.x, 169.254.x, etc). Default blocks them as an SSRF guard.), SURF_LLM_HEAL (Enable the optional workflow-only LLM selector repair path. Defaults to false.), SURF_LLM_PROVIDER (LLM selector repair provider: anthropic or orcarouter. Defaults to anthropic.), SURF_LLM_MODEL (Optional model override. OrcaRouter defaults to orcarouter/auto.), ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (Anthropic API key for optional LLM-assisted selector repair.), ORCAROUTER_API_KEY (OrcaRouter API key for optional LLM-assisted selector repair.). The author declared them in the registry entry; get the values from the project itself.