{"id":"jsonallen-perplexity-mcp","name":"perplexity-mcp","homepage":null,"repo_url":"https://github.com/jsonallen/perplexity-mcp","category":"ai-ml","subcategories":[],"tags":["mcp","model-context-protocol","web-search","perplexity","anthropic","claude-desktop","python","api"],"what_it_does":"Provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes a single web-search tool backed by Perplexity AI’s API, intended for use with Claude Desktop (and similar MCP clients).","use_cases":["Web research and fact-finding via an MCP tool (search the web for recent information).","Building agent workflows that need lightweight web search with optional recency (day/week/month/year).","Prototyping assistants that need “search then summarize” using Perplexity as the search engine."],"not_for":["High-volume/batch web crawling use cases.","Use cases requiring enterprise-grade observability/SLA guarantees (not documented here).","Requirements for fine-grained result filtering beyond the provided recency window."],"best_when":"You want a simple MCP tool for on-demand web search with a single query and optional recency window, integrated into an MCP-capable client.","avoid_when":"You need strict guarantees around uptime, documented error codes/retry behavior, or detailed security controls beyond a single upstream API key.","alternatives":["Use Perplexity’s API directly from your application/agent (without MCP).","Use other MCP web-search servers (if available) that better match your reliability/security requirements.","Implement a minimal MCP wrapper around a general web search provider (e.g., SerpAPI/Google CSE/Bing) if you need control over behavior. "],"af_score":55.5,"security_score":59.2,"reliability_score":22.5,"package_type":"mcp_server","discovery_source":["github"],"priority":"high","status":"evaluated","version_evaluated":null,"last_evaluated":"2026-03-30T13:34:13.945037+00:00","interface":{"has_rest_api":false,"has_graphql":false,"has_grpc":false,"has_mcp_server":true,"mcp_server_url":null,"has_sdk":false,"sdk_languages":[],"openapi_spec_url":null,"webhooks":false},"auth":{"methods":["API key via PERPLEXITY_API_KEY environment variable"],"oauth":false,"scopes":false,"notes":"Authentication is performed by providing a Perplexity API key through environment variables in the MCP client/server configuration. No additional OAuth or scope model is described."},"pricing":{"model":null,"free_tier_exists":false,"free_tier_limits":null,"paid_tiers":[],"requires_credit_card":false,"estimated_workload_costs":null,"notes":"No Perplexity pricing details are included in the provided README; costs depend on Perplexity API usage."},"requirements":{"requires_signup":false,"requires_credit_card":false,"domain_verification":false,"data_residency":[],"compliance":[],"min_contract":null},"agent_readiness":{"af_score":55.5,"security_score":59.2,"reliability_score":22.5,"mcp_server_quality":70.0,"documentation_accuracy":65.0,"error_message_quality":0.0,"error_message_notes":null,"auth_complexity":95.0,"rate_limit_clarity":10.0,"tls_enforcement":80.0,"auth_strength":65.0,"scope_granularity":20.0,"dependency_hygiene":60.0,"secret_handling":70.0,"security_notes":"Uses an API key provided via environment variables (better than hard-coding), but no mention of TLS settings, secret redaction, request logging behavior, scope minimization, or rate-limit/error handling guidance. Security posture is largely dependent on upstream Perplexity API and the MCP server implementation not shown here.","uptime_documented":0.0,"version_stability":40.0,"breaking_changes_history":30.0,"error_recovery":20.0,"idempotency_support":"false","idempotency_notes":"Search requests are typically safe to repeat, but the MCP server’s idempotency behavior is not documented.","pagination_style":"none","retry_guidance_documented":false,"known_agent_gotchas":["Only one tool is exposed (perplexity_search_web) with limited parameters (query + optional recency).","Agents may assume pagination or structured filtering that is not described; results are returned as provided by Perplexity’s API without documented normalization.","Tool reliability will be bounded by upstream Perplexity API availability/rate limits (not documented here)."]}}