Open-WebSearch
Description written after our first hands-on test.
The only server that passed both standard tasks (a live web search and reading a page) in both Claude Code and Cursor, with no API key. Runner-up Fetch passed page reading in both but has no search. DuckDuckGo passed in Cursor but in Claude Code its page reader dropped the page heading; MarkItDown dropped it in both clients. Keyed servers (Brave, Exa, Firecrawl) aren't tested. On Oct 14 Open-WebSearch also passed both tasks in Claude Desktop and in ChatGPT (Codex) (Codex needed a 60 s server start timeout on a cold npx start). MarkItDown failed again in both.
Test results
Last passed 2026-10-14Install
claude mcp add open-websearch -e MODE=stdio -e DEFAULT_SEARCH_ENGINE=duckduckgo -- npx -y open-websearch@latestRun in your terminal. This exact command is what our harness runs in Claude Code; see the results above.
{
"mcpServers": {
"open-websearch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"open-websearch@latest"
],
"env": {
"MODE": "stdio",
"DEFAULT_SEARCH_ENGINE": "duckduckgo"
}
}
}
}Save as .cursor/mcp.json. This exact config is what our harness runs in Cursor; see the results above.
{
"mcpServers": {
"open-websearch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"open-websearch@latest"
],
"env": {
"MODE": "stdio",
"DEFAULT_SEARCH_ENGINE": "duckduckgo"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json and restart Claude Desktop. Tested on the Linux beta; see the results above.
[mcp_servers.open-websearch]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "open-websearch@latest"]
env = { MODE = "stdio", DEFAULT_SEARCH_ENGINE = "duckduckgo" }Add to ~/.codex/config.toml (shared by the ChatGPT (Codex) CLI and the ChatGPT desktop app; Codex runs inside the ChatGPT desktop app). Tested with the ChatGPT (Codex) CLI bundled in the ChatGPT desktop app; see the results above.
Not connecting? Troubleshooting: Claude Code · Cursor · Claude Desktop · ChatGPT (Codex)
Test history
| Date | Check | Result | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-13 | Protocol (direct stdio) | Protocol: starts, 6 tools listed | 1.2.0 |
| 2026-10-13 | Claude Code | Passed install, connect, tools, agent task | 2.1.296 (Claude Code) |
| 2026-10-13 | Cursor | Passed install, connect, tools, agent task | 2026.10.12-d47ca18 |
| 2026-10-14 | Claude Desktop | Passed install, connect, tools, agent task | Claude Desktop 2.37337.1 (Linu |
| 2026-10-14 | ChatGPT (Codex) | Passed install, connect, tools, agent task | codex-cli 0.162.0-alpha.17.2 |
Tools seen by our harness (6)
searchfetchLinuxDoArticlefetchCsdnArticlefetchGithubReadmefetchWebContentfetchJuejinArticle