SurfSense/surfsense_mcp

SurfSense MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that exposes SurfSense to MCP clients like Claude Code, Cursor, and Claude Desktop. It talks to a SurfSense backend purely over its REST API using a SurfSense API key — it imports no backend code.

Connect it two ways:

• Hosted (recommended) — point your client at https://mcp.surfsense.com/mcp and pass your API key in a header. Nothing to install or keep running.
• Self-host (stdio) — run the server yourself against any backend (cloud or your own). Best for self-hosters and clients without remote-server support.

Tools

Search-space selector

• surfsense_list_workspaces — list the workspaces (search spaces) you can access
• surfsense_select_workspace — pick the active workspace by name or id

Scrapers (all platforms)

• surfsense_web_crawl, surfsense_google_search, surfsense_reddit_scrape, surfsense_youtube_scrape, surfsense_youtube_comments, surfsense_google_maps_scrape, surfsense_google_maps_reviews
• surfsense_list_scraper_runs, surfsense_get_scraper_run — retrieve past results in full (useful when a large result was truncated inline)

Knowledge base

• surfsense_search_knowledge_base — semantic + keyword search over stored content
• surfsense_list_documents, surfsense_get_document
• surfsense_add_document, surfsense_upload_file
• surfsense_update_document, surfsense_delete_document

Workspace-scoped tools default to the active workspace; pass workspace (a name or id) to override for a single call. Ids never need to be typed by hand — the model carries them between calls.

Get an API key

1. SurfSense → API Playground → API Keys: create a personal key (ss_pat_…). It is shown only once.
2. Toggle API key access on for the workspace(s) you want to use.

Connect (hosted)

Point your client at the hosted server and send the key as a Bearer token. For clients that read an mcpServers map (Cursor, Claude Desktop, and others):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "surfsense": {
      "url": "https://mcp.surfsense.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ss_pat_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code, from a terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http surfsense https://mcp.surfsense.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ss_pat_your_key_here"

Most MCP clients accept this url + headers form; check your client's docs for its exact remote-server field.

Self-host (stdio)

Run the server yourself when you host your own backend or use a client without remote support. It uses uv:

cd surfsense_mcp
uv sync
uv run python -m mcp_server.selfcheck   # verify tools register correctly

Then add it to your client. Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json or a project .cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "surfsense": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/absolute/path/to/SurfSense/surfsense_mcp", "python", "-m", "mcp_server"],
      "env": {
        "SURFSENSE_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8000",
        "SURFSENSE_API_KEY": "ss_pat_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add surfsense \
  -e SURFSENSE_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000 \
  -e SURFSENSE_API_KEY=ss_pat_your_token_here \
  -- uv run --directory /absolute/path/to/SurfSense/surfsense_mcp python -m mcp_server

Claude Desktop: add the same mcpServers block as Cursor to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config).

Configuration

See .env.example. For self-host, secrets are passed as environment variables by the client; never commit tokens.

Backend dependency

surfsense_search_knowledge_base calls POST /api/v1/documents/search-semantic, a thin endpoint that exposes the backend's existing hybrid retriever over REST. All other tools use pre-existing SurfSense endpoints.