metasearch.sh

Name: metasearch.sh
Author: paperfoot

by paperfootversion 1.1.1i★ –iRuns in the cloud

Registry namesh.metasearch/search

Install

Overview

Description from the maker (original English)

Web search and page reading: news, papers, people, patents and places, with sources and cost.

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

These three are never merged into one score: opinions, measurements and popularity are different things.

User voiceiNo reviews yetReviews open together with accounts in a later step
Our basic checksi2 of 3 passedChecked from public information; code not scanned yet
UsageiNot measured yet★ –

What you can do with it

We have not written a plain-language summary for this one yet. Below are the facts we read from the registry.

Connection: Runs in the cloud
Transport: Streamable HTTP
Category: Search & AI memory
You need to fill in: Authorization

Install

Pick the AI app you use, then copy the settings.

Before you install

Basic checks: 2 of 3 passed
Runs on the maker’s server: what you ask it goes through their server.
Can do 2 things (tools) search, fetch
You fill in yourself: Authorization

Values marked secret are keys to your account. Never share them or paste them into a chat.

You need

Runs in the cloudNothing to install; it connects over the internet

Which app do you use?

ClaudeClaude CodeCursorVS CodeChatGPT

Pick your app above. We remember it, so next time the button says “Install in …”.

This address needs a key in a request header, which the add-connector menu cannot set. Use Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code instead.

Run this in your terminal

claude mcp add --transport http search https://metasearch.sh/mcp --header 'Authorization: your-value'

Fill in the empty values before running it.

Open in Cursor

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "search": {
      "url": "https://metasearch.sh/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

Open in VS Code

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "search": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://metasearch.sh/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

This address needs a key in a request header, which the add-connector menu cannot set. Use Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code instead.

Your choice stays on this device in a cookie; no account needed.

Values you fill in

Authorization secret HTTP header
Optional: Bearer . Without it, clients connect by OAuth.

These settings are generated from the maker’s registry entry. If the README says otherwise, follow the README.

What it can do

Tool names and descriptions exactly as the server reported them on Nov 6, 2026. The maker wrote them, not us; we show them as plain text.

search
Use this when the answer needs current or sourced information from the web: news, papers, people, posts on X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, Reddit and Hacker News discussions, patents, places, images or general queries. social: posts and videos with views, likes, comments and au
fetch
Use this to read one public web page as markdown, by a search result's `id` or any http(s) URL. Returns {id, title, text, url, metadata}; up to 40,000 characters a call, and a longer page continues with `offset` = metadata.next_offset, served from the page just read and not charg

Basic checksi

We check information anyone can see; we have not read the code. Checks that do not apply are left out of the count. · Checked Nov 7, 2026

! Caution
Maker matches the repo
The publisher (metasearch.sh) is not the repo owner (paperfoot); someone else may have listed it
… Not checked yet
Still maintained
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Has a licence
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
✓ Pass
Endpoint responds
Responded in 292 ms (HTTP 200)
– Not applicable
Sign-in with OAuth
No sign-in needed
✓ Pass
No hidden instructions in tool descriptions
Read 2 tool descriptions and found no hidden instructions to the AI

Compared with others in Search & AI memoryi

More stars than 0% of the other 7277 servers in this category
Published to the registry more recently than 91% of the other 7277 servers in this category
Basic checks equal to or better than 40% of the other 7277 servers in this category

Compared with every active server in this category in the registry. Stars count only when the publisher owns the repo.

Common questions

Is metasearch.sh safe?

It passed 2 of 3 applicable basic checks. We have not read the code. Before adding a key or token, see what access the server asks for and use a key with only the permissions you need.

What keys or codes does it need?

You need to fill in: Authorization

Does it run on my computer or in the cloud?

It runs in the maker’s cloud. Connect over the internet with nothing to install, but what you send passes through the maker’s servers.

Is it still maintained?

The GitHub repo last changed –, and the latest version (1.1.1) reached the registry 3 days ago.

Which apps can use it?

Apps that support MCP, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. It connects by URL, so apps that accept remote MCP servers work too, such as ChatGPT in developer mode.

What can I use instead?

In the same category: Context7, Codebase Memory, Exa

Alternatives

Servers in the same category from other makers, sorted by stars.

Reading a card:★ GitHub starsiThree pillars: reviews · checks · usageiUpdated = latest version published to the registryi

Context7

by upstash

Feeds AI the latest docs for libraries and frameworks before it answers, so code it writes does not use outdated, removed functions.

Computer or cloud★ 64,224MITUpdated yesterday

Install

Codebase Memory

by DeusData

Codebase knowledge graph for AI agents — 162 languages, sub-ms queries, 99% fewer tokens.

Runs on your computer★ 48,148MITUpdated 21 days ago

Install

Exa

by exa-labs

Connect AI agents to Exa for web search, content fetching, and multi-step research.

Runs in the cloud★ 5,213MITUpdated last month

Install

README from the maker

Open the README

Copied from the maker’s repo as written. PopNx MCP has not reviewed or endorsed it. HTML, images and scripts are removed. Links lead off this site.

search: web search for AI agents

One command sends a query to several of ten search engines at once, fuses the results, and tells you what each search cost.

Install · No keys? · Modes · TikTok, YouTube and more · Reddit and HN · Cost · Extract · Agents · Plugins and MCP

search is a single Rust binary for AI agents and the people who run them. It searches with Serper, Exa, Jina, Brave, Linkup, Parallel, Tavily, Perplexity, SerpApi and xAI, searches TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Threads and X for posts and videos (with transcripts and top comments), searches Reddit and Hacker News with no key, reads pages with two fetchers of its own and then Jina, Firecrawl or Browserless, merges what comes back with reciprocal rank fusion, and prints one JSON document with the results, the engines that answered, the ones that failed and why, and the cost.

search "CRISPR gene therapy trials"

Install

brew install paperfoot/tap/search-cli                 # macOS and Linux

cargo install agent-search # any platform with Rust curl -fsSL https://metasearch.sh/install | sh # macOS and Linux, x86_64 and arm64

The install script downloads the release binary for your platform and checks it against the release's SHA256SUMS before installing. search update downloads the latest GitHub release and replaces the binary, without that check.

The Linux binaries include the stealth fetcher, as the macOS ones do. To build from source on Linux, install cmake, clang, libclang-dev, perl and pkg-config first (BoringSSL needs them), or drop the fetcher with cargo install agent-search --no-default-features.

No keys? `search login`

search login          # prints a code and opens metasearch.sh in your browser

search "rust async runtimes"

search login signs you in to metasearch.sh with a device code; --no-browser prints the URL for SSH sessions. Logging in is free; searches on metasearch.sh are paid from the balance you top up. After that:

Engines you have your own key for go direct, as before. Your keys always win.
Engines you have no key for go through metasearch.sh and are charged to your balance.
Each search reports its cost in metadata.cost and how each engine was reached in metadata.transport (direct, local or hosted).
The engines without your key go to metasearch.sh as one call per search. Without -p, metasearch.sh picks the engines: the cheapest one first, a pricier one only when the first list is thin, and two social platforms at most. It also answers a repeated search from its own cache, at the stored price, and marks it metadata.routing.cached. With -p, the engines you name are sent as you give them; in extract and the one-engine modes they are tried one at a time, in order, so only the first that answers is charged. Beside an engine you run with your own key, the call goes to the first engine of the mode you have no key for (in extract, each hosted step keeps its place in the chain), so no engine runs twice.
--no-cache skips both caches: the one on your machine and the one on metasearch.sh.
Logging in also turns on model routing and relevance reranking, which are free.

search whoami             # account, balance and key

search logout --revoke # forget the key here and revoke it on the server

On a CI runner or in a container, export a key from the dashboard instead: METASEARCH_API_KEY=ms_live_... (or METASEARCH_TOKEN, which wins when both are set).

Your own keys

Any combination works, even one key. Environment variables beat the config file, so a key exported in a shell or injected by CI always wins.

export SERPER_API_KEY=...                      # the provider's usual variable

export SEARCH_KEYS_EXA=... # or the SEARCH_KEYS_ form echo "$KEY" | search config set keys.brave - # or the config file; "-" reads stdin search config check # which engines have a key search doctor # test each engine you have a key for (one billed query each)

Precedence: _API_KEY env, then SEARCH_KEYS_ env, then the config file. The variables are SERPER_API_KEY, EXA_API_KEY, JINA_API_KEY, BRAVE_API_KEY, LINKUP_API_KEY, PARALLEL_API_KEY, TAVILY_API_KEY, PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, SERPAPI_API_KEY, XAI_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY and BROWSERLESS_API_KEY. The config file is ~/.config/search/config.toml on Linux and ~/Library/Application Support/search/config.toml on macOS, created with mode 0600; config.example.toml lists every setting.

Modes

With no -m, the mode is auto, in search "…" and search search -q "…" alike. Auto applies fixed rules first: a lone URL is extract; "tweets", "Twitter", "on X", x.com/ or a lone @handle is social on X; "tiktok", "instagram reels", "youtube", "youtube comments", "on threads" or "facebook page" is social on that platform (not "youtube api", "tiktok sdk" or "embed a youtube video"); "reddit", "subreddit", "hacker news", "on HN", r/ , "what do people say about", "opinions about" or "experiences with" is community (not "reddit api", "reddit stock", a unit such as "r/min", or "HN" alone); similar to (or "sites like", "alternatives to") is similar; "patent" (not "patent leather"), "prior art" or a patent number such as US 10123456 or EP1234567 is patents; "images of" or "logo for" is images, except system images such as Docker, container or VM images. Web-development uses ("Twitter card", "embed a tweet"), "on X axis", code at-words (@property, @media, @types/node) and email addresses are not X cues. When you are logged in, metasearch.sh's routing model, a small classification model, picks among the remaining modes. Without login, or when the model does not answer within 1.2 s, keyword rules decide (places, scholar, academic, people, then news), and anything else is general. Auto never picks deep, and picks social only on a platform cue: those two cost more and must be asked for.

In news and social, auto turns a time word into a freshness filter when you gave no -f: "today" and "yesterday" mean day; "this week", "latest" and "breaking" mean week; "this month" and "this year" mean month and year. The decision, its source and its reason are in metadata.routing.auto.

Pass -m to choose the mode yourself; an explicit -m or -p is always obeyed. If the engines you name with -p cannot serve the mode auto picked, the search runs as general with source fallback (as community when you name only reddit or hackernews, and social when you name only platforms such as tiktok).

Mode	Use it for	`-q` is	Engines, in order
`auto`	Default: picks one of the modes below and says why	query or URL
`general`	Any web lookup	query	serper, exa, jina, brave, linkup, parallel, tavily, perplexity
`news`	Current events; add `-f day` or `-f week`	query	serper, brave, linkup, parallel, tavily, perplexity
`academic`	Papers and studies on a topic	query	exa, serper, tavily, perplexity
`scholar`	Google Scholar records: citations, versions, PDFs	query	serper, serpapi
`deep`	Wide coverage when recall matters more than cost; use `-c 30`	query	exa, serper, brave, linkup, parallel, tavily, perplexity, xai
`people`	A person, their role, their LinkedIn profile	query	exa
`social`	What X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube show: X plus the likeliest other platform, two paid calls at most; a platform cue pins one, and Threads and Facebook pages run on their cue	query	xai, tiktok, instagram, youtube (threads, facebook on a cue)
`community`	What real people say on Reddit and Hacker News	query	reddit, hackernews
`patents`	Prior art, patent families	query	serper
`images`	Images; the picture is `image_url`, `url` is the page	query	serper
`places`	Local businesses and maps	query	serper
`extract`	Read one page as markdown (a Reddit or HN thread URL goes to reddit or hackernews first, a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or Threads URL to that platform)	URL	direct, stealth, jina, firecrawl, browserless
`scrape`	Same as `extract`	URL	same as `extract`
`similar`	Pages like this one	URL	exa

Fused modes (general, news, academic, scholar, deep, social, community) query their engines at once and rank with reciprocal rank fusion: a URL that several engines return ranks above any one engine's top hit, and extra.also_found_by shows which engines agreed. A fused search waits for every engine until the mode's deadline, because an engine that received the query bills for it whether or not the CLI waits; engines still running at the deadline are listed in metadata.providers_timed_out. social is the exception: once one platform has answered, it waits at most 20 s for the rest, so one slow platform cannot hold up the search. extract tries engines in order and stops at the first real page. The other modes use one engine. search agent-info prints this table from the same registry the engine uses.

When you are logged in, results in general, news, academic, scholar, people and deep are reranked by relevance once there are at least 3: metadata.routing.reranked is true and each result carries extra.relevance (0 to 1). A search pinned to one engine with -p keeps that engine's order, --no-rerank keeps the fused order, and a failed rerank keeps it too (reranked: false). Without login, auto and rerank-mode searches carry the note "log in for model routing and reranking (free)" in metadata.notes.

search "who is the CEO of Anthropic"                       # auto picks people

search search -q "transformer interpretability" -m academic search search -q "AI agent frameworks" -m news -f week search search -q https://example.com/post -m extract search search -q "rust error handling" -p exa,serper # only these engines search --x "Claude Code" # X only search --tiktok "Claude Code" # TikTok only (also --instagram, --youtube, --threads)

The shorthand search "…" takes only the global flags (--json, --quiet, --last, --debug, and --x, --tiktok, --instagram, --youtube, --threads). A search flag after it (-m, -p, -c, -f, -d, --no-cache and the rest, --flag=value too) exits 3 with an error that shows the full form, search search -q "…". -f takes day, week, month or year; anything else exits 3.

TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Threads and X

search "mechanical keyboard on tiktok"                             # TikTok only

search search -q "mechanical keyboard" -m social --json # X plus the likeliest platform search "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rKPzh3Pr0o" # the video, transcript, top comments search "https:

Only the beginning is shown; read the rest in the repo

metasearch.sh

Overview

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

What you can do with it

Install

Before you install

Values you fill in

What it can do

Basic checksi

Maker matches the repo

Still maintained

Has a licence

Endpoint responds

Sign-in with OAuth

No hidden instructions in tool descriptions

Compared with others in Search & AI memoryi

Common questions

Alternatives

Context7

Codebase Memory

Exa

README from the maker

search: web search for AI agents

Install

No keys? search login

Your own keys

Modes

TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Threads and X

No keys? `search login`