octen-mcp

MCP server for Octen. Plug it into Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, or any MCP client to give your agent live web search and URL extraction.

Core capabilities:

• search / news_search: search the live web with domain, text, and time filters.
• broad_search: decompose a query into multiple sub-queries, search them concurrently, and return results grouped per sub-query for broad coverage.
• extract: turn one or more URLs into clean, LLM-ready content.
• image_search (In Beta — contact us for beta access): search the web for images by text query, optionally with a reference image.
• video_search (In Beta — contact us for beta access): search the web for videos by text query.

What makes Octen useful for agents is that extract returns more than page text. Each successful result also includes:

• category: what the page is about
• page_structure: what kind of page it is
• highlights: ranked snippets when you pass a query

That lets an agent skip login walls, nav pages, and off-topic URLs before spending tokens on the full body.

Why Octen MCP

Fast

Web search averages 62ms. Fast enough for multi-step MCP workflows.

Accurate

Powered by SOTA text and VL embedding models. Better sources, fewer hallucinations.

Fresh

Live web data with minute-level updates. Useful for news, prices, and fast-moving pages.

Efficient

Clean highlights, optional full_content, and page labels keep model context relevant.

Quick start

You need an OCTEN_API_KEY from octen.ai.

For most MCP clients, the config is:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "octen": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "octen-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OCTEN_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Install command by client

Agent	One-line install
Claude Code	claude mcp add --scope user octen -e OCTEN_API_KEY=your-key-here -- npx -y octen-mcp
Codex	codex mcp add octen --env OCTEN_API_KEY=your-key-here -- npx -y octen-mcp
Gemini CLI	gemini mcp add octen -e OCTEN_API_KEY=your-key-here -- npx -y octen-mcp
VS Code	code --add-mcp '{"name":"octen","command":"npx","args":["-y","octen-mcp"],"env":{"OCTEN_API_KEY":"your-key-here"}}' (or click a badge above)
Cursor	Add to Cursor (then edit the key), or use the JSON above in ~/.cursor/mcp.json
Claude Desktop	No CLI — add the JSON above to the config file (see below)

Config file locations

For clients without a CLI installer, drop the JSON config above into:

• Claude Desktop: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json
• VS Code workspace: .vscode/mcp.json (use servers instead of mcpServers)
• Windsurf / Cline / other clients: paste it into that client's MCP settings

Tools

Tool	What it does	Best for
search	Search the live web with domain, text, time, and content controls	a single focused web search
news_search	Same engine as search, fixed to news	current events and timely reporting
broad_search	Decompose a query into up to max_queries sub-queries, search concurrently, return grouped results	research-style, multi-angle coverage
extract	Fetch 1-20 URLs and return clean content, labels, and optional highlights	summarization, RAG, fact lookup
image_search	In Beta — contact us for beta access. Search the web for images by text query (optional reference image_url)	finding pictures, photos, visual references
video_search	In Beta — contact us for beta access. Search the web for videos by text query	finding videos, clips, footage

Reference docs:

• Search: docs.octen.ai/api-reference/search
• Extract: docs.octen.ai/api-reference/extract

Why agents like this

Most extract tools stop at "here is the page body." Octen helps one step earlier:

• Skip bad pages early: page_structure.primary == "No Main Content" tells the agent it hit a login wall, empty shell, or similar non-content page.
• Filter by topic early: category helps a pipeline ignore pages outside the target vertical before embedding or summarizing.
• Use less context: query returns highlights when the user wants a specific fact instead of the full page.

For the full decision tree and integration patterns, see docs/best-practices.md.

Example prompts

• Fetch octen.ai and summarize the main product features.
• Search for recent MCP news from the last week.
• Fetch these URLs and only summarize the ones whose category is Finance.
• Search site:docs.anthropic.com prompt caching and return only the relevant highlights.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default
OCTEN_API_KEY	yes	—
OCTEN_API_URL	no	https://api.octen.ai

Local development

git clone https://github.com/Octen-Team/octen-mcp.git
cd octen-mcp
npm install
npm run build
OCTEN_API_KEY=<key> npm run inspect

More docs

• Best practices for agent integration: docs/best-practices.md
• Search API reference: docs.octen.ai/api-reference/search
• Extract API reference: docs.octen.ai/api-reference/extract

License

MIT © Octen