# Tavily MCP: an MCP server we run in production

Canonical: https://scalably.io/mcp/tavily-mcp
Source: https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Registry: not published to the MCP registry
Provenance: third-party server, pinned at 0.2.22, verified 2026-10-02.
Integrity: no independent hash is published for this third-party listing; the raw endpoint at https://scalably.io/mcp/tavily-mcp.md mirrors this representation byte for byte
This is the machine-readable representation of the page at the canonical URL. Same facts, denser format.

## Direct answer
Web search, extract, map and crawl for research agents.

## Install
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add tavily -e TAVILY_API_KEY=your-value -- npx -y tavily-mcp@0.2.22`
- Codex: `codex mcp add tavily --env TAVILY_API_KEY=your-value -- npx -y tavily-mcp@0.2.22`
- Claude Desktop: not available for this server.

## Environment
| Variable | Required | Secret | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| `TAVILY_API_KEY` | yes | yes | Tavily API key |

## Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| `tavily_search` | Searches the web for current information and returns snippets with source URLs. |
| `tavily_extract` | Extracts the raw content of the given URLs as markdown or text. |
| `tavily_map` | Maps a site's structure and returns the URLs found from a base URL. |
| `tavily_crawl` | Crawls a site from a start URL with configurable depth and breadth, extracting page content. |
| `tavily_research` | Runs multi-source research on a topic and returns a detailed answer; rate-limited to 20 requests per minute. |

## Setup
- Local (stdio): `npx -y tavily-mcp@0.2.22` with `TAVILY_API_KEY` set. Needs Node.js 20 or newer.
- Get the key at app.tavily.com. The free plan includes 1,000 API credits a month, no card required.
- Optional: `DEFAULT_PARAMETERS` (JSON of default search settings) and `TAVILY_HUMAN_ID` (sent as the `X-Human-Id` header).
- Hosted alternative, no local process: `claude mcp add --transport http tavily https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp` with the key as a Bearer header, a `tavilyApiKey` query parameter, or OAuth.
- Without a key the server starts in keyless mode, where only search and extract work.


## Limits
- Rate limits per key: 100 requests a minute on a development key, 1,000 on a production key. Crawl has its own limit of 100 a minute and research 20 a minute. Over the limit the API returns `429 Too Many Requests`.
- Every call spends API credits from the account's plan.
- Keyless mode exposes only `tavily_search` and `tavily_extract`; the other tools return a message saying a key is required.

Sources: tavily-mcp 0.2.22 README and `build/index.js` (unpkg.com/tavily-mcp@0.2.22), docs.tavily.com rate-limits and api-credits pages.


## Reliability
- CI: not applicable, this is a third-party project we do not control.
- Pinned at 0.2.22
- Verified 2026-10-02
- We run this server in production, pinned at the exact version, with the install command derived mechanically from that pin so it can be re-verified against the published package.

## Related
- Read more: [What is an MCP server? A clear explainer for developers](https://scalably.io/blog/what-is-an-mcp-server), [Claude Code MCP: how to add an MCP server](https://scalably.io/blog/claude-code-mcp)