Litescrape MCP Server

Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google Maps results for any MCP client, free and without an API key. Add a key for Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview, Google Shopping and Google Reviews, and to lift every limit.

Results come straight from the search engines' own pages as structured JSON, through the Litescrape API. Links are real destinations, never redirects, and nothing is cached: every call runs fresh.

Quick start

No account, no key, one line.

Claude Code

claude mcp add litescrape -- npx -y litescrape-mcp-server

Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI and most other clients (mcp.json, claude_desktop_config.json, or the client's MCP settings)

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"litescrape": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "litescrape-mcp-server"]
		}
	}
}

VS Code

code --add-mcp '{"name":"litescrape","command":"npx","args":["-y","litescrape-mcp-server"]}'

Codex CLI

codex mcp add litescrape -- npx -y litescrape-mcp-server

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add litescrape npx -y litescrape-mcp-server

Requires Node.js 20 or newer.

Hosted, nothing to install: clients that connect to remote servers can use https://mcp.litescrape.com/mcp instead. Same tools, same free allowance; send an API key as Authorization: Bearer ls_live_... to unlock the rest.

claude mcp add --transport http litescrape https://mcp.litescrape.com/mcp

What you get without a key

Tool	Returns	Free calls per network per UTC day
search	Google organic results in fast mode (title, link, snippet); shares the google_search allowance	25
google_search	The full Google results page: organic results, Knowledge Graph, AI Overview, ads, related questions and every other module Google served	25
bing_search	Bing organic results, answer boxes, Knowledge Graph, Copilot answer and more	50
duckduckgo_search	DuckDuckGo organic results with region, safety and date filters	50
google_maps	Google Maps places (name, address, rating, hours, phone, website, coordinates) or one exact place	50

One call runs at a time per network, and failed calls never count. When a limit is reached, the tool result says so and tells the model exactly how to add a key, so the agent can relay it to you.

Add an API key

A key unlocks google_ai_mode, google_ai_overview, google_shopping and google_reviews, removes the daily limits and allows concurrent calls. Get one at litescrape.com, then set LITESCRAPE_API_KEY in the server's environment:

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"litescrape": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "litescrape-mcp-server"],
			"env": {
				"LITESCRAPE_API_KEY": "ls_live_..."
			}
		}
	}
}

With Claude Code: claude mcp add litescrape -e LITESCRAPE_API_KEY=ls_live_... -- npx -y litescrape-mcp-server

With the hosted endpoint: claude mcp add --transport http litescrape https://mcp.litescrape.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer ls_live_..."

Tools

Tool	Key needed	What it does
search	No	Web search through Google, organic results only. Parameters: q, gl, hl, location, num, start
google_search	No	Full Google Search page. Localization (gl, hl, location, uule, lat/lon), verticals (tbm: news, videos, local, shopping, patents), date filters (tbs, as_qdr), site restriction (as_sitesearch), pagination (start, num), device, fast_mode
bing_search	No	Bing web search with mkt/cc, location, lat/lon, first, safeSearch, filters, device
duckduckgo_search	No	DuckDuckGo web search with kl, safe, df, start, m
google_maps	No	Places by query inside a viewport (ll, location, lat/lon with z or m) with price, rating and opening-hours filters, or one exact place by place_id, data_cid or data
google_ai_overview	Yes	Only the AI Overview for a Google search, or null when Google shows none
google_ai_mode	Yes	Google AI Mode's generated answer with its cited sources; continuable returns a follow-up token, image_url adds a picture to the question
google_shopping	Yes	The Google Shopping product grid, category blocks, sponsored listings and refinement chips; price, sale, shipping and small-business refinements, sort_by, pagination
google_reviews	Yes	The Google Maps reviews of one place by place_id or data_id (from a google_maps result) with place_info; sort_by, topic_id or query filters, num, and next_page_token for the next page

Parameter names and accepted values follow the Litescrape API reference.

Every tool accepts result_groups, a list of top-level groups to keep (for example ["organic_results", "knowledge_graph"]) so the model's context stays small. search_metadata is always included.

Results

A tool result is one text block: a one-line summary, a blank line, then the API's JSON response unchanged.

Google Search for "espresso machine": 10 organic results; also knowledge_graph, related_questions, ai_overview. Free allowance: 24 of 25 google_search calls left today (no API key set).

{"search_metadata":{...},"search_parameters":{...},"organic_results":[...],...}

The same JSON is also returned as structuredContent for clients that read it.

Limits and errors

What happened	Tool result
Daily allowance for that tool is used up	Error text naming the tool and the limit, when it resets (00:00 UTC), and how to add a key
A keyless call is already in flight	The server waits for the API's Retry-After (a few seconds) and retries up to twice before reporting the limit
A key-only tool was called without a key	Error text naming the tool and the free alternatives, and how to add a key; no request is made
The upstream page could not be fetched	Error text with the API's error_code, HTTP status and request_id; retryable failures are retried twice, and failed calls are not charged
Invalid arguments	Rejected by the tool schema before any request

Requests time out after 120 seconds by default (the API's own deadline is 90 seconds). AI Mode is the slowest tool.

Configuration

Environment variable	Default	Meaning
LITESCRAPE_API_KEY	unset	Bearer key; unset means the free keyless allowance
LITESCRAPE_API_URL	https://api.litescrape.com	API origin, for self-hosted or staging deployments
LITESCRAPE_TIMEOUT_MS	120000	Per-request timeout in milliseconds

Streamable HTTP mode

litescrape-mcp-server --http (or LITESCRAPE_MCP_TRANSPORT=http) serves MCP over HTTP instead of stdio: stateless POST /mcp, GET /healthz, listening on PORT (default 8080) and HOST (default 0.0.0.0), or --port and --host. Each request's API key comes from its Authorization: Bearer header or ?api_key= query parameter, so one process serves keyed and keyless callers; LITESCRAPE_API_KEY is ignored in this mode. This is what runs at https://mcp.litescrape.com/mcp.

Behind a shared address, keyless callers would all count against one allowance. LITESCRAPE_KEYLESS_PROXY_SECRET is the secret the Litescrape API shares with its own hosted endpoint for forwarding each caller's address, and LITESCRAPE_EDGE_SECRET is the value Cloudflare adds in front of that endpoint so the caller can be read from CF-Connecting-IP. Neither is needed for a private deployment, where the server's own address is metered.

docker build -t litescrape-mcp-server . && docker run -p 8080:8080 litescrape-mcp-server --http

Every request identifies itself with X-Litescrape-Client: mcp/<version> and a litescrape-mcp-server/<version> user agent. The server writes protocol messages to stdout and its logs to stderr.

Development

npm install
npm run lint       # prettier + tsc
npm test           # vitest, including real stdio and HTTP round trips
npm run build      # tsc -> dist/
npm run inspector  # MCP Inspector against dist/index.js

npm run dev runs the server from source with tsx. Releases are tagged with the package version (for example 0.1.0); the publish workflow builds and publishes to npm with provenance.

License

MIT