Ollama Web Search MCP Server

An MCP server that exposes Ollama's web search API as a web_search tool for Claude Code.

Use it when the built-in Claude Code WebSearch returns no results for a site — the Ollama search backend indexes sites (like small personal blogs) that other backends miss.

Features

• Single web_search tool: query (required) + count (optional, 1–10, default 5)
• Reads your API key from the environment — never hardcoded, never committed
• 10s outbound timeout, friendly errors for missing key / bad status / network failure
• Pure Node.js stdio server — no build step, no runtime outside Node 18+

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (tested on 20.x)
• An Ollama account with an API key (Settings → API Keys)

Install

git clone https://github.com/wzul/ollama-web-search-mcp.git
cd ollama-web-search-mcp
npm install

Register with Claude Code

Register the server globally (available in every project) with one command:

claude mcp add --scope user ollama-web-search -- node "$HOME/ollama-web-search-mcp/index.js"

Why --scope user: claude mcp add defaults to the project-local scope. Without this flag the server is registered to the current project only and silently won't load when Claude Code is started from any other directory. If web_search doesn't appear after a restart, the registration is almost certainly project-scoped — fix it with claude mcp add --scope user ... (then cd <repo> && claude mcp remove ollama-web-search -s local to drop the stale entry).

Or add it manually to the top-level mcpServers object in ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama-web-search": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ollama-web-search-mcp/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Set your API key

The server reads the key from the environment, so export it in your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, etc.):

export OLLAMA_API_KEY="your-ollama-api-key"

Security: use a key you have not shared anywhere. If a key was ever pasted into a chat, log, or screenshot, rotate it at ollama.com/settings/keys before using it here.

Then restart Claude Code — the web_search tool will be available in every session.

(Optional) Disable the built-in WebSearch

Claude Code ships a built-in WebSearch tool. If you want your sessions to use only the Ollama-backed web_search, deny the built-in one in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "deny": ["WebSearch"]
  }
}

deny takes precedence over allow, and rules merge across scopes, so this stays blocked even if another settings file allows it. Restart Claude Code afterwards. You can verify with /permissions that WebSearch is no longer offered.

Usage

Ask Claude Code to search, e.g.:

web_search "wanzul.net"
web_search "best 5G plan malaysia" count 10

Results come back as a numbered list: title, URL, and content snippet.

Test

npm test

Runs 10 tests: unit tests for the fetch wrapper and result formatting (mocked fetch) plus a live stdio smoke test that drives the MCP protocol.

Helper skill (optional)

The repo ships a copy-paste install skill at .claude/skills/install-ollama-web-search/. Install it so you (or Claude Code) can reproduce these steps on demand:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r .claude/skills/install-ollama-web-search ~/.claude/skills/

Once installed, an agent can follow it (or ask "install ollama-web-search") instead of retyping commands from memory.

Layout

• index.js — MCP stdio server + searchOllama / formatResults exports
• test.js — unit tests (mocked fetch) + stdio smoke test
• package.json — deps (@modelcontextprotocol/sdk) and scripts

License

MIT