openresearch-mcp

Zero-auth multi-source research MCP server. Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenCode, Open WebUI, or any MCP-compatible agent — no API keys required.

Tools

Tool	Source	Notes
web_search	DuckDuckGo	Optional site= param to scope to a domain (e.g. arxiv.org)
read_url	Any webpage	Strips nav/scripts, returns clean text
read_pdf	Any PDF or arXiv	Accepts /abs/, /pdf/, /html/ arXiv URLs interchangeably
search_openalex	OpenAlex	250M+ works, zero rate limiting; set OPENALEX_EMAIL for polite pool
search_hacker_news	HN via Algolia	Story search with points + comment counts
search_stackoverflow	Stack Overflow API	Set STACKEXCHANGE_KEY for higher quota
read_repo	GitHub public repos	README + file tree + key docs; set GITHUB_TOKEN for 5k req/hr
get_youtube_transcript	YouTube captions	Accepts full URLs, youtu.be/ links, shorts, or bare video IDs

Install

From the MCP Registry (recommended for Claude Desktop / Cursor)

The server is listed on the official MCP Registry as io.github.olanokhin/openresearch-mcp. Registry-aware clients can discover and install it without manual config — search for openresearch-mcp in your client's MCP browser.

From PyPI

# Zero install, always isolated — recommended for manual use
uvx openresearch-mcp

# Or install globally
pip install openresearch-mcp
openresearch-mcp

By default the server starts on http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp (Streamable HTTP, MCP 1.1+) — bound to loopback so it is not exposed to your local network. To expose it (e.g. in a container or behind a gateway), bind all interfaces explicitly:

# Custom port
uvx openresearch-mcp --port 9000

# Bind all interfaces (only behind an auth/rate-limit gateway)
uvx openresearch-mcp --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000

Note: when binding beyond loopback, put an auth/rate-limit gateway in front. The server is zero-auth by design, and read_url/read_pdf fetch arbitrary URLs (private/link-local/loopback ranges are blocked to prevent SSRF, but rate limiting is your responsibility).

Update

# uvx
uvx --refresh openresearch-mcp

# pip
pip install --upgrade openresearch-mcp

Connect to an MCP client

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
(Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. The server runs in stdio mode — no port needed.

Cursor

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

HTTP agents (OpenCode, Open WebUI, custom)

Start the server:

uvx openresearch-mcp
# or: openresearch-mcp

Point your agent at:

http://localhost:8000/mcp

Optional env vars

All tools work without any keys. Set these to increase rate limits:

Variable	Effect
GITHUB_TOKEN	GitHub: 60 → 5,000 req/hr
OPENALEX_EMAIL	OpenAlex polite pool (higher limits)
STACKEXCHANGE_KEY	Stack Overflow: higher daily quota

Example with keys:

GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_... OPENALEX_EMAIL=you@example.com uvx openresearch-mcp

Or in Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openresearch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openresearch-mcp", "--stdio"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_...",
        "OPENALEX_EMAIL": "you@example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Health check

When running in HTTP mode, check which sources are reachable:

curl http://localhost:8000/health

{
  "status": "ok",
  "sources": {
    "duckduckgo":    { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 173 },
    "github":        { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 101 },
    "hacker_news":   { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 308 },
    "stackoverflow": { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 247 },
    "openalex":      { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 412 },
    "youtube":       { "status": "ok", "latency_ms": 320 }
  }
}

status is "ok", "degraded" (some sources down), or "down" (all unreachable). HTTP 200 / 503.

Known limitations

• Reddit / Zenodo: block unauthenticated scraping — not included
• YouTube: rate-limited at scale; works well for personal/low-volume use

Roadmap

• [ ] Reddit OAuth (browser-based, no user key management)
• [ ] GitHub Device Flow login
• [ ] PubMed / NCBI (optional key)
• [ ] NewsAPI support (optional key)

Security

openresearch-mcp was reviewed and hardened using agent-security-skill, an OWASP-aligned AI agent security review skill developed by the maintainer.

That review directly led to concrete hardening in this server: SSRF-resistant URL fetching, untrusted-content framing for tool outputs, bounded downloads, pinned GitHub Actions, dependency major-version caps, and regression tests for security-sensitive behavior.

See the hardening notes and current security posture in SECURITY.md.

License

Apache 2.0

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.olanokhin/openresearch-mcp -->