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Tavily MCP Server for Claude Desktop: Setup & Config

Claude Desktop: Tavily MCP Server connects AI clients to web search, page extraction, site mapping, and crawling.

What you can do with Tavily in Claude Desktop

Use it for search plus page collection, with either local execution or authenticated hosted access.

  • Find current web sources for an assistant response.
  • Extract page content as Markdown or plain text.

Before you start: Tavily in Claude Desktop

  • Node.js 20 or newer for local execution
  • A Tavily API key for the local server
  • An MCP-compatible client

The command launches the local server. The hosted endpoint is an alternative with API-key or OAuth authentication. DEFAULT_PARAMETERS can set local search defaults.

Tavily Claude Desktop configuration

  1. Choose Claude Desktop configuration scope

    For Tavily MCP Server, open macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. Merge under mcpServers via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

  2. Add Tavily MCP Server to Claude Desktop

    Use the tavily-mcp entry below in mcpServers. Keep Tavily MCP Server's documented stdio connection fields and your other Claude Desktop entries.

  3. Check Tavily MCP Server in Claude Desktop

    Tavily MCP Server: Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop; check developer diagnostics.

Config file · macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "<Tavily API key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tavily tools available to Claude Desktop

Tavily's stored tool list documents 5 tools; compare it with Claude Desktop's connected tool list, because the stored list is not a live check.

tavily_search

When Claude Desktop requests tavily_search from Tavily, review the action before approving it.

Find current web information and return source links with excerpts.

tavily_extract

When Claude Desktop requests tavily_extract from Tavily, review the action before approving it.

Retrieve page content from URLs as Markdown or text.

tavily_crawl

When Claude Desktop requests tavily_crawl from Tavily, review the action before approving it.

Explore site pages with adjustable crawl depth and breadth.

tavily_map

When Claude Desktop requests tavily_map from Tavily, review the action before approving it.

tavily_research

When Claude Desktop requests tavily_research from Tavily, review the action before approving it.

Tavily: full stored tool descriptions

Troubleshooting Tavily in Claude Desktop

  • Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop for Tavily MCP Server. If npx tavily-mcp@latest (Node.js/npm) is missing, check the desktop process's PATH, which may differ from your terminal.
  • In Claude Desktop's Tavily MCP Server entry, check TAVILY_API_KEY. Keep secrets out of shared screenshots and repositories.
  • Tavily MCP Server uses stdio here: Claude Desktop must keep the configured process running; protocol output belongs on stdout and diagnostics on stderr.
  • Known limitation: Local execution requires Node.js 20 or newer and a Tavily API key.
  • Known limitation: The research tool is limited to 20 requests per minute in the supplied data.
  • General Claude Desktop troubleshooting lives in the /clients/claude-desktop guide.

Tavily MCP Server — details. Claude Desktop guide

Frequently asked questions

Claude Desktop loads Tavily MCP Server from claude_desktop_config.json: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows. Open it via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

Claude Desktop's tavily-mcp example uses stdio.

Tavily MCP Server's Claude Desktop configuration invokes npx tavily-mcp@latest (Node.js/npm).

Claude Desktop's Tavily MCP Server example references TAVILY_API_KEY. Check these names if startup or authentication fails; the example alone does not distinguish required from optional values.

Tavily MCP Server's stored list contains 5 tools, including tavily_search, tavily_extract, tavily_crawl. Compare those names with Claude Desktop's connected tool list; the stored list is not a live check.

Yes. The README provides a hosted MCP endpoint and remote configuration examples.

It accepts an API key through a URL parameter or Authorization header, and also supports OAuth with compatible clients.