What is Bright Data MCP Server?

The Bright Data MCP server enables AI agents, LLM models, and applications to access, discover, and extract real-time web data. It integrates seamlessly with MCP-compatible clients to facilitate web searching, browsing, data extraction, and scraping tasks without restrictions or blocks.

How to use Bright Data MCP Server?

To use this server:

1. Ensure you have a Bright Data account (free credit available for new users)
2. Install nodejs to use the npx command
3. Configure your MCP client (like Claude Desktop) to connect to the server using your API token:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "", 
        "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "", 
        "BROWSER_ZONE": "", 
        "RATE_LIMIT": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Start using web data tools through your AI agent

Key features of Bright Data MCP Server?

• Real-time web data extraction
• Geo-restriction bypass with Web Unlocker
• Optional browser automation for advanced tasks
• Seamless MCP client integration
• Multiple data tools for various scraping needs
• Security best practices for safe data handling

Use cases of Bright Data MCP Server?

1. Up-to-date information gathering for chatbots and AI agents
2. Competitive intelligence and market research
3. Price monitoring and e-commerce insights
4. Academic research and data collection
5. journalist investigations and fact-checking
6. Lead generation for sales teams

FAQ from Bright Data MCP Server?

• Can I use this with Claude Desktop?

Yes! Simply configure Claude Desktop as shown in the setup guide.

• Do I need special credentials for browser control?

Only if you want to create your own Browser API zone. By default, the server tries to use an automatically created mcp_browser zone.

• How do I handle rate limiting?

Set the RATE_LIMIT environment variable using the format limit/time+unit (e.g., 100/1h for 100 calls per hour)

• What should I do if I get a 'spawn npx ENOENT' error?

This means your system can't find the npx command. You can either:

1. InstallNode.js, or
2. Update your MCP configuration to use the full path to your Node.js installation

Bright Data MCP

Enhance AI Agents with Real-Time Web Data

🌟 Overview

Welcome to the official Bright Data Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling LLMs, agents and apps to access, discover and extract web data in real-time. This server allows MCP clients, such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others, to seamlessly search the web, navigate websites, take action and retrieve data - without getting blocked - perfect for scraping tasks.

Table of Content

• 🎬 Demo
• ✨ Features
• 🚀 Quickstart with Claude Desktop
• 🔧 Available Tools
• ⚠️ Security Best Practices
• 🔧 Account Setup
• 🔌 Other MCP Clients
• 🎮 Try Bright Data MCP Playgrounds
• 💡 Usage Examples
• ⚠️ Troubleshooting
• 👨‍💻 Contributing
• 📞 Support

🎬 Demo

The videos below demonstrate a minimal use case for Claude Desktop:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/59f6ebba-801a-49ab-8278-1b2120912e33

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/61ab0bee-fdfa-4d50-b0de-5fab96b4b91d

For YouTube tutorials and demos: Demo

✨ Features

• Real-time Web Access: Access up-to-date information directly from the web
• Bypass Geo-restrictions: Access content regardless of location constraints
• Web Unlocker: Navigate websites with bot detection protection
• Browser Control: Optional remote browser automation capabilities
• Seamless Integration: Works with all MCP-compatible AI assistants

🚀 Quickstart with Claude Desktop

1. Install nodejs to get the npx command (node.js module runner). Installation instructions can be found on the node.js website

2. Go to Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config > claude_desktop_config.json to include the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "", "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "", "BROWSER_ZONE": "" "RATE_LIMIT": "" } } } } ``` ## 🔧 Available Tools [List of Available Tools](https://github.com/brightdata-com/brightdata-mcp/blob/main/assets/Tools.md) ## ⚠️ Security Best Practices **Important:** Always treat scraped web content as untrusted data. Never use raw scraped content directly in LLM prompts to avoid potential prompt injection risks. Instead: - Filter and validate all web data before processing - Use structured data extraction rather than raw text (web_data tools) ## 🔧 Account Setup 1. Make sure you have an account on [brightdata.com](https://brightdata.com) (new users get free credit for testing, and pay as you go options are available) 2. Get your API key from the [user settings page](https://brightdata.com/cp/setting/users) 3. (Optional) Create a custom Web Unlocker zone - By default, we create a Web Unlocker zone automatically using your API token - For more control, you can create your own Web Unlocker zone in your [control panel](https://brightdata.com/cp/zones) and specify it with the `WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE` environment variable 4. (Optional) To enable browser control tools: - By default, the MCP tries to fetch credentials of `mcp_browser` zone. - If you don't have an `mcp_browser` zone, you can : - Create a Browser API zone in your [control panel](https://brightdata.com/cp/zones) or use an existing one and specify its name using the `BROWSER_ZONE` environment variable 5. (Optional) Configure rate limiting: - Set the `RATE_LIMIT` environment variable to control API usage - Format: `limit/time+unit` (e.g., `100/1h` for 100 calls per hour) - Supported time units: seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h) - Examples: `RATE_LIMIT=100/1h`, `RATE_LIMIT=50/30m`, `RATE_LIMIT=10/5s` - Rate limiting is session-based (resets when server restarts) ![Browser API Setup](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cb494aa8-d84d-4bb4-a509-8afb96872afe) ## 🔌 Other MCP Clients To use this MCP server with other agent types, you should adapt the following to your specific software: - The full command to run the MCP server is `npx @brightdata/mcp` - The environment variable `API_TOKEN=` must exist when running the server - (Optional) Set `BROWSER_ZONE=` to specify a custom Browser API zone name (defaults to `mcp_browser`) ## 🔄 Breaking Changes ### Browser Authentication Update **BREAKING CHANGE:** The `BROWSER_AUTH` environment variable has been replaced with `BROWSER_ZONE`. - **Before:** Users needed to provide `BROWSER_AUTH="user:pass"` from the Browser API zone - **Now:** Users only need to specify the browser zone name with `BROWSER_ZONE="zone_name"` - **Default:** If not specified, the system uses `mcp_browser` zone automatically - **Migration:** Replace `BROWSER_AUTH` with `BROWSER_ZONE` in your configuration and specify your Browser API zone name if `mcp_browser` doesn't exists ## 🔄 Changelog [CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/brightdata-com/brightdata-mcp/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) ## 🎮 Try Bright Data MCP Playgrounds Want to try Bright Data MCP without setting up anything? Check out this playground on [Smithery](https://smithery.ai/server/@luminati-io/brightdata-mcp/tools): [![2025-05-06_10h44_20](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/52517fa6-827d-4b28-b53d-f2020a13c3c4)](https://smithery.ai/server/@luminati-io/brightdata-mcp/tools) This platform provide an easy way to explore the capabilities of Bright Data MCP without any local setup. Just sign in and start experimenting with web data collection! ## 💡 Usage Examples Some example queries that this MCP server will be able to help with: - "Google some movies that are releasing soon in [your area]" - "What's Tesla's current market cap?" - "What's the Wikipedia article of the day?" - "What's the 7-day weather forecast in [your location]?" - "Of the 3 highest paid tech CEOs, how long have their careers been?" ## ⚠️ Troubleshooting ### Timeouts when using certain tools Some tools can involve reading web data, and the amount of time needed to load the page can vary by quite a lot in extreme circumstances. To ensure that your agent will be able to consume the data, set a high enough timeout in your agent settings. A value of `180s` should be enough for 99% of requests, but some sites load slower than others, so tune this to your needs. ### spawn npx ENOENT This error occurs when your system cannot find the `npx` command. To fix it: #### Finding npm/Node Path **macOS:** ``` which node ``` Shows path like `/usr/local/bin/node` **Windows:** ``` where node ``` Shows path like `C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe` #### Update your MCP configuration: Replace the `npx` command with the full path to Node, for example, on mac, it will look as follows: ``` "command": "/usr/local/bin/node" ``` ## 👨‍💻 Contributing We welcome contributions to help improve the Bright Data MCP! Here's how you can help: 1. **Report Issues**: If you encounter any bugs or have feature requests, please open an issue on our GitHub repository. 2. **Submit Pull Requests**: Feel free to fork the repository and submit pull requests with enhancements or bug fixes. 3. **Coding Style**: All JavaScript code should follow [Bright Data's JavaScript coding conventions](https://brightdata.com/dna/js_code). This ensures consistency across the codebase. 4. **Documentation**: Improvements to documentation, including this README, are always appreciated. 5. **Examples**: Share your use cases by contributing examples to help other users. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss your proposed changes. This ensures your time is well spent and aligned with project goals. ## 📞 Support If you encounter any issues or have questions, please reach out to the Bright Data support team or open an issue in the repository.