io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp MCP Server

This MCP server provides web search, AI agent support, and content extraction using You.com APIs. It is offered as a hosted MCP server with a free tier that does not require an API key, and includes first-party plugins for the Vercel AI SDK and LangChain. The server is identified by slug io-github-youdotcom-oss-mcp.

🛠️ Key Features

Web search via You.com APIs
Content extraction for AI agent workflows
Hosted MCP server with a free tier
First-party plugins for Vercel AI SDK and LangChain
Tool count: 5

🚀 Use Cases

Enabling real-time web search in an agent
Performing research tasks that require extracted content
Integrating You.com capabilities into Vercel AI SDK or LangChain pipelines

⚡ Developer Benefits

Free tier without an API key
Integrates with MCP clients that can run npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp with YDC_PROFILE: free
Supports remote MCP via https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free

⚠️ Limitations

Source material specifies a “free tier” profile, but does not describe other tiers, limits, or rate restrictions.

@youdotcom-oss/mcp

Bin-only STDIO bridge for the hosted You.com MCP server at https://api.you.com/mcp.

This package does not register tools locally and does not contain REST tool logic. Its only job is to proxy STDIO MCP traffic to the hosted remote server.

Quick start

jsonc

// Add this to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
// Free tier — no API key, no signup.
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

If your client supports remote MCP, point it at https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free directly — no local process needed.

Claude Desktop

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

jsonc

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Authenticated (all default tools):

jsonc

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_API_KEY": "<your-key>" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

bash

# Free tier
claude mcp add you -e YDC_PROFILE=free -- npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp

# Authenticated
claude mcp add you -e YDC_API_KEY=<your-key> -- npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project):

jsonc

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

jsonc

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to your user or workspace mcp.json:

jsonc

{
  "servers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Any MCP client (remote)

If your client speaks streamable HTTP, skip the local bridge:

code

https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free

Authenticated:

code

https://api.you.com/mcp
Authorization: Bearer <your-key>

Install

bash

bun add @youdotcom-oss/mcp

Or run it directly:

bash

npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp

Environment

YDC_API_KEY Optional. Sent as Authorization: Bearer <key>.
YDC_PROFILE Optional. When set to free, routes the bridge to https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free.
YDC_ALLOWED_TOOLS Optional. Comma-separated hosted tool ids to expose through https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=....

YDC_PROFILE takes precedence over YDC_ALLOWED_TOOLS.

Tool exposure

The default hosted MCP URL exposes four tools:

you-search
you-contents
you-balance
you-discover

Two additional tools are available on request:

you-finance
you-research

Request additional tools explicitly with tools. tools scopes the visible tool set.

Today, profile=free is a keyless mode. It overrides tools and exposes you-search and you-discover.

Examples:

Default tool set: https://api.you.com/mcp
Finance only: https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-finance
Search plus finance: https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-search,you-finance
Research only: https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-research
Free profile (keyless): https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free

Contributing

Development setup and code conventions live in AGENTS.md; contribution flow and PR conventions live in CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues and PRs welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

query	string	required	Search query. Supports operators: site:domain.com (domain filter), filetype:pdf (file type), +term (include), -term (exclude), AND/OR/NOT (boolean logic), lang:en (language). Example: "machine learning (Python OR PyTorch) -TensorFlow filetype:pdf"
count	integer	optional	Max results per section
freshness	string	optional	day/week/month/year or YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD
offset	integer	optional	Pagination offset
country	string	optional	Country code
safesearch	string	optional	Filter level
livecrawl	string	optional	Live-crawl sections for full content
livecrawl_formats	array	optional	Formats for crawled content
language	string	optional	Language code (BCP 47 format)
include_domains	array	optional	Domains to include in results (up to 500)
exclude_domains	array	optional	Domains to exclude from results (up to 500)
boost_domains	array	optional	Domains to boost in search ranking (up to 500). Can combine with exclude_domains, but cannot combine with include_domains.
crawl_timeout	integer	optional	Crawl timeout in seconds (1-60)

urls	array	required	Array of webpage URLs to extract content from (e.g., ["https://example.com"])
formats	array	optional	Output formats: array of "markdown" (text), "html" (layout), or "metadata" (structured data)
crawl_timeout	number	optional	Optional timeout in seconds (1-60) for page crawling
max_age	any	optional	Maximum allowed age of cached content in seconds. When set, cached content older than this threshold is ignored and the page is re-fetched. Must be 0 or greater. Default: null (no age limit).

input	string	required	The research question or complex query requiring in-depth investigation and multi-step reasoning. Maximum length: 40,000 characters.
research_effort	string	optional	Controls how much time and effort the Research API spends on your question. lite: fast answers, standard: balanced (default), deep: thorough, exhaustive: most comprehensive, frontier: long-running deep research.
background	boolean	optional	When true, queue a research task and return a task handle immediately instead of waiting for the result inline. Defaults to synchronous.
source_control	any	optional	Beta. Controls which web sources the research agent searches and visits. include_domains and exclude_domains cannot be used together.
output_schema	object	optional	Beta. Requests structured JSON output in output.content using a supported JSON Schema subset. Supported only with research_effort standard, deep, exhaustive, and frontier. Sending with lite returns 422.

query	string	required	Natural-language task to find agents/tools for.
finder	string	optional	Which Agent Finder discovery service(s) to query.
limit	integer	optional	Max consolidated results (1–25).
finder_url	string	optional	Optional custom finder URL (must be public http/https). Augments selected finders.

You.com Web Access & AI

io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp MCP Server

🛠️ Key Features

🚀 Use Cases

⚡ Developer Benefits

⚠️ Limitations

Topics

you-search

you-contents

you-research

you-balance

you-discover

@youdotcom-oss/mcp

Quick start

Claude Desktop

Claude Code

Cursor

Windsurf

VS Code

Any MCP client (remote)

Install

Environment

Tool exposure

Links

Contributing

License

Install

Configuration

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