Research Tools

Local-first MCP server that gives Claude Code web search, page reading, video transcription, and image analysis — without paid API keys. Runs SearXNG + whisper.cpp natively on Apple Silicon for zero-cost, low-latency research workflows.

Why this exists

If you run AI agents that search the web as part of their workflow, the API bills add up fast. A single search API call costs fractions of a cent, but when your agent is working around the clock — researching, fetching pages, pulling transcripts — those fractions compound into real money. This server eliminates that cost entirely by running everything locally: SearXNG aggregates 70+ search engines with no API key, trafilatura extracts clean text from any page, and whisper.cpp transcribes audio on-device using Metal acceleration. Plug it into Claude Code via MCP and your agent can research freely without a meter running.

Architecture

Docker                              Native (Mac mini)
┌──────────────┐                    ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  SearXNG     │◄── JSON API ──────│  MCP Server (FastMCP)   │
│  :8080       │                    │  ├─ searxng_search      │
│  Redis       │                    │  ├─ web_fetch           │
└──────────────┘                    │  ├─ process_video       │
                                    │  └─ analyze_image       │
                                    └────────┬────────────────┘
                                       stdio │ streamable-http
                                    Claude Code / Agent Harness

SearXNG + Redis run in Docker. The MCP server and media tools (ffmpeg, yt-dlp, whisper-cli) run natively so whisper gets Apple Silicon Metal acceleration.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/hippogriff-ai/mcp-research-tools.git
cd mcp-research-tools
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

The install script:

1. Installs ffmpeg, yt-dlp, whisper-cpp via Homebrew
2. Downloads the Whisper small model (~465MB)
3. Starts SearXNG + Redis via Docker Compose
4. Creates a Python venv and installs the project

Tools

searxng_search — Web Search

Queries local SearXNG instance (70+ search engines aggregated, zero API cost).

searxng - searxng_search(query="your search", max_results=10, engines="duckduckgo,brave")

Returns: { query, results: [{ title, url, snippet, engine, score }], count }

web_fetch — Page Fetch

Downloads a web page and extracts clean readable text via trafilatura. No DOM bloat.

searxng - web_fetch(url="https://example.com", extract_text=true)

Returns: { status_code, url, content_type, content_text, title }

process_video — Video Processing

Downloads YouTube/TikTok videos, trims to 120s, extracts audio + keyframes every 3s, transcribes audio via whisper-cli.

searxng - process_video(url="https://youtube.com/watch?v=...")

Returns: { transcript, frames: ["/tmp/.../frame_0001.jpg", ...], audio_path, duration_seconds }

analyze_image — Image Analysis

Fetches images from URLs (cached locally) or validates local paths for Claude vision reasoning.

searxng - analyze_image(source="https://example.com/photo.jpg")

Returns: { path, exists, content_type }

Usage

Claude Code (stdio)

Add to your project .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-research-tools/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_research_tools.server"]
    }
  }
}

Or add globally in ~/.claude.json under the mcpServers key for every session.

Remote Agent Harness (streamable-http)

source venv/bin/activate
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 MCP_PORT=9000 \
  python -m mcp_research_tools.server

Connect from client at http://<mac-mini-ip>:9000/mcp.

Configuration

All settings via environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
SEARXNG_URL	http://localhost:8080	SearXNG instance URL
MCP_TRANSPORT	stdio	Transport: stdio or streamable-http
MCP_HOST	127.0.0.1	Bind host for HTTP transport
MCP_PORT	9000	Port for HTTP transport
MAX_VIDEO_SECONDS	120	Max video duration to process
FRAME_EVERY_SECONDS	3	Keyframe extraction interval
WHISPER_MODEL	small	Whisper model (tiny/base/small/medium/large)
WHISPER_CPP_BIN	whisper-cli	Whisper binary name
WHISPER_MODEL_PATH	~/.cache/whisper-cpp/ggml-small.bin	Path to whisper model
MAX_FETCH_SIZE_MB	10	Max page download size
FETCH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	30	Page fetch timeout

Requirements

• macOS with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• Docker Desktop
• Homebrew
• Python 3.13+

Development

source venv/bin/activate

# Run tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/

Managing SearXNG

# Start
docker compose up -d

# Stop
docker compose down

# Logs
docker compose logs -f searxng

# Test JSON API
curl 'http://localhost:8080/search?q=test&format=json' | python3 -m json.tool

Acknowledgements

This project is built on top of SearXNG, a free internet metasearch engine that aggregates results from 70+ search services. SearXNG is what makes zero-cost, private web search possible — massive thanks to their maintainers and contributors.