What is Perplexity Sonar Mcp

Perplexity-sonar-mcp is an MCP server designed for integrating Perplexity’s advanced AI models with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients, enabling real-time web search capabilities during conversations.

Use cases

Use cases include enhancing chatbots with real-time information, conducting in-depth research, providing customer service with accurate answers, and supporting educational tools with current data.

How to use

To use perplexity-sonar-mcp, configure your Claude Desktop by editing the configuration file to include the MCP server settings, and ensure you have Node.js 18.0.0 or higher and a valid Perplexity API key.

Key features

Key features include real-time web search for current information, multiple Sonar models for different tasks, rich query parameters for fine-tuning, and seamless integration with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients.

Where to use

Perplexity-sonar-mcp can be used in various fields such as customer support, research, education, and any application requiring up-to-date information retrieval and conversational AI.

Perplexity Sonar MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that brings the power of Perplexity’s Sonar models to Claude Desktop and other MCP clients. Unlike traditional MCP servers, this implementation provides access to Perplexity’s advanced AI models with web search capabilities, allowing Claude to perform real-time web searches and provide up-to-date information during conversations.

Why Perplexity Sonar MCP?

• Real-time Web Search: Access current information from the web during conversations
• Multiple Models: Choose from various Sonar models to fit your needs:
  • sonar: Balanced model for general use
  • sonar-pro: Enhanced capabilities for complex tasks
  • sonar-reasoning: Specialized in logical reasoning and analysis
  • sonar-deep-research: In-depth research with comprehensive citations
• Rich Parameters: Fine-tune your queries with extensive parameters:
  • Control search domains and recency
  • Adjust response format (markdown/JSON)
  • Manage temperature and token generation
  • Get related questions and images
• Seamless Integration: Works natively with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients

Requirements

• Node.js 18.0.0 or higher
• A Perplexity API key (get one at https://www.perplexity.ai/account/api)
• Claude Desktop (for desktop integration)

To verify your Node.js installation:

node --version  # Should be 18.0.0 or higher

If Node.js is not installed or needs updating:

1. Download from nodejs.org
2. Follow the installation instructions for your operating system
3. Restart your terminal after installation

Usage

With Claude Desktop

1. Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "perplexity": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "@felores/perplexity-sonar-mcp"
         ],
         "env": {
           "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Restart Claude Desktop

Standalone Mode

You can also run the server in standalone mode with HTTP/SSE support:

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here perplexity-sonar-mcp

This will start the server on port 3000 by default. You can specify a different port:

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here PORT=8080 perplexity-sonar-mcp

API Reference

The server exposes the following MCP tool:

perplexity-chat

Parameters:

• model (optional): Model to use (default: “sonar”)
  • Options:
    • sonar: Balanced model for general use
    • sonar-pro: Enhanced capabilities for complex tasks
    • sonar-reasoning: Specialized in logical reasoning
    • sonar-deep-research: In-depth research with citations
• messages: Array of message objects with:
  • role: “system” | “user” | “assistant”
  • content: string
• temperature (optional): Controls randomness (0-2)
  • Lower values (e.g., 0.3) for more focused responses
  • Higher values (e.g., 0.8) for more creative responses
• max_tokens (optional): Maximum tokens to generate
• top_p (optional): Controls diversity via nucleus sampling (0-1)
• search_domain_filter (optional): Array of domains to limit citations to
  • Example: [“wikipedia.org”, “github.com”]
• return_images (optional): Whether to return images from search results
• return_related_questions (optional): Whether to return related questions
• search_recency_filter (optional): Filter search results by recency
  • Options: “month”, “week”, “day”, “hour”
• top_k (optional): Maximum number of search results to consider
• stream (optional): Whether to stream the response
• presence_penalty (optional): Penalizes token presence
• frequency_penalty (optional): Penalizes token frequency
• output_format (optional): Response format (“json” or “markdown”, default: “markdown”)

Example Queries

Here are some examples of what you can ask Claude using this server:

1. Basic search with default model:
   “What are the latest developments in quantum computing?”

2. Deep research with citations:
   “Using sonar-deep-research, explain the current state of fusion energy.”

3. Domain-specific search:
   “Search only on arxiv.org and nature.com for recent papers about large language models.”

4. Recent news search:
   “What happened in AI research this week? Use search_recency_filter: ‘week’”

Development

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/felores/perplexity-sonar-mcp.git
   cd perplexity-sonar-mcp
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Build the project:

   npm run build
   

4. Run in development mode:

   npm run dev
   

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Verify your API key is correct
2. Check Node.js version compatibility
3. Look for errors in Claude Desktop logs:
   • macOS: ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp.log
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp.log
4. Try running in standalone mode to isolate issues

License

MIT