Developed by Anthropic, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. It is particularly helpful when building agents and complex workflows on top of LLMs.

Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI applications. Just as USB-C provides a standardized way to connect your devices to various peripherals and accessories, MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources and tools.

-Anthropic

Learn more about the Model Context Protocol in Anthropic’s official documentation

The Linkup MCP server is compatible with any MCP client, such as Cursor or Claude Desktop.

The Linkup MCP server provides seamless interaction with the Linkup /search API for any MCP client. For example, it can be integrated with Anthropic’s Claude:

Prerequisites

To use Linkup MCP server, you need:

  • a Linkup API key.
  • Python (v3.8 or higher) and uv (0.6 or higher) or Node.js (v20 or higher) installed

Get your API key

Create a Linkup account for free to get your API key.

Setup Guide

1

Check Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have Claude Desktop correctly installed.

2

Configure Claude to use Linkup MCP

You need to edit the Claude configuration file to enables it to connect to MCP servers. Don’t worry, the configuration is really straightforward and is the official way to do it.

# Create the Claude desktop config file if it doesn't exist
touch "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"

# Opens the config file in TextEdit
open -e "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"

# Alternative method using Visual Studio Code
code "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"

Add the appropriate configuration based on your installation method:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkup": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-search-linkup"
      ],
      "env": {
        "LINKUP_API_KEY": "{LINKUP_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace {LINKUP_API_KEY} with your actual Linkup API key.

3

Start Using MCP on Claude

  1. Restart your Claude Desktop application
  2. Look for the hammer icon at the bottom right of the text area
  3. Click the hammer to see available MCP tools
  4. Start asking questions like “Who won the last Vendée Globe? Can you give me his time?”

The Linkup MCP tool will automatically search through the internet to find grounding information to support Claude’s generation.

Facing issues? Reach out to our engineering team at support@linkup.so or via our Discord.