serpapi-web-search

You have search (via MCP) or serpapi (via CLI). This file helps you pick the right engine, extract the right response key, and avoid common mistakes.

Auth check — do this first if you get 401 or haven't used serpapi before:

# Check if already authenticated:
serpapi account 2>&1 | head -1
# If "Active" → you're good. If not:
serpapi login            # interactive — stores key persistently
# Or set env: export SERPAPI_KEY=<key from serpapi.com/dashboard>

If serpapi is not on PATH: install with brew install serpapi/tap/serpapi-cli. If no MCP tool and no CLI: use curl with api_key=${SERPAPI_KEY} param (see below).

Invocation

search(params={"engine": "google_light", "q": "<query>", "num": 20}, mode="compact")