🔬 Research Powerpack MCP 🔬

🔬 Research Powerpack MCP 🔬

Stop tab-hopping for research. Start getting structured context.

The ultimate research toolkit for your AI coding assistant. It searches the web, mines Reddit, scrapes any URL, and synthesizes everything into perfectly structured context your LLM actually understands.

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research-powerpack-mcp is the research assistant your AI has been missing. Stop asking your LLM to guess about things it doesn't know. This MCP server acts like a senior researcher -- searching the web, mining Reddit discussions, scraping documentation, and synthesizing everything into structured context so your AI can give you answers you can actually trust.

Here's how it works:

• You: "What's the best database for my use case?"
• AI + Powerpack: Searches Google, mines Reddit threads, scrapes docs, synthesizes findings.
• You: Get an actually informed answer with real community opinions and citations.
• Result: Better decisions, faster. No more juggling 47 browser tabs.

🎯 Why Research Powerpack

Manual research is tedious and error-prone. research-powerpack-mcp replaces that entire workflow with a single integrated pipeline.

This isn't just fetching random pages. Research Powerpack builds high-signal, low-noise context with CTR-weighted ranking, smart comment allocation, and intelligent token distribution that prevents massive responses from breaking your LLM's context window.

🚀 Get Started in 60 Seconds

1. Install

npm install research-powerpack-mcp

2. Configure Your MCP Client

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "research-powerpack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-researchpowerpack"],
      "env": {
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_key",
        "REDDIT_CLIENT_ID": "your_id",
        "REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_secret",
        "SCRAPEDO_API_KEY": "your_key",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "your_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

or quick install (for macOS):

cat ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json | jq '.mcpServers["research-powerpack"] = {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["research-powerpack-mcp@latest"],
  "disabled": false,
  "env": {
    "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "xxx",
    "REDDIT_CLIENT_ID": "xxx",
    "REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET": "xxx",
    "RESEARCH_MODEL": "xxxx",
    "SCRAPEDO_API_KEY": "xxx",
    "SERPER_API_KEY": "xxxx"
  }
}' | tee ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Claude Code (CLI)

One command to set everything up:

claude mcp add research-powerpack npx \
  --scope user \
  --env SERPER_API_KEY=your_key \
  --env REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_id \
  --env REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_secret \
  --env OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_key \
  --env OPENROUTER_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 \
  --env RESEARCH_MODEL=x-ai/grok-4.1-fast \
  -- research-powerpack-mcp

Or manually add to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "research-powerpack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-researchpowerpack"],
      "env": {
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_key",
        "REDDIT_CLIENT_ID": "your_id",
        "REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_secret",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "your_key",
        "OPENROUTER_BASE_URL": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
        "RESEARCH_MODEL": "x-ai/grok-4.1-fast"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor/Windsurf

Add to .cursor/mcp.json or equivalent:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "research-powerpack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-researchpowerpack"],
      "env": {
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "your_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Zero Crash Promise: Missing API keys? No problem. The server always starts. Tools that require missing keys return helpful setup instructions instead of crashing.

🎮 Tool Reference

web_search

Batch web search using Google via Serper API. Search up to 100 keywords in parallel.

Supports Google operators: site:, -exclusion, "exact phrase", filetype:

{
  "keywords": [
    "best IDE 2025",
    "VS Code alternatives",
    "Cursor vs Windsurf comparison"
  ]
}

search_reddit

Search Reddit via Google with automatic site:reddit.com filtering.

Search operators: intitle:keyword, "exact phrase", OR, -exclude

{
  "queries": [
    "best mechanical keyboard 2025",
    "intitle:keyboard recommendation"
  ],
  "date_after": "2024-01-01"
}

get_reddit_post

Fetch Reddit posts with smart comment allocation (1,000 comment budget distributed automatically).

Smart Allocation:

• 2 posts → ~500 comments/post (deep dive)
• 10 posts → ~100 comments/post
• 50 posts → ~20 comments/post (quick scan)

{
  "urls": [
    "https://reddit.com/r/programming/comments/abc123/post_title",
    "https://reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/def456/another_post"
  ]
}

scrape_links

Universal URL content extraction with automatic fallback modes.

Automatic Fallback: Basic → JS rendering → JS + US geo-targeting

{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/article1", "https://example.com/article2"],
  "use_llm": true,
  "what_to_extract": "Extract the main arguments and key statistics"
}

deep_research

AI-powered batch research with web search and citations.

Token Allocation: 32,000 tokens distributed across questions:

• 2 questions → 16,000 tokens/question (deep dive)
• 10 questions → 3,200 tokens/question (rapid multi-topic)

{
  "questions": [
    { "question": "What are the current best practices for React Server Components in 2025?" },
    { "question": "Compare Bun vs Node.js for production workloads with benchmarks." }
  ]
}

⚙️ Environment Variables & Tool Availability

Research Powerpack uses a modular architecture. Tools are automatically enabled based on which API keys you provide:

Configuration Examples

# Search-only mode (just web_search and search_reddit)
SERPER_API_KEY=xxx

# Reddit research mode (search + fetch posts)
SERPER_API_KEY=xxx
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=xxx
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=xxx

# Full research mode (all 5 tools)
SERPER_API_KEY=xxx
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=xxx
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=xxx
SCRAPEDO_API_KEY=xxx
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=xxx

Full Power Mode

For the best research experience, configure all four API keys:

SERPER_API_KEY=your_serper_key       # Free: 2,500 queries/month
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_reddit_id       # Free: Unlimited
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_reddit_secret
SCRAPEDO_API_KEY=your_scrapedo_key   # Free: 1,000 credits/month
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_key # Pay-as-you-go

This unlocks:

• 5 research tools working together
• AI-powered content extraction in scrape_links
• Deep research with web search and citations
• Complete Reddit mining (search → fetch → analyze)

Total setup time: ~10 minutes. Total free tier value: ~$50/month equivalent.

🔑 API Key Setup Guides

What you get

• Fast Google search results via API
• Enables web_search and search_reddit tools

Setup Steps

1. Go to serper.dev
2. Click "Get API Key" (top right)
3. Sign up with email or Google
4. Copy your API key from the dashboard
5. Add to your config:

   SERPER_API_KEY=your_key_here
   

Pricing

• Free: 2,500 queries/month
• Paid: $50/month for 50,000 queries

What you get

• Full Reddit API access
• Fetch posts and comments with upvote sorting
• Enables get_reddit_post tool

Setup Steps

1. Go to reddit.com/prefs/apps
2. Scroll down and click "create another app..."
3. Fill in:
   • Name: research-powerpack (or any name)
   • App type: Select "script" (important!)
   • Redirect URI: http://localhost:8080
4. Click "create app"
5. Copy your credentials:
   • Client ID: The string under your app name
   • Client Secret: The "secret" field
6. Add to your config:

   REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
   REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
   

What you get

• JavaScript rendering support
• Geo-targeting and CAPTCHA handling
• Enables scrape_links tool

Setup Steps

1. Go to scrape.do
2. Click "Start Free"
3. Sign up with email
4. Copy your API key from the dashboard
5. Add to your config:

   SCRAPEDO_API_KEY=your_key_here
   

Credit Usage

• Basic scrape: 1 credit
• JavaScript rendering: 5 credits
• Geo-targeting: +25 credits

What you get

• Access to 100+ AI models via one API
• Enables deep_research tool
• Enables AI extraction in scrape_links

Setup Steps

1. Go to openrouter.ai
2. Sign up with Google/GitHub/email
3. Go to openrouter.ai/keys
4. Click "Create Key"
5. Copy the key (starts with sk-or-...)
6. Add to your config:

   OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-xxxxx
   

Recommended Models for Deep Research

# Default (optimized for research)
RESEARCH_MODEL=perplexity/sonar-deep-research

# Fast and capable
RESEARCH_MODEL=x-ai/grok-4.1-fast

# High quality
RESEARCH_MODEL=anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

# Budget-friendly
RESEARCH_MODEL=openai/gpt-4o-mini

Recommended Models for AI Extraction (use_llm in scrape_links)

# Default (fast and cost-effective for extraction)
LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL=openrouter/gpt-oss-120b:nitro

# High quality extraction
LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL=anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

# Budget-friendly
LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL=openai/gpt-4o-mini

Note: RESEARCH_MODEL and LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL are independent. You can use a powerful model for deep research and a faster/cheaper model for content extraction, or vice versa.

📚 Recommended Workflows

Research a Technology Decision

1. web_search → ["React vs Vue 2025", "Next.js vs Nuxt comparison"]
2. search_reddit → ["best frontend framework 2025", "Next.js production experience"]
3. get_reddit_post → [URLs from step 2]
4. scrape_links → [Documentation and blog URLs from step 1]
5. deep_research → [Synthesize findings into specific questions]

Competitive Analysis

1. web_search → ["competitor name review", "competitor vs alternatives"]
2. scrape_links → [Competitor websites, review sites]
3. search_reddit → ["competitor name experience", "switching from competitor"]
4. get_reddit_post → [URLs from step 3]

Debug an Obscure Error

1. web_search → ["exact error message", "error + framework name"]
2. search_reddit → ["error message", "framework + error type"]
3. get_reddit_post → [URLs with solutions]
4. scrape_links → [Stack Overflow answers, GitHub issues]

🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/yigitkonur/mcp-researchpowerpack.git
cd mcp-researchpowerpack
npm install
npm run dev
npm run build
npm run typecheck

🔧 Troubleshooting