You.com for AI agents

Name: You.com Web Access & AI
Author: youdotcom-oss

Add real-time web search, research, and content extraction to any agent. Hosted MCP server, free tier with no API key, plus first-party plugins for the Vercel AI SDK and LangChain.

// Add this to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
// Free tier — no API key, no signup.
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

If your client supports remote MCP, point it at https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free directly — no local process needed.

Why You.com

Real web index — backed by You.com's production search infrastructure, not a scraper.
Free tier, no signup — ?profile=free exposes you-search to any MCP client with zero auth.
Listed in the official MCP registry as io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp.
Works with every major agent stack — Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain.
One hosted endpoint — all packages here are thin clients over https://api.you.com/mcp.

Quick start

Every snippet below works against the free tier. To unlock you-research and you-contents, drop the YDC_PROFILE line and set YDC_API_KEY to a key from you.com/platform/api-keys. you-finance is opt-in — pass ?tools=you-finance on the URL or set YDC_ALLOWED_TOOLS=you-finance.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Authenticated (all default tools):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_API_KEY": "<your-key>" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

# Free tier
claude mcp add you -e YDC_PROFILE=free -- npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp

# Authenticated
claude mcp add you -e YDC_API_KEY=<your-key> -- npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to your user or workspace mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "you": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
      "env": { "YDC_PROFILE": "free" }
    }
  }
}

Any MCP client (remote)

If your client speaks streamable HTTP, skip the local bridge:

https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free

Authenticated:

https://api.you.com/mcp
Authorization: Bearer <your-key>

Packages

Package	What it does
`@youdotcom-oss/mcp`	STDIO bridge to the hosted MCP server. Use this when your client needs a local command.
`@youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin`	Vercel AI SDK tools backed by the hosted MCP server.
`@youdotcom-oss/langchain`	LangChain.js tools backed by the hosted MCP server.
`@youdotcom-oss/cli`	`ydc` CLI for listing tools, fetching schemas, and invoking remote tools from a shell.

The free profile (?profile=free) exposes you-search only. The authenticated default exposes you-search, you-research, and you-contents. you-finance is available on request via ?tools=you-finance.

Use cases

Web search inside Claude

Once @youdotcom-oss/mcp is wired into Claude Desktop (see above), ask Claude:

Search the web for the latest releases of Bun and summarize the changes since 1.2.

Claude calls you-search directly. No code required.

Vercel AI SDK agent grounded in real-time web

import { createAnthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai';
import { createYouClient } from '@youdotcom-oss/ai-sdk-plugin';

const client = await createYouClient({ apiKey: process.env.YDC_API_KEY });
const tools = await client.tools();

const result = await generateText({
  model: createAnthropic()('claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929'),
  tools,
  stopWhen: stepCountIs(5),
  prompt: 'What shipped in the latest Bun release?',
});

console.log(result.text);
await client.close();

LangChain agent with cited sources

import { createAgent, initChatModel } from 'langchain';
import { createYouClient } from '@youdotcom-oss/langchain';

const client = await createYouClient({ apiKey: process.env.YDC_API_KEY });
const tools = await client.getTools();

const agent = createAgent({
  model: await initChatModel('claude-haiku-4-5'),
  tools,
  systemPrompt: 'You are a research assistant. Always cite your sources.',
});

const result = await agent.invoke({
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Latest developments in quantum computing?' }],
});

console.log(result);

Contributing

This is a Bun workspace monorepo. Development setup, workspace commands, and code conventions live in AGENTS.md; contribution flow and PR conventions live in CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues and PRs welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.