Perplexity Tool for Claude Desktop

A custom MCP tool that integrates Perplexity AI's API with Claude Desktop, allowing Claude to perform web-based research and provide answers with citations.

Prerequisites Installation

1. Install Git:
2. For Mac:
   • Install Homebrew first by pasting this in Terminal: bash /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
   • Then install Git: bash brew install git

3. For Windows:

   • Download Git from git-scm.com
   • Run the installer

4. Install Node.js:

5. For Mac: bash brew install node

6. For Windows:

   • Download from nodejs.org
   • Run the installer

7. Verify installations by running:

git --version
node --version

Tool Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/letsbuildagent/perplexity-tool
cd perplexity-tool

1. Install dependencies

npm install

1. Set up your API Key

You have two options:

Option 1 (Quick setup): - Open server.js - Find this line:

const PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = "YOUR-API-KEY-HERE";

• Replace with your Perplexity API key

Option 2 (Best practice): - Create a .env file: ```bash # On Mac/Linux: touch .env open .env

# On Windows: notepad .env Or simply create a new file named `.env` in your text editor - Add your API key to the .env file: PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your-api-key-here - Install dotenv:bash npm install dotenv - Update server.js:javascript import 'dotenv/config' const PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY; ```

1. Configure Claude Desktop
2. Open ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
3. Add this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity-tool": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/full/path/to/perplexity-tool/server.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /full/path/to with the actual path where you cloned the repository.

1. Restart Claude Desktop

Usage

Once installed, you can use the tool through Claude with commands like:

• "Ask Perplexity about recent developments in AI"
• "Use Perplexity to research the history of quantum computing"
• "Search Perplexity for information about climate change, focusing on the last month"

Advanced Options

You can specify additional parameters: - temperature: Controls response randomness (0-2) - max_tokens: Limits response length - search_domain_filter: Restricts search to specific domains - search_recency_filter: Filters by time period (day/week/month/year)

Troubleshooting

1. Git not found:
2. Make sure you've installed Git correctly
3. Try restarting your terminal

4. On Mac, make sure Homebrew is in your PATH

5. Node.js errors:

6. Verify Node.js installation with node --version

7. Try reinstalling Node.js

8. API Key issues:

9. Make sure you've correctly copied your API key
10. Check that there are no extra spaces in your .env file

11. If using Option 2, verify dotenv is installed

12. Tool not appearing in Claude:

13. Check the path in claude_desktop_config.json
14. Make sure the path points to your server.js file
15. Restart Claude Desktop
16. Check the console for any error messages

License

MIT

Security Note

If you're planning to share your code or make it public: - Don't commit your API key to Git - Use the .env method (Option 2) - Add .env to your .gitignore file