Reported issues for google-researcher

Pod holds 20 of 85 problems reported by people outside the maintainer team. Issues filed by the project's own owners, members and collaborators are excluded entirely — a maintainer's release checklist is not a warning to a prospective user.

Back to google-researcher.

Most discussed

Enhance MCP Testing Suite with Best Practices

Summary

Implement comprehensive MCP testing best practices to improve test coverage, reliability, and protocol compliance based on official MCP documentation and industry standards.

Background

Research into MCP testing best practices from modelcontextprotocol.info and related resources reveals several opportunities to enhance our testing infrastructure.

Recommended Improvements

1. Multi-Layer Testing Architecture

**Unit

Read the thread · 2026-02-09 · closed · 4 comments

Test MCP Inspector compatibility

Summary

Verify the server works correctly with the official MCP Inspector tool.

Why This Matters

MCP Inspector is the official testing/debugging tool for MCP servers. Ensuring compatibility:

• Validates MCP spec compliance
• Provides confidence in interoperability
• Identifies issues before users encounter them
• Serves as documentation for expected behavior

Test Checklist

Tools Discovery

• All 5 tools listed in Inspector's tool p

Read the thread · 2026-02-08 · closed · 4 comments

google discontinuing "entire web" search

Area

New MCP tool

Problem or motivation

I think this will effect the mcp. https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/12397162

Full web search via the "Search the entire web" feature will be discontinued on January 1, 2027. Please update your search engine to specify specific sites to search.

Proposed solution

don't know

Alternatives considered

perplexity

Would you be willing to contribute this?

None

Additional context

No response

Read the thread · 2026-04-30 · closed · outside contributor · 3 comments

Split server.ts into modules

Summary

Split the monolithic server.ts (2,677 lines / 111KB) into focused modules for better maintainability, testability, and extensibility.

Note (2026-02-09): This file has grown significantly since the issue was created. Originally 1200+ lines, it is now 2,677 lines, making modularization increasingly important.

Current State

src/server.ts handles:

• MCP server configuration
• Cache initialization
• HTTP routing and middleware
• OAuth validation
• Tool registration (8 tools:

Read the thread · 2026-02-08 · closed · 3 comments

scrape tool fail

Using latest version in npx. Getting this.

⏺ The scrape tool isn't returning visible content. Let me use analyze_with_gemini with the search context, and also try the research tool with a more specific query.

Read the thread · 2026-02-11 · closed · outside contributor · 2 comments

Add content size optimization and smart truncation

Problem

When using scrape_page or search_and_scrape, responses often exceed 50-100k tokens:

⚠ Large MCP response (~65.3k tokens), this can fill up context quickly

This creates several issues:

• Context exhaustion: A single tool call can consume 50%+ of available context
• Reduced reasoning capacity: Less room for the LLM to analyze and respond
• Wasted tokens: Much of the scraped content may be irrelevant to the query
• Poor UX: Users hit context limits mid-conv

Read the thread · 2026-02-09 · closed · 2 comments

Add distributed Redis caching support

Description

Support Redis as an optional cache backend for multi-instance deployments. The cache interface (IPersistenceManager) already exists — implement a Redis adapter.

What to do

• Implement RedisIPersistenceManager adapter
• Configure via REDIS_URL environment variable
• Fall back to disk persistence when Redis is unavailable
• Support all existing cache operations (get, set, invalidate, clear)

Priority

Low — only needed for multi-instance/horizontal scaling

References

• TOD

Read the thread · 2026-02-08 · closed · 2 comments

Support alternative search engines (Brave, Exa, Tavily)

Description

Add a pluggable search backend architecture supporting multiple search engines with fallback.

What to do

• Define a search provider interface
• Implement adapters for: Brave Search API, Exa API, Tavily API
• Fallback chain: if primary engine fails or rate limits, try next
• Configurable via environment variables

Priority

Low — nice-to-have for resilience and flexibility

References

• TODO.md item P4.4

Read the thread · 2026-02-08 · closed · 2 comments

Most recent

Orphan detection fails when spawned via npx — all three health checks defeated by intermediate npm process

Summary

Orphaned google-researcher-mcp processes spin at 100% CPU indefinitely after the parent MCP client (Claude Code) exits. The health check introduced in v6.2.0-v6.2.3 does not detect the orphan state when the server is launched via npx (which interposes an npm wrapper process between the MCP client and the node worker).

Environment

• google-researcher-mcp 6.2.3 (npm)
• Node v25.9.0
• macOS Darwin arm64 (launchd as PID 1)
• MCP client: Claude Code (spawns server via `npx go

Read the thread · 2026-05-06 · closed · outside contributor · 1 comment

v6.2.0 PID lock kills concurrent healthy instances

The PID lock added in v6.2.0 (commit 5405b24d) assumes only one MCP server instance can exist per install. When a client like Claude Code spawns two instances within a few seconds, the newer one reads storage/.server.pid, finds the earlier PID sitting there, and kills it with SIGTERM — even though that earlier process is alive and happily serving its own client. The victim's stdio pipe goes dead and its client drops the server from its registry. Looks like a mystery disconnect from the outsi

Read the thread · 2026-04-20 · closed · outside contributor · 0 comments

🔒 OAuth middleware not applied to /mcp endpoint in HTTP mode

Security Finding — MEDIUM Severity

Category: Authentication Bypass Confidence: 9/10 Found by: Security audit (2026-03-30)

Description

When the HTTP/SSE transport is configured with OAuth (OAUTH_ISSUER_URL and OAUTH_AUDIENCE set), oauthMiddleware is created but never applied to the main /mcp endpoint routes:

• app.post("/mcp", ...) — no auth
• app.get("/mcp", ...) — no auth
• app.delete("/mcp", ...) — no auth

The only route using oauthMiddleware is `/mc

Read the thread · 2026-03-31 · closed · 1 comment

🔒 SSRF via redirect bypass in document parser fetchDocument()

Security Finding — HIGH Severity

Category: SSRF Confidence: 9/10 Found by: Security audit (2026-03-30)

Description

fetchDocument() in src/documents/documentParser.ts validates the initial URL via validateUrlForSSRF(url), but the subsequent fetch() call uses Node.js native fetch which follows HTTP redirects by default (redirect: 'follow'). No redirect validation is performed.

An attacker-controlled URL ending in .pdf (to pass isDocumentUrl()) can redirect to a

Read the thread · 2026-03-31 · closed · 1 comment

🔒 SSRF via Playwright redirect bypass in scrapeWithPlaywright()

Security Finding — HIGH Severity

Category: SSRF Confidence: 9/10 Found by: Security audit (2026-03-30)

Description

scrapeWithPlaywright() in src/server.ts does not validate redirect URLs for SSRF. While scrapeWithCheerio() has preNavigationHooks that call validateUrlForSSRF() on every redirect, the Playwright crawler follows redirects at the browser level with zero SSRF checks.

The initial URL is validated before scraping begins, but an attacker-controlled pu

Read the thread · 2026-03-31 · closed · 1 comment

npm registry version mismatch: v6.0.0 on npm vs v1.2.1 in repo

Problem

The npm package google-researcher-mcp shows version 6.0.0 published today (2026-02-10), but the repo's package.json on main still shows 1.2.1. The latest GitHub release tag is also v1.2.1 from July 2025.

Observed behavior

• npx -y google-researcher-mcp pulls 6.0.0 from npm
• MCP tools execute without errors but return empty content — metadata (URLs, processing time, character counts) comes back, but no actual scraped/analyzed text
• `npx -y github:zohar

Read the thread · 2026-02-11 · closed · outside contributor · 1 comment

MCP Distribution Channels - Comprehensive Guide

MCP Distribution Channels

This issue documents all available channels for distributing MCP servers, including submission processes and best practices.

Overview

Read the thread · 2026-02-10 · closed · 1 comment

Simplify Installation Experience

Summary

Improve the installation experience for google-researcher-mcp by providing copy-paste configurations, platform-specific guides, and optional setup wizards.

Background

User research and community feedback indicate common pain points:

1. Manual JSON config editing is error-prone
2. Environment variable setup confuses non-developers
3. Path differences between macOS/Windows/WSL cause issues
4. API key acquisition process is unclear

Implementation Steps

1. Add Copy-Paste Re

Read the thread · 2026-02-10 · closed · 0 comments

List on Smithery MCP Marketplace

Summary

List google-researcher-mcp on Smithery, the largest third-party MCP marketplace, to increase visibility and provide users with one-click installation.

Background

Smithery is a popular MCP marketplace featuring:

• One-click terminal installation commands
• Built-in observability and distribution
• Featured servers on homepage carousel
• Large user base of AI developers

Implementation Steps

1. Create smithery.yaml in repository root

runti

[Read the thread](https://github.com/zoharbabin/google-researcher-mcp/issues/84) · 2026-02-10 · closed · 0 comments

### Publish to Official MCP Registry

## Summary

Submit google-researcher-mcp to the official Model Context Protocol Registry to increase discoverability and enable one-click installation for users.

## Background

The [MCP Registry](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry) is the official "app store" for MCP servers, currently in preview with API freeze at v0.1. It's backed by GitHub and provides:
- Centralized discovery for MCP clients
- One-click installation in VS Code
- Automatic updates to downstream registries

## I

[Read the thread](https://github.com/zoharbabin/google-researcher-mcp/issues/83) · 2026-02-10 · closed · 0 comments

### Add patent portfolio analysis capabilities (tools + prompt)

## Summary

Enable comprehensive patent portfolio analysis for companies and their subsidiaries. This enhancement follows MCP best practices by:
1. Adding focused, atomic tools that complement the existing `patent_search`
2. Creating a prompt to guide LLMs on orchestrating the workflow
3. Letting the LLM handle business logic (iteration, aggregation, reporting)

---

## Architecture: MCP vs LLM Responsibilities

### MCP Server Provides (Atomic Tools)

| Component | Type | Purpose |
|-----------|

[Read the thread](https://github.com/zoharbabin/google-researcher-mcp/issues/80) · 2026-02-09 · closed · 0 comments

### Add Patent Search Tool

## Summary

Implement a new `patent_search` tool to enable comprehensive patent research capabilities, supporting both broad prior art searches and deep specific patent analysis.

## Background

Patent research is critical for:
- **Prior Art Search**: Finding existing patents/publications before filing
- **Freedom to Operate (FTO)**: Ensuring products don't infringe existing patents
- **Patent Landscaping**: Understanding competitive patent portfolios
- **Technology Monitoring**: Tracking innova

[Read the thread](https://github.com/zoharbabin/google-researcher-mcp/issues/78) · 2026-02-09 · closed · 1 comment

The remaining reports are on [the project's issue tracker](https://github.com/zoharbabin/google-researcher-mcp/issues).