FAQ

• Standardized way to integrate tools with AI assistants
• Works across multiple clients (Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.)
• Secure and controlled access to external APIs
• Easy to install and configure

• Real-time web search with ranked results
• AI-powered question answering with citations
• Deep research with comprehensive multi-source analysis
• Advanced reasoning for complex analytical tasks

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perplexity_search

• “Find official documentation for React hooks”
• “Search for recent articles about TypeScript 5.0”
• “Get URLs for Python asyncio tutorials”

​

perplexity_ask

• “What are the main features of Next.js 14?”
• “Explain how OAuth 2.0 works”
• “Summarize recent changes to the AWS SDK”

​

perplexity_research

• “Compare modern web frameworks for building SaaS applications”
• “Research best practices for microservices architecture in 2026”
• “Comprehensive analysis of GraphQL vs REST API design”

​

perplexity_reason

• “Analyze the trade-offs between PostgreSQL and MongoDB”
• “Calculate the complexity of this sorting algorithm”
• “Compare the security implications of different authentication methods”

Next.js 14 introduces several improvements including Turbopack...

Citations:
[1] https://nextjs.org/blog/next-14
[2] https://vercel.com/blog/turbopack
[3] https://github.com/vercel/next.js/releases

• ✅ perplexity_ask - Yes
• ✅ perplexity_research - Yes
• ✅ perplexity_reason - Yes
• ❌ perplexity_search - No (returns raw search results instead)

• Verify the accuracy of information
• Explore sources for deeper understanding
• Assess the credibility of the response
• Reference sources in your own documentation

• Using a proxy or gateway
• Testing against a staging environment
• Routing through a custom endpoint

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
        "PERPLEXITY_BASE_URL": "https://your-custom-url.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Some models include <think>...</think> tags showing their internal reasoning process
• These tags can consume significant context tokens in your AI assistant
• Setting strip_thinking: true removes these tags while keeping the final answer

{
  "tool": "perplexity_reason",
  "arguments": {
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    "strip_thinking": true
  }
}

• ✅ You only need the final answer, not the reasoning process
• ✅ You’re running low on context tokens
• ✅ The thinking tokens are cluttering your chat history
• ❌ You want to understand how the model arrived at its conclusion
• ❌ You’re debugging unexpected responses

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
        "PERPLEXITY_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000"
      }
    }
  }
}

• perplexity_search: 60000ms (1 minute)
• perplexity_ask: 180000ms (3 minutes)
• perplexity_reason: 300000ms (5 minutes) - default
• perplexity_research: 600000ms+ (10+ minutes)

• If the API doesn’t respond within the timeout period, the request is aborted
• You’ll receive an error: “Request timeout: Perplexity API did not respond within Xms”
• The timeout is checked on each request, so you can change it without restarting

1. Visit the Perplexity API Portal
2. View your current plan and rate limits
3. Monitor your usage and remaining quota

• You’ll receive a 429 error from the API
• Wait before making additional requests
• Consider upgrading your API plan for higher limits
• Optimize your queries to use fewer API calls

• Use perplexity_search instead of perplexity_ask when you only need URLs
• Use perplexity_ask instead of perplexity_research for simple questions
• Cache responses when appropriate
• Implement exponential backoff for retries

​

Recency Filtering

{
  "search_recency_filter": "day"  // "hour", "day", "week", "month", "year"
}

• "hour" - Breaking news and very recent updates
• "day" - Today’s developments
• "week" - Recent announcements and releases
• "month" - Current trends and recent changes
• "year" - Exclude older information

​

Domain Filtering

{
  "search_domain_filter": ["wikipedia.org", "arxiv.org"]
}

["github.com", "stackoverflow.com"]  // Only these domains

["-reddit.com", "-twitter.com"]  // Exclude these domains

​

Search Context Size

{
  "search_context_size": "high"  // "low", "medium", "high"
}

• "low" (default) - Fastest, less context
• "medium" - Balanced speed and comprehensiveness
• "high" - Most comprehensive, slower

• "minimal" - Quick overview with basic analysis
• "low" - Standard research with moderate depth
• "medium" - Thorough analysis with multiple sources
• "high" - Comprehensive deep dive with extensive investigation

{
  "tool": "perplexity_research",
  "arguments": {
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    "reasoning_effort": "high"
  }
}

• Higher effort = More thorough analysis but slower response time
• Lower effort = Faster results but less comprehensive coverage

• Complex topics requiring multiple perspectives
• Critical decisions needing thorough research
• Comprehensive comparisons and evaluations

• Simple overview or introduction to a topic
• Time-sensitive queries
• When you already have some context