teoobarca/perplexity-mcp

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🎯 Why This One?

Most Perplexity MCP servers are single-account wrappers around the paid Sonar API. This one is different:

• 🆓 No API costs — uses session cookies, not the paid API. Same features, zero per-query fees
• 🏊 Multi-account pool — round-robin across N accounts with automatic failover
• 📊 Admin dashboard — React UI to monitor quotas, manage tokens, tail logs in real-time
• ❤️ Zero-cost health checks — monitors all accounts via rate-limit API without consuming queries
• 🛡️ Downgrade protection — detects when Perplexity silently returns a regular result instead of deep research
• 📱 Telegram alerts — get notified when tokens expire or quota runs out

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✨ Features

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🖼️ Screenshots

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone & Install

git clone https://github.com/teoobarca/perplexity-mcp.git
cd perplexity-mcp
uv sync

2. Add to Your AI Tool

That’s it. Works immediately with anonymous sessions. Add your tokens for Pro access — see Authentication.

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🛠️ Tools

Two MCP tools with LLM-optimized descriptions so your AI assistant picks the right one automatically:

perplexity_ask

AI-powered answer engine for tech questions, documentation lookups, and how-to guides.

Mode auto-detection: Models with thinking or reasoning in the name automatically switch to Reasoning mode.

"gpt-5.2"          → Pro Search
"gpt-5.2-thinking"  → Reasoning Mode  ← auto-detected

perplexity_research

Deep research agent for comprehensive analysis. Returns extensive reports with 10-30+ citations.

[!TIP] Deep research takes 2-5 minutes per query. Provide detailed context and constraints for better results. The server has a 15-minute timeout to accommodate this.

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🖥️ Admin Panel

A built-in web dashboard for managing your token pool. Start it with:

perplexity-server

Opens automatically at http://localhost:8123/admin/

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🔐 Authentication

By default, the server uses anonymous Perplexity sessions (rate limited). For Pro access, add your session tokens.

How to Get Tokens

1. Sign in at perplexity.ai
2. Open DevTools (F12) → Application → Cookies
3. Copy these two cookies:
   • next-auth.csrf-token
   • next-auth.session-token

Single Token

Create token_pool_config.json in the project root:

{
  "tokens": [
    {
      "id": "my-account",
      "csrf_token": "your-csrf-token-here",
      "session_token": "your-session-token-here"
    }
  ]
}

Multi-Token Pool

Add multiple accounts for round-robin rotation with automatic failover:

{
  "monitor": {
    "enable": true,
    "interval": 6,
    "tg_bot_token": "optional-telegram-bot-token",
    "tg_chat_id": "optional-chat-id"
  },
  "fallback": {
    "fallback_to_auto": true
  },
  "tokens": [
    { "id": "account-1", "csrf_token": "...", "session_token": "..." },
    { "id": "account-2", "csrf_token": "...", "session_token": "..." },
    { "id": "account-3", "csrf_token": "...", "session_token": "..." }
  ]
}

[!NOTE] Session tokens last ~30 days. The monitor detects expired tokens and alerts you via Telegram.

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⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Token States

Token state is computed automatically from session_valid + rate_limits (never set manually):

Fallback Chain

When a Pro request fails, the server tries progressively:

1. ✅ Next client with Pro quota (round-robin)
2. ✅ Next client with Pro quota ...
3. 🟡 Any available client (auto mode)
4. 🔵 Anonymous session (auto mode)
5. ❌ Error returned to caller

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🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Your AI Assistant (Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf)    │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘
                       │ MCP (stdio)
                       ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  perplexity-mcp                                          │
│  ┌────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  tools.py       │  │  server.py                     │  │
│  │  • ask          │──│  • Pool state sync             │  │
│  │  • research     │  │  • Timeout handling            │  │
│  └────────────────┘  └────────────────────────────────┘  │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Backend Engine (perplexity/)                            │
│                                                          │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌────────────────┐  │
│  │  client.py   │  │  client_pool │  │  admin.py      │  │
│  │  • Search    │  │  • Rotation  │  │  • REST API    │  │
│  │  • Upload    │  │  • Backoff   │  │  • Static      │  │
│  │  • Validate  │  │  • Monitor   │  │    files       │  │
│  └──────┬───────┘  │  • Fallback  │  └────────┬───────┘  │
│         │          └──────────────┘           │          │
│         ▼                                     ▼          │
│  ┌─────────────┐                    ┌────────────────┐   │
│  │ Perplexity  │                    │ React Admin UI │   │
│  │ (web API)   │                    │ :8123/admin/   │   │
│  └─────────────┘                    └────────────────┘   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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🧪 Development

# Install in development mode
uv pip install -e ".[dev]" --python .venv/bin/python

# Run unit tests (53 tests)
.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ -v

# Frontend development
cd perplexity/server/web
npm install
npm run dev      # Dev server with proxy to :8123
npm run build    # Production build

Project Structure

src/                          # MCP stdio server (thin wrapper)
  server.py                   #   Entry point, pool state sync
  tools.py                    #   Tool definitions

perplexity/                   # Backend engine
  client.py                   #   Perplexity API client (curl_cffi)
  config.py                   #   Constants, endpoints, model mappings
  exceptions.py               #   Custom exception hierarchy
  logger.py                   #   Centralized logging
  server/
    app.py                    #   Starlette app, query engine
    client_pool.py            #   ClientPool, rotation, monitor
    admin.py                  #   Admin REST API
    utils.py                  #   Validation helpers
    main.py                   #   HTTP server entry point
    web/                      #   React admin frontend (Vite + Tailwind)

tests/                        # 53 unit tests

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⚠️ Limitations

• Unofficial — uses Perplexity’s web interface, may break if they change it
• Cookie-based auth — session tokens expire after ~30 days
• Rate limits — anonymous sessions have strict query limits
• Deep research — takes 2-5 minutes per query (this is normal)

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📄 License

MIT