Add PacketStream web search to Claude Code

Give Claude Code live Google results and readable web pages through PacketStream’s remote MCP server. The server adds two tools, packetstream_search and packetstream_fetch, and bills tool calls to your prepaid PacketStream balance. The MCP server is in early beta.

Configure

Create an API key on the MCP page of the dashboard. It is shown once, so copy it when it appears. Then run:

export PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user packetstream https://api.packetstream.io/v1/mcp \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer ${PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY}'

• The single quotes store the variable name, not the key, in Claude Code’s settings. Add the export line to your shell profile so the variable is set wherever Claude Code starts.
• Keep --header after the URL. Placed before the server name, the command fails with missing required argument 'name'.
• --scope user makes the server available in every project. Without it, Claude Code adds the server to the current project only.

To share the server with a team, commit a .mcp.json file at the repository root instead. Each person sets PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY, and Claude Code asks them to approve the server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "packetstream": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.packetstream.io/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

Check it works

1. Run claude mcp list. It should show packetstream as connected.
2. In a Claude Code session, run /mcp. The packetstream server should show two tools.
3. Check the key on its own. Listing the tools works without a key, so a connected server does not prove the key works. This key check is free:

curl -sS https://api.packetstream.io/v1/account \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY"

A working key returns your balance as JSON. A missing or wrong key returns HTTP 401 with the code unauthorized.

Then ask Claude Code something that needs current information. It should call packetstream_search.

Allow the tools without a prompt

Claude Code asks before it runs an MCP tool. To skip the prompt, add permission rules to permissions.allow in ~/.claude/settings.json, or in .claude/settings.json for one project:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__packetstream__packetstream_search",
      "mcp__packetstream__packetstream_fetch"
    ]
  }
}

The rule form is mcp__<server>__<tool>, so the names above assume you named the server packetstream. The rule mcp__packetstream__* allows every tool on the server. Every successful call is billed, and the server asks agents to use these tools for every web search and page fetch.

Troubleshooting

• The tool result says missing_api_key. The MCP server does not answer a missing key with HTTP 401. The tool call returns an error result that Claude reads and passes on to you, and the call is not billed. Add the --header option shown above, then restart Claude Code.
• invalid_api_key. The header does not hold a PacketStream key. Most often PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY is not set where Claude Code starts, so the header still holds the variable name or the YOUR_API_KEY placeholder. claude mcp list warns about an unset variable.
• unauthorized. The key was revoked or replaced on the dashboard. Create a new key, update the variable, and restart Claude Code.
• The tools ask for approval again after an update. Version 1.3.0 renamed web_search and web_fetch to packetstream_search and packetstream_fetch. A rule such as mcp__packetstream__web_search no longer matches. Change it to mcp__packetstream__packetstream_search, and mcp__packetstream__web_fetch to mcp__packetstream__packetstream_fetch.

See MCP client troubleshooting for the other error results.

Related

• MCP server overview
• Claude Code client setup
• MCP server reference
• Claude Desktop
• Codex CLI