Claude Desktop fails to connect to brave-search, other MCP work correctly

[joshua-lehmann]

Describe the bug
I have setup 3 MCP Servers, Jetbrains, Memory and Brave Search. Both Jetbrains and memory work and Claude Desktop can use them. However for Brave it does not work.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Add content to claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jetbrains": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@jetbrains/mcp-proxy"
      ]
    },
    "memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"
      ]
    },
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Restart Claude Desktop
3. Start new chat and ask "Can you search the web for latest news about Spring boot"
4. Claude says he cannot search the web

Expected behavior
As the other MCP Server work correctly I assume npx and MCP work correctly in general for my Claude Desktop, just the Brave MCP has an issue. So I that brave search MCP would work correctly and shows up as mcp tool and can be used.
Logs
mcp.log:

2024-12-17T15:01:56.213Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server jetbrains...
2024-12-17T15:01:56.215Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server memory...
2024-12-17T15:01:56.216Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server brave-search...
2024-12-17T15:01:56.235Z [info] Connected to MCP server jetbrains!
2024-12-17T15:01:56.242Z [info] Connected to MCP server memory!
2024-12-17T15:01:56.250Z [info] Connected to MCP server brave-search!
2024-12-18T07:23:36.662Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server jetbrains...
2024-12-18T07:23:36.666Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server memory...
2024-12-18T07:23:36.667Z [info] Attempting to connect to MCP server brave-search...
2024-12-18T07:23:36.704Z [info] Connected to MCP server brave-search!
2024-12-18T07:23:36.710Z [info] Connected to MCP server memory!
2024-12-18T07:23:36.716Z [info] Connected to MCP server jetbrains!

mcp-server-brave-search.log:

npm error code ENOENT
npm error syscall lstat
npm error path C:\Users\jolehm\AppData\Local\AnthropicClaude\app-0.7.5\${APPDATA}
npm error errno -4058
npm error enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, lstat 'C:\Users\jolehm\AppData\Local\AnthropicClaude\app-0.7.5\${APPDATA}'
npm error enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm error enoent
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\jolehm\npm-cache\_logs\2024-12-18T07_23_37_019Z-debug-0.log

Additional context
I have:

• Latest version of Claude Desktop
• Windows 11
• Node Version v20.18.1 (not using NVM)

[BindingOx]

edit: I was able to fix. tldr: dont use node installer ever:

Completely Uninstalling:

How to Completely Remove Node.js from Windows ? - GeeksforGeeks

Installing

installing: install | npm Docs

We strongly recommend using a Node version manager to install Node.js and npm. We do not recommend using a Node installer, since the Node installation process installs npm in a directory with local permissions and can cause permissions errors when you run npm packages globally.

same as Method 2 here: How to Install Node.js on Windows: Top 4 Methods

nvm install latest
nvm use ... # latest
node -v

[BindingOx]

can we please update the readme to tell people not to use the installer?