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Keyed MCPs via Smithery CLI

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Keyed MCPs via Smithery CLI

Why

Per the dual-bucket MCP rule: no-key MCPs go in repo .mcp.json (public-repo safe); keyed MCPs go in Smithery so the token is held by smithery.ai and never lands in a public commit. .mcp.json is checked into a public repo — any env: { API_KEY: "sk-..." } block leaks instantly.

Smithery proxies the MCP over HTTPS, injects the key server-side, and exposes a local stdio shim — so the client (claude) sees a keyless local command, while the key lives in your Smithery profile.

Install pattern

npx -y @smithery/cli@latest install <slug> --client claude

The CLI prompts for the key (or reads from env), writes a stub MCP server to the client's config, and registers your account → key mapping at smithery.ai. To install for Claude Code project-scope rather than user-scope, add --profile <name> and pick the project on prompt; otherwise it lands in ~/.claude.json user config.

To list installed: npx -y @smithery/cli list --client claude. To remove: npx -y @smithery/cli uninstall <slug> --client claude.

8 keyed MCPs worth installing later

Slug Smithery package What
brave @smithery-ai/brave-search Brave web + news search (2k free queries/mo)
tavily @tavily-ai/tavily-mcp LLM-tuned search w/ summaries (1k free/mo)
exa exa Neural search, paper + company finders (free tier)
firecrawl @mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server Full-page web scrape → markdown (free 500 credits)
linkup @linkup-ai/linkup-mcp Real-time web answers (free tier)
jina jina-ai/jina-mcp-tools Reader API (URL → markdown), embeddings (free tier)
groundroute @groundroute/mcp Multi-engine search router with citation grounding
bright-data @brightdata/mcp Scraping + SERP + unblocker (paid; trial credit)

All 8 are free-tier eligible at signup — no card required, fits the no-card rule.

Rotate / revoke keys

  1. Go to https://smithery.ai/profile → Integrations.
  2. Find the keyed MCP row → Revoke (kills the old key everywhere) or Rotate (generates new, asks you to paste replacement upstream key).
  3. Local clients keep working — Smithery's proxy URL doesn't change; only the upstream key behind it.

If a key is suspected leaked, revoke first, regenerate upstream second, paste back via Smithery UI third. Never re-run @smithery/cli install to "fix" a leak — that doesn't rotate the stored key, it just re-registers the client stub.

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