How to Add Web Search to Cline With the You.com MCP Server

TLDR: Cline's web search depends on your model provider: Cline Desktop's Web Search toggle only works with providers that have built-in search. The You.com MCP server gives any Cline surface search that does not depend on the provider. Add it as a Streamable HTTP remote with "type": "streamableHttp" through the MCP Servers panel or cline mcp, authenticate with OAuth or a Bearer key, and cap results with headers.

Cline now ships as IDE extensions, Cline Desktop, a CLI and terminal UI, and an SDK. They reach the web differently, and Cline's own docs name more than one MCP config file, so this guide opens the right file from inside Cline instead of guessing a path. The server is the hosted You.com MCP server at https://api.you.com/mcp. Our MCP server guide covers the client-agnostic setup. Details were checked on October 4, 2026 against Cline's docs and source and against the live server's keyless profile.

Does Cline already have web search?

It depends on the surface and the model provider. Cline Desktop has a Web Search toggle that is on by default for new sessions, but only providers with built-in web search honor it. The docs list Cline usage billing, ClinePass, OpenAI subscription, Anthropic, and Google Gemini, say other providers ignore the setting, and add that availability depends on the selected model (Cline Desktop docs). The built-in tool reference lists fetch_web, which makes HTTP requests and converts HTML to markdown, and a ripgrep-based search that works on your codebase. It does not list a web search tool (tools reference). The Auto Approve page also lists a browser tool for web fetching and searching.

So on a provider without built-in search, Cline's documented options are fetching a page you name or using the browser tool. An MCP server adds a search API that behaves the same whichever model is selected. It also gives you things a provider toggle does not: result caps and domain limits set in config, and clean page extraction through you-contents.

How do you add the server in the IDE extension?

Open the Cline panel, click the MCP Servers icon, and use the Remote Servers tab. Enter a Server Name, the Server URL, and Streamable HTTP as the Transport Type, which Cline marks as recommended, then click Add Server. Credentials and options live in the settings JSON that the Configure tab opens through the Configure MCP Servers button (Cline MCP docs). This is the entry to end up with:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youcom": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-search,you-contents",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:YDC_API_KEY}",
        "X-Search-Count": "5"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": ["you-search"]
    }
  }
}

• type. Cline's docs say an omitted type defaults to legacy SSE, and the You.com server is Streamable HTTP, so set "streamableHttp" explicitly.
• url. The ?tools=you-search,you-contents allowlist keeps the tool list to the two tools a coding agent uses. Bare /mcp enables four: those two plus you-balance and you-discover.
• headers. The extension's source expands ${env:VAR} in every string value of the settings file, including URLs and headers, from its process environment (envExpansion.ts). An unset variable is not replaced with an empty string. The text is left as written, so the server receives Bearer ${env:YDC_API_KEY} as the token. Start VS Code from a shell where the variable is set, or set it system-wide. X-Search-Count caps results host-side.
• autoApprove. Tools listed here run without a prompt. Cline's guidance is to limit autoApprove to safe tools, and its YOLO mode approves every MCP tool, so leave YOLO off.

Can you sign in with OAuth instead of a key?

Probably, and it is the cleaner setup. Leave the headers out. With no Authorization header, the You.com server answers with a 401 and a WWW-Authenticate challenge that points at its OAuth metadata, and that metadata advertises dynamic client registration with PKCE (checked live). Cline's extension source treats an unauthorized connection as an OAuth requirement: the server row shows This MCP server requires authentication to get started and an Authenticate button (McpHub.ts). The CLI source has an Authorize OAuth action in the wizard that opens a browser. We did not run the browser sign-in itself, so try it first and keep the key as the fallback.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youcom": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-search,you-contents",
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

OAuth keeps a long-lived API key out of the file. Cline's source stores OAuth state, including tokens, in the same MCP settings file, so treat that file as a credential either way.

How do you add it from the CLI?

The CLI has an interactive wizard and a read-only check.

# Interactive wizard: list, add, edit, enable or disable, delete, and authorize OAuth
cline mcp

# Non-interactive: show the servers Cline actually loaded
cline config mcp --json

cline mcp opens a wizard that lists servers and adds, edits, enables or disables, and deletes them. Adding a remote server prompts for the name, transport, URL, and headers (Cline MCP docs). cline config mcp --json prints what Cline actually loaded, and it is worth running because Cline's docs name three locations for MCP config: ~/.cline/mcp.json on the MCP page, ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json on the Config page, and .cline/mcp.json on the Tools page. Cline's current source resolves the shared settings file to settings/cline_mcp_settings.json under the Cline data directory, ~/.cline/data by default, and honors CLINE_DATA_DIR and CLINE_MCP_SETTINGS_PATH (paths.ts). Open the file through the wizard or the Configure button rather than from memory, and confirm with that command.

How do you cap what a search returns?

The MCP you-search tool sets count to 30 per section, where the REST API defaults to 10, and it returns highlights instead of snippets (live tool schema, October 4, 2026). One keyless call with the count capped at 2 returned about 18,600 characters of tool-result text, so an uncapped search can fill a lot of Cline's context. The server documents X-Search-* headers that win over whatever the model sends (MCP server reference). A test against the keyless profile confirmed that X-Search-Count: 2 returned two results when the request asked for ten, and that X-Search-Include-Domains: you.com limited both results to you.com.

One more limit is Cline's own. The per-server timeout field is in seconds and defaults to 60 (mcp.ts). The API waits 10 seconds for page content by default and up to 60 with crawl_timeout, so a full_page extraction request can approach Cline's limit. Give a server you allow to crawl a timeout of 90.

When should Cline read a page with you-contents instead of fetch_web?

Cline's built-in fetch_web makes HTTP requests from the machine Cline runs on and converts the HTML to markdown. The server's you-contents tool extracts page content through You.com and returns markdown or HTML, and the Contents API is billed at $1.00 per 1,000 pages (as of October 2026; billing). Use fetch_web for plain public pages you already trust, and you-contents when you want extraction to happen outside your machine and network, or one extraction path for every page. Nothing here is benchmarked, so test both on the pages your team actually reads.

Neither tool decides when to search. A project rule does. Cline reads rules from .cline/rules/ in the project and ~/.cline/rules/ globally (Cline config docs). Cline's MCP docs describe approvals and timeouts but no per-server call limit, so a rule is advice, not a cap. Keep the cap in the headers and the intent in the rule:

# Web search

- Before editing code that depends on a library version, a release, or an API change newer than your training data, call you-search.
- Run at most three searches per task. Read the best result with you-contents instead of searching again.
- Name the URLs you relied on in your summary.

How do you confirm Cline is using it?

A connected server with a tool list proves less than it seems. The live server answers tools/list with a 200 for any non-empty token, and only a missing or empty Authorization header gets the 401 challenge. A wrong key fails later, at the first search, as a 200 response whose result carries isError true and "Error code: 401". Cline can therefore show the server with its tools while every search fails. Probe with a real search:

import json
import os
import urllib.error
import urllib.request

URL = "https://api.you.com/mcp?tools=you-search,you-contents"
body = {
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {"name": "you-search", "arguments": {"query": "cline mcp", "count": 1}},
}
request = urllib.request.Request(
    URL,
    data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
    method="POST",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ.get("YDC_API_KEY", ""),
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "Accept": "application/json, text/event-stream",
        "User-Agent": "mcp-probe/1.0",
    },
)
try:
    reply = urllib.request.urlopen(request, timeout=30).read().decode()
except urllib.error.HTTPError as err:
    hint = ": the Authorization header is missing or empty" if err.code == 401 else ""
    raise SystemExit(f"HTTP {err.code}{hint}")
print("tool error: a key was sent but rejected" if '"isError":true' in reply else "search worked")

It prints one of three results. HTTP 401 means the header is missing or empty. Tool error means a key was sent but rejected, which is also what an unexpanded ${env:YDC_API_KEY} produces. Search worked means the key is good. The probe spends one search call. Then ask Cline for something dated this week and check that the chat shows a you-search call. If a server row sticks, the extension offers Restart Server and Retry Connection.

What fails, and how do you tell?

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Tools are listed but every search errors	A key was sent and rejected, for example an unset ${env:YDC_API_KEY} left as literal text	Export the variable in the environment VS Code launches from, then run the probe
The row says the server requires authentication	No Authorization header, so the server sent an OAuth challenge	Click Authenticate, or add the Bearer header
Connection errors after copying an older config	type was omitted, so Cline used legacy SSE	Set "type": "streamableHttp"
The CLI and the IDE disagree about servers	A different file was edited, and Cline's docs name three config paths	Open the file from the wizard or Configure button, and compare with cline config mcp --json
Context fills after a few searches	count defaults to 30 per section	Set X-Search-Count in the headers
An approval prompt on every call	autoApprove is empty	Add you-search to autoApprove, and avoid YOLO mode
Desktop's toggle is on but search is missing	Only providers with built-in search honor the toggle	Use the MCP server, which works with any provider
Page text is treated as instructions	Search results are untrusted text, and Cline can edit files and run commands	Keep auto-approval off for edits and commands, and read our prompt injection guide

If you would rather call the API from your own code than hand the decision to an agent, our tool calling guide compares the two approaches, and the Web Search API guide covers the endpoint, pricing, and limits.

Related Guides

• How to Set Up the You.com MCP Server for Web Search in Any Client
• How to Add Web Search to Cursor With the You.com MCP Server
• How to Add Web Search to Claude Code: A Developer Installation Guide
• How to Give a Coding Agent Web Search With the You.com Web Search API
• What Is the You.com Web Search API? Endpoint, Pricing, and Limits