Kiro

Add Tavily web search, extraction, crawling, and research to Kiro through the Tavily MCP server.

Kiro is AWS’s agentic IDE and CLI. Add Tavily’s hosted MCP server to give it live web search, extraction, crawling, and research (tavily_search, tavily_extract, tavily_crawl, tavily_map, tavily_research). The Kiro CLI uses the same config.

Remote MCP server (recommended)

Install Kiro and get a Tavily API key.

1. Add the server

   Click Add to Kiro and confirm the install.

   Or run Kiro: Open user MCP config (JSON) from the command palette and add:

   ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "tavily": {
         "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/"
       }
     }
   }
   

   To scope Tavily to one project, use .kiro/settings/mcp.json instead. It overrides the user file.

2. Authenticate

   In the Kiro panel, click Authenticate next to tavily under MCP SERVERS, then sign in to Tavily in your browser.

   
3. Try it

   In Kiro chat, ask:

   Use Tavily to find the official documentation for numpy.

   Approve the tool call. Tavily tool calls and source links in the response confirm it worked.

Kiro asks before each MCP tool call. To skip the prompt for tools you trust, add * or tool names to autoApprove:

"tavily": {
  "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/",
  "autoApprove": ["tavily_search", "tavily_extract"]
}

Use an API key

To skip OAuth, send your key in an Authorization header. Kiro expands ${TAVILY_API_KEY} from your environment, so the key can stay out of the config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${TAVILY_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Approve TAVILY_API_KEY when Kiro prompts, or add it under Mcp Approved Env Vars in settings.

Keyless access

For limited Search and Extract access without signing in, add "headers": {"X-Tavily-Access-Mode": "keyless"} to the server entry. See keyless access.

Local MCP server

Run the Tavily MCP package locally. It still calls Tavily’s API.

1. Set your API key

   Install Node.js 20 or later and set TAVILY_API_KEY in your environment.

2. Add the server

   Add this to ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json, or to .kiro/settings/mcp.json for one project. Approve TAVILY_API_KEY when Kiro prompts.

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "tavily-local": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "tavily-mcp@latest"],
         "env": {
           "TAVILY_API_KEY": "${TAVILY_API_KEY}"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   
3. Verify

   Save the file and confirm tavily-local connects under MCP SERVERS.

Kiro CLI

The CLI reads the same mcp.json files, so both setups above work unchanged. Check the connection:

kiro-cli mcp list
kiro-cli mcp status --name tavily

In a session, /mcp shows server status and /mcp auth tavily re-runs the sign-in. Run /mcp logout tavily first to switch accounts.

Example usage

Use Tavily in one concrete, useful way that shows why it’s valuable in this workspace.

Use Tavily to research how other open-source projects structure their CDK stacks for this pattern, then draft a spec for ours and cite the sources.

Troubleshooting

• tavily shows Unauthenticated. Click Authenticate and finish sign-in. If you use an Authorization header, check that TAVILY_API_KEY is set and approved.
• tavily isn’t listed. Turn on MCP support in Kiro’s settings. If Kiro reports Invalid mcp.json format, add a top-level "mcpServers": {} to the file.
• A tool call fails. Open the Output tab in the Kiro panel and choose Kiro - MCP Logs.
• OAuth uses the wrong key. Tavily uses the key named mcp_auth_default, so rename a key in the Tavily dashboard. See API key selection.

Resources

• Kiro MCP documentation
• Kiro MCP configuration
• Kiro MCP security
• Kiro CLI commands
• Tavily MCP server