mcp-pixabay

The MCP Pixabay Server implements the Pixabay API as an MCP-compatible service, enabling AI models that support MCP to search and retrieve Pixabay images and videos. It exposes two core tools: search_images for querying image resources and search_videos for querying video resources. To start using it, run the MCP server (for example via the provided CLI) and then configure your MCP-aware model to call this service when it needs Pixabay results. The server expects a Pixabay API key, provided via the PIXABAY_API_KEY environment variable, and supports a range of search parameters such as keywords, image_type/orientation/category/colors, safesearch, and pagination for images; and video_type/category/safesearch for videos. When integrated, your model can request rich metadata including URLs, resolutions, and tags for matching resources.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (LTS) and npm installed on your system
• Access to a Pixabay API key

Installation options:

1. Global CLI installation (recommended for quick start)

npm install -g @sadais/mcp-pixabay-server

2. Local project installation (for embedding in a project)

mkdir my-mcp-project
cd my-mcp-project
npm init -y
npm install @sadais/mcp-pixabay-server --save

Configure API key (example):

export PIXABAY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Run the server (CLI):

mcp-pixabay-server

Alternative invocation using npx (no global install):

npx -y @sadais/mcp-pixabay-server

Notes and tips:

• The server requires a valid Pixabay API key supplied via PIXABAY_API_KEY. Without it, requests will fail.
• When integrating with MCP-enabled AI models, you can reference the Pixabay endpoints in your mcp.json as shown in the README example to route search requests to this service.
• The MCP protocol uses stdio for communication during debugging. If you run into issues, consider using MCP Inspector tooling for debugging and monitoring.
• Ensure your environment has network access to Pixabay and that the API key has not exceeded rate limits.
• If you update to a newer version, re-check the environment variable names or any breaking changes in the MCP server's API surface.