serpapi-mcp

What This Skill Does

The serpapi-mcp skill acts as a powerful bridge between OpenClaw and the SerpAPI search engine via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). By utilizing the mcporter CLI, this skill enables real-time, comprehensive web search capabilities directly within your AI agent's workflow. It returns full JSON payloads from search queries, allowing for sophisticated data extraction and analysis. Beyond simple search results, this skill offers an optional, automated logging feature to Airtable. When enabled, it parses the raw search results—including organic search rankings, People Also Ask (PAA) sections, video packs, and knowledge graph data—and persists them into a structured database for historical tracking, research audits, or performance monitoring.

Installation

To integrate serpapi-mcp, ensure you have the required CLI tool installed on your system by running npm install -g mcporter. You can install the skill itself using the command clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/merlintxu/serpapi-mcp. Configuration is flexible: you can set your API keys globally or scoped specifically to this skill using SERPAPI_API_KEY or SERPAPI_API_KEYS. For failover capabilities, simply provide a comma-separated list of keys; the script will intelligently rotate through them if it encounters quota limits or authentication errors. If you intend to use the Airtable logging feature, configure the AIRTABLE_TOKEN, AIRTABLE_BASE_ID, and AIRTABLE_TABLE environment variables within your Gateway settings.

Use Cases

This skill is indispensable for users needing to perform research-heavy tasks without leaving the OpenClaw environment. It is ideal for developers auditing SEO performance, researchers gathering cross-referenced data from multiple search engines, or content creators tracking industry trends via SERP features. Because it handles the complexity of querying and parsing, it significantly reduces the technical overhead required to synthesize live web information into structured, actionable intelligence.

Example Prompts

1. "/serp 'latest advancements in quantum computing' google 10 complete"
2. "Search the web for 'best practices for microservices architecture' and give me the top 5 results using the light engine."
3. "/serp site:docs.python.org 'asyncio tutorial'"

Tips & Limitations

To maximize effectiveness, distinguish between the compact mode (for quick, lightweight lookups) and complete mode (for deep analysis including PAA and images). Remember that the Airtable logger is schema-aware; it will only populate fields that exist in your target table. Ensure your Airtable columns match the expected data types to avoid writing failures. Since this tool performs external network calls, maintain awareness of your SerpAPI usage quotas, especially when utilizing high-volume queries or frequent logging.