[Feature] Parallel Search MCP online-grounding plugin

What Would You Like to See with the Gateway?

If you want a model behind your self-hosted gateway to answer questions using current web information, the existing Exa plugin gives you a way to do that. But you need to set up a search API key before you can try it.

I’d like to add an optional Parallel Search MCP plugin so you can try the same kind of workflow without that extra setup. It would follow the existing Exa plugin: search before the chat request reaches the model, then add a short set of excerpts and source links to help it answer. Parallel’s Search MCP is free without a key for light use.

You’d have to enable it explicitly, since it sends the latest user text to Parallel. It wouldn’t send the rest of the conversation or your credentials, and search results would be treated as reference material, not system instructions. If search times out, hits a limit, or fails, the original request would carry on unchanged with a short diagnostic. No automatic switch to a paid service.

Context for your Request

I work at Parallel. I’ve checked the MCP endpoint and tool schema, but haven’t built or tested this in Portkey yet. I’d keep the first version search-only, with a limit on added context and one timeout for the whole search exchange. The free endpoint doesn’t support domain filters.

I saw #1151 covers broader MCP support. Would a small plugin alongside plugins/exa/online.ts be useful, or would you prefer to handle this as part of that work? This wouldn’t change the hosted MCP Gateway.

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