sources
(optional): Array of sources — "web", "scholar", "social". Defaults to ["web"]
How to use it
sources is exposed by the Perplexity Web Api MCP MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), and the sources tool becomes available to the model automatically. See the full listing for setup details and every tool this server provides.
Install Perplexity Web Api MCP
claude mcp add perplexity --env PERPLEXITY_SESSION_TOKEN="your-session-token" --env PERPLEXITY_CSRF_TOKEN="your-csrf-token" -- npx -y perplexity-web-api-mcpOther tools in Perplexity Web Api MCP (7)
(optional, requires tokens): Array of file attachments for document analysis. See File Attachments.
(optional): Language code, e.g., "en-US". Defaults to "en-US"
Ask Perplexity AI a question and get a comprehensive answer with source citations. By default uses the best model (Pro auto mode) when authentication tokens are provided, or turbo in tokenless mode. Can be configured via PERPLEXITYASKMODEL.
Advanced reasoning and problem-solving. By default uses Perplexity's sonar-reasoning model, but can be configured via PERPLEXITYREASONMODEL.
Deep, comprehensive research using Perplexity's sonar-deep-research (pplxalpha) model.
Quick web search using the turbo model. Returns only links, titles, and snippets — no generated answer.
(required): The search query or question