piplapis-search-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Pipl Search API — enabling AI assistants to search for people by email, phone, name, address, username, social URL, and more.

About Pipl

Pipl is the world's leading provider of online identity information. Pipl's identity database includes over 3 billion online identities cross-referenced from more than 25 billion individual records, gathered from public records, business listings, phone directories, social networks, web documents, and deep web archives.

Pipl Search helps organizations gather information on customers and contacts across multiple use cases:

• Identity Verification (IDV) — Fraud & risk management, IDV platforms, e-commerce, AML, fintech & KYC
• Investigation — OSINT platforms, law enforcement, government, news media, cyber security & insurance
• Consumer People Search — Background reporting
• Contact Enrichment — Lead enrichment, recruitment, real estate & sales intelligence

This MCP server wraps the Pipl Search API so that AI assistants (Cursor, Claude Desktop, and other MCP clients) can run identity searches directly within their workflows.

Documentation & Resources

Resource	URL
Pipl Search API Docs	docs.pipl.com
Getting Started Guide	docs.pipl.com/docs/welcome-to-the-pipl-search-api
API Reference	docs.pipl.com/reference
API Demo Page	search.pipl.com/api/demo
Manage API Keys	search.pipl.com/api/manage/keys
Pipl Website	pipl.com

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18.0.0
• A Pipl API key — sign in at search.pipl.com/api/manage/keys, or contact Pipl to get access

Installation

git clone https://github.com/piplcom/piplapis-search-mcp.git
cd piplapis-search-mcp
npm install

Configuration

Add to your MCP client settings:

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "piplapis-search": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/piplapis-search-mcp/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "PIPL_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "piplapis-search": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/piplapis-search-mcp/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "PIPL_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace /absolute/path/to/ with the actual path to this repository and YOUR_API_KEY with your Pipl API key.

Security: The API key is read from the PIPL_API_KEY environment variable and is never logged or exposed in tool outputs.

Tools

Tool	Description
search_by_email	Search by email address
search_by_phone	Search by phone number (international format, e.g. +15551234567)
search_by_name	Search by name, optionally combined with email, phone, or address
search_by_address	Search by physical address
search_by_username	Search by social username (e.g. superman@facebook)
search_by_url	Search by social profile URL (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook)
search_by_search_pointer	Follow up on a previous result using a search pointer
search_by_person	Advanced search with a structured person JSON object
search_raw	Raw API call with any combination of parameters (returns full JSON)

Response Types

The Pipl Search API returns one of three outcomes:

• Person Match — A single high-confidence person was found (person field). This is a definitive match.
• Possible Persons — Multiple candidates found (possible_persons array). Each candidate includes a @search_pointer you can use with search_by_search_pointer to resolve a specific person.
• No Match — No person found (@persons_count: 0).

Important: A match score of 0 does not mean "no match" — it means the confidence level is undetermined (not enough data to rank). All returned possible persons are real candidates.

For more details on response structure, see the API Reference — Response Types.

Example Usage

Once configured, you can ask your AI assistant natural-language questions like:

• "Search for john.smith@example.com"
• "Find the person with phone number +14155550123"
• "Look up the LinkedIn profile linkedin.com/in/johndoe"
• "Search for Jane Doe in San Francisco"

The assistant will select the appropriate tool and return the identity data from Pipl.

Free Test Query

Any query containing the email clark.kent@example.com is free and returns static example output — useful for testing your setup without consuming API credits.

search_by_email({ email: "clark.kent@example.com" })

License

MIT