Use web search and local file tools in BoltAI v2

Use current v2 search tools, filesystem MCP servers, environment settings, and project-specific tool selection.

Written By Daniel Nguyen

Use web search and local file tools in BoltAI v2

BoltAI v2 uses provider tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers instead of the Shell and AppleScript plugins documented for BoltAI v1.

  1. Open BoltAI → Settings → Plugins.
  2. Under Native Provider Tools, choose your configured provider and enable its search tool when one is available.
  3. Or configure a service under the third-party tools section, such as Brave Search, Kagi Search, Perplexity Search, You.com Search, or Google Programmable Search.
  4. Open a chat, select the Tools button in the composer, and enable the search tool for that chat.

Google Programmable Search only searches the sites included in your Programmable Search Engine configuration. It is not an unrestricted whole-web search service. For broader web results, use a provider-native web search tool or another supported search service.

Let a model work with local files

BoltAI v2 does not expose a general Shell or AppleScript plugin. Use a local filesystem MCP server instead:

  1. Open BoltAI → Settings → MCP Servers.
  2. Add the filesystem MCP server to ~/.boltai/mcp.json, or import an existing configuration from Cursor or Claude Desktop.
  3. Limit the server to only the folders you want the model to access.
  4. Start or reload the server and confirm that its tools appear as available.
  5. Open a chat and use the Tools button to enable the filesystem tools you need.

MCP servers can read or modify data according to their own permissions. Review the configured folders and commands before enabling a server.

Configure environment variables for local MCP servers

There is no general PATH field in BoltAI v2. Local MCP servers start from the user shell environment.

Open Settings → MCP Servers → MCP Runtime ENV to configure which environment variables BoltAI may pass to MCP processes. The blacklist takes precedence over the whitelist.

If a command still cannot be found, use an absolute executable path in the MCP server configuration.

Enable tools for one project

Tools can be scoped to a project:

  1. Open the project in the BoltAI sidebar.
  2. Select Manage Plugins in the project header.
  3. Enable only the provider tools, BoltAI tools, or MCP tools that project should use.

This keeps project-specific filesystem or search tools out of unrelated chats.