Readability (Fetch & Parse) MCP server

This MCP Server Readability Parser (FastMCP) extracts and transforms webpage content into clean, LLM-optimized Markdown by removing ads, navigation, footers, and other non-essential elements. It provides a lightweight, fast service that handles complex web pages with dynamic content.

Installation

To get started with the MCP Server Readability Parser:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jmh108/MCP-server-readability-python.git
   cd MCP-server-readability-python
   

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use: venv\Scripts\activate
   

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

Getting Started

Running the Server

Start the server with the following command:

fastmcp run server.py

Making a Request

You can test the server with a simple curl command:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/tools/extract_content \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/article"}'

Using the Service

Tool Reference

extract_content

This tool fetches and transforms webpage content into clean Markdown.

Arguments:

{
  "url": {
    "type": "string",
    "description": "The website URL to parse",
    "required": true
  }
}

Returns:

{
  "content": "Markdown content..."
}

MCP Server Configuration

To integrate with your existing MCP setup, add the following to your MCP settings file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "readability": {
      "command": "fastmcp",
      "args": ["run", "server.py"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Benefits Over Simple Fetch Requests

The MCP Server Readability Parser offers several advantages:

• Content extraction - Uses the Readability algorithm to identify and extract only relevant content
• Noise reduction - Eliminates ads, popups, and navigation menus
• Token optimization - Reduces token usage by removing unnecessary HTML/CSS
• Consistent formatting - Provides well-formatted Markdown for better LLM processing
• Complex page handling - Properly processes pages with dynamic content

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "readability" '{"command":"fastmcp","args":["run","server.py"],"env":[]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "readability": {
            "command": "fastmcp",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": []
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "readability": {
            "command": "fastmcp",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect