Fetch MCP server

The Fetch MCP Server provides web content fetching capabilities for Large Language Models. It allows models to retrieve and process content from web pages by converting HTML to markdown, making it easier to consume. The server can fetch content in chunks, allowing models to read webpages incrementally until they find needed information.

Installation Options

Using uv (Recommended)

When using uv, no specific installation is needed. You can use uvx to directly run the server:

uvx mcp-server-fetch

Using PIP

Install the server via pip:

pip install mcp-server-fetch

After installation, run it as a script:

python -m mcp_server_fetch

Optional: Node.js Installation

Installing Node.js is optional but recommended as it enables a more robust HTML simplifier.

Configuration

Configure for Claude.app

Add one of the following configurations to your Claude settings, depending on your installation method:

For uvx:

"mcpServers": {
  "fetch": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["mcp-server-fetch"]
  }
}

For docker:

"mcpServers": {
  "fetch": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "mcp/fetch"]
  }
}

For pip installation:

"mcpServers": {
  "fetch": {
    "command": "python",
    "args": ["-m", "mcp_server_fetch"]
  }
}

Customization Options

Robots.txt Behavior

By default, the server obeys a website's robots.txt file for model-initiated requests but not for user-initiated requests. To disable this behavior, add:

--ignore-robots-txt

to the args list in your configuration.

User-Agent Customization

The default user-agent varies based on whether the request came from the model or user. You can customize this by adding:

--user-agent=YourUserAgent

to the args list in your configuration.

Proxy Configuration

Configure the server to use a proxy by adding:

--proxy-url=YourProxyURL

to the args list.

Usage

The server provides the following tool:

Fetch Tool

Fetches a URL and extracts its contents as markdown.

Arguments:

• url (string, required): URL to fetch
• max_length (integer, optional): Maximum number of characters to return (default: 5000)
• start_index (integer, optional): Start content from this character index (default: 0)
• raw (boolean, optional): Get raw content without markdown conversion (default: false)

Debugging

Use the MCP inspector to debug the server:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx mcp-server-fetch

Or if you're working with a local installation:

cd path/to/servers/src/fetch
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run mcp-server-fetch

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.