Fetch MCP server

The Fetch MCP Server enables language models to retrieve and process web content. It converts HTML pages to markdown for easier consumption, and allows reading lengthy webpages in chunks by supporting start index specification.

Installation

There are multiple ways to install and run the Fetch MCP Server, depending on your preferences and system setup.

Optional Prerequisite

Installing Node.js is optional but recommended for more robust HTML simplification.

Installation with UV (Recommended)

When using uv, you don't need a specific installation. You can use uvx to run the server directly:

uvx mcp-server-fetch

Installation with PIP

Alternatively, install via pip:

pip install mcp-server-fetch

After installation, run it as:

python -m mcp_server_fetch

Configuration

Configure for Claude.app

Add the server configuration to your Claude settings based on your installation method:

Using uvx

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

Using docker

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

Using pip installation

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

Configure for VS Code

For manual VS Code installation, add the appropriate configuration to your User Settings (JSON) file or to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

Using uvx

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

Using Docker

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

Advanced Customization

Robots.txt Handling

By default, the server obeys robots.txt for model-initiated requests but not for user-initiated requests. To disable this behavior, add --ignore-robots-txt to the args list.

User-Agent Customization

The server uses different user-agents depending on whether the request came from the model or was user-initiated. You can customize this by adding --user-agent=YourUserAgent to the args list.

Proxy Configuration

Configure a proxy by adding the --proxy-url argument to your configuration.

Usage

The Fetch MCP Server provides the following tool:

Fetch Tool

The main tool retrieves and processes web content:

• Tool name: fetch
• 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

For debugging with the MCP inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx mcp-server-fetch

Or for a specific installation directory:

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.