Fetch MCP server

The Fetch MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server that gives language models the ability to retrieve and process web content. It converts HTML to markdown format, making it easier for LLMs to work with web page content, and supports reading pages in chunks using the start_index parameter.

Installation Options

Using uv (Recommended)

No specific installation is needed with uv. Simply use uvx to run the server directly:

uvx mcp-server-fetch

Using PIP

Install the server via pip:

pip install mcp-server-fetch

After installation, run it with:

python -m mcp_server_fetch

Optional Node.js Installation

For a more robust HTML simplifier, you can optionally install Node.js first, which will be used by the fetch server.

Configuration

For Claude.app

Add one of the following configurations to your Claude settings:

Using uvx

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

Using pip installation

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

Using docker

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

For VS Code

You can manually add the configuration to your VS Code 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"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Using the Fetch Tool

The server provides the following tool:

fetch

Retrieves content from a URL and converts it to markdown.

Parameters:

• url (string, required): The 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)

Advanced Configuration

Customizing 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.

Customizing User-Agent

The default user-agent varies based on whether the request is model or user-initiated. To set a custom user-agent, add --user-agent=YourUserAgent to the args list.

Using a Proxy

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

Debugging

You can debug the server using the MCP inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx mcp-server-fetch

For installations in specific directories:

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

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

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

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

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect