Firecrawl MCP server

Firecrawl MCP Server provides a Model Context Protocol implementation for web scraping, content searching, site crawling, and data extraction. It lets you seamlessly integrate powerful web data capabilities into AI assistants through a standardized interface.

Installation

# Global installation
npm install -g @modelcontextprotocol/mcp-server-firecrawl

# Local project installation
npm install @modelcontextprotocol/mcp-server-firecrawl

Setting Up

1. Get API Key

Obtain your Firecrawl API key from the developer portal.

2. Configure API Key

Unix/Linux/macOS (bash/zsh):

export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your-api-key

Windows (Command Prompt):

set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your-api-key

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:FIRECRAWL_API_KEY = "your-api-key"

Using .env file (recommended for development):

# Install dotenv
npm install dotenv

# Create .env file
echo "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your-api-key" > .env

Then in your code:

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();

3. Run the Server

mcp-server-firecrawl

Integration with AI Assistants

Claude Desktop App

Add to your MCP settings:

{
  "firecrawl": {
    "command": "mcp-server-firecrawl",
    "env": {
      "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
    }
  }
}

Claude VSCode Extension

Add to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "firecrawl": {
      "command": "mcp-server-firecrawl",
      "env": {
        "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage Examples

Web Scraping

Basic Scraping

{
  name: "scrape_url",
  arguments: {
    url: "https://example.com",
    formats: ["markdown"],
    onlyMainContent: true
  }
}

Advanced Extraction

{
  name: "scrape_url",
  arguments: {
    url: "https://example.com/blog",
    jsonOptions: {
      prompt: "Extract article content",
      schema: {
        title: "string",
        content: "string"
      }
    },
    mobile: true,
    blockAds: true
  }
}

Site Crawling

Basic Crawling

{
  name: "crawl",
  arguments: {
    url: "https://example.com",
    maxDepth: 2,
    limit: 100
  }
}

Advanced Crawling

{
  name: "crawl",
  arguments: {
    url: "https://example.com",
    maxDepth: 3,
    includePaths: ["/blog", "/products"],
    excludePaths: ["/admin"],
    ignoreQueryParameters: true
  }
}

Site Mapping

{
  name: "map",
  arguments: {
    url: "https://example.com",
    includeSubdomains: true,
    limit: 1000
  }
}

Data Extraction

{
  name: "extract",
  arguments: {
    urls: ["https://example.com/product1", "https://example.com/product2"],
    prompt: "Extract product details",
    schema: {
      name: "string",
      price: "number",
      description: "string"
    }
  }
}

Key Features

Web Scraping

• Mobile device emulation
• Ad and popup blocking
• Content filtering
• Structured data extraction
• Multiple output formats

Content Search

• Multi-language support
• Location-based results
• Customizable result limits
• Structured output formats

Site Crawling

• Depth control
• Path filtering
• Rate limiting
• Progress tracking
• Sitemap integration

Site Mapping

• Subdomain support
• Search filtering
• Link analysis
• Visual hierarchy

Data Extraction

• Schema validation
• Batch processing
• Web search enrichment
• Custom extraction prompts

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.