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Crawl4AI MCP Server

Provides web crawling, content extraction, and screenshot capabilities via MCP for structured page analysis and schema-based data extraction.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nexus-digital-automations-crawl4ai-mcp": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": [
        "crawl4ai_mcp_server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Crawl4AI MCP Server provides an MCP-compatible bridge to powerful web crawling, content extraction, and screenshot capabilities. You run it locally and connect your AI client to analyze pages, extract data with schemas, and capture visuals for deeper understanding.

How to use

You connect to Crawl4AI MCP Server from an MCP client to perform web analysis tasks. Start the server, then use the available tools to inspect page structure, extract data with a schema, or take screenshots for visual verification. All interactions are designed to be non-blocking and report progress so your client can track long-running crawls.

How to install

Prerequisites: you must have Python 3.10 or higher and the pip package manager installed on your system.

1. Create a working directory and navigate into it.

2. Create a Python virtual environment and activate it.

3. Install required dependencies.

4. Install Playwright browsers if you plan to use screenshots.

Additional sections

Configuration and usage details are designed to be practical and stable. The server runs a local Python process that interacts with your MCP client through a standard stdio-based channel. You can test and iterate quickly using the MCP Inspector during development.

Security and reliability considerations are addressed by routing logs to stderr to prevent protocol corruption and by providing structured error information for easy handling by your client.

Examples of common workflows include starting the server, verifying health, analyzing a page’s structure, extracting specific fields with a schema, and capturing a screenshot for visual confirmation.

Notes on running and testing

To test interactively, you can launch the MCP Inspector interface, which provides a web UI for testing tools and schemas against real pages.

Available tools

server_status

Checks server health, version, and capabilities so you can verify readiness and supported features.

get_page_structure

Extracts the main content structure of a webpage in HTML or Markdown to feed downstream analysis.

crawl_with_schema

Performs targeted data extraction using a JSON schema that maps field names to CSS selectors on the target page.

take_screenshot

Captures a visual representation of the webpage and returns a base64-encoded image for review.