Web Research MCP server

The MCP Web Research Server enables real-time web research capabilities for Claude, allowing you to search the web and extract content from websites directly within your conversations. This integration brings the power of Google search, content extraction, and session tracking to enhance Claude's capabilities.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18 (includes npm and npx)
• Claude Desktop app

Installation

1. Download and install the Claude Desktop app
2. Make sure you have npm installed (comes with Node.js)
3. Add the following entry to your claude_desktop_config.json:
   • On Mac: Located at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webresearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"]
    }
  }
}

This configuration enables Claude Desktop to automatically start the web research server when needed.

Using Web Research with Claude

To use web research capabilities, simply start a conversation with Claude and send a prompt that would benefit from real-time web information.

Using the Built-in Research Prompt

For more comprehensive research, you can use the provided agentic-research prompt:

1. Click the Paperclip icon in the chat input
2. Select Choose an integration → webresearch → agentic-research

The agentic-research prompt guides Claude to:

• Begin with broad searches to understand the topic
• Focus on high-quality, authoritative sources
• Refine research based on findings
• Keep you informed and allow interactive guidance
• Cite sources with URLs

Available Tools

The server provides three main tools:

Search Google

Performs Google searches and extracts results.

Arguments: { query: string }

Visit Page

Visits a webpage and extracts its content.

Arguments: { url: string, takeScreenshot?: boolean }

Take Screenshot

Captures a screenshot of the current page.

No arguments required

Resources

The MCP server maintains two types of resources:

Screenshots

When you capture a screenshot, it's saved as an MCP resource accessible via the Paperclip icon in Claude Desktop.

Research Session

The server tracks your research session, including:

• Search queries
• Visited pages
• Extracted content
• Screenshots
• Timestamps

Tips for Better Results

For optimal results when not using the agentic-research prompt, suggest high-quality sources in your queries. For example, use:

• "news today from Reuters or AP" instead of "news today"

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:

tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log

The server has been verified to work on:

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows

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 "webresearch" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"]}'

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": {
        "webresearch": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "webresearch": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect