Web Scraper MCP server

This MCP server integrates Claude for Desktop with a local eGet web scraper, enabling Claude to access and process web content through your machine's local API. By setting up this connection, you can ask Claude to scrape and analyze websites without needing to copy and paste content manually.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Claude for Desktop
• Python 3.7+
• eGet web scraper

Set up eGet Web Scraper

First, install and run the eGet web scraper:

# Clone the eGet repository
git clone https://github.com/vishwajeetdabholkar/eGet-Crawler-for-ai
cd eGet-Crawler-for-ai

# Set up and run eGet according to its instructions
# (typically using Docker or local Python installation)

Verify the API is running at the default address: http://localhost:8000/api/v1/scrape

Set up the MCP Server

Create a new project directory and set up the environment:

# Create project directory
mkdir claude-scraper-mcp
cd claude-scraper-mcp

# Set up UV and virtual environment
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
uv add "mcp[cli]" httpx

# Create the MCP server script
touch scrape_mcp_server.py

Create a file named scrape_mcp_server.py with appropriate code for the MCP server.

Configure Claude for Desktop

1. Create the configuration directory:

# On macOS
mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/

2. Create or edit the configuration file:

Add the following to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "scrape-service": {
            "command": "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
            "args": [
                "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/scrape_mcp_server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Important: Replace the paths with the actual absolute paths to your Python virtual environment and script.

3. Restart Claude for Desktop to apply the changes.

Usage

Once everything is set up correctly, you can ask Claude to scrape websites with natural language commands:

• "Scrape the content from https://example.com and summarize it"
• "Get information about the website at https://news.ycombinator.com"

Claude will use the MCP server to fetch the content through your local eGet scraper and then process it.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems with the web scraping functionality:

• Ensure eGet scraper is running properly
• Verify the API endpoint in your script matches the eGet configuration
• Confirm Claude for Desktop is using the correct Python interpreter
• Restart Claude for Desktop after making configuration changes

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 "scrape-service" '{"command":"/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/.venv/bin/python","args":["/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/scrape_mcp_server.py"]}'

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": {
        "scrape-service": {
            "command": "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
            "args": [
                "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/scrape_mcp_server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "scrape-service": {
            "command": "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
            "args": [
                "/absolute/path/to/claude-scraper-mcp/scrape_mcp_server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect