MCP Web Research Server

1# MCP Web Research Server
2 
3A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for web research. 
4 
5Bring real-time info into Claude and easily research any topic.
6 
7## Features
8 
9- Google search integration
10- Webpage content extraction
11- Research session tracking (list of visited pages, search queries, etc.)
12- Screenshot capture
13 
14## Prerequisites
15 
16- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) >= 18 (includes `npm` and `npx`)
17- [Claude Desktop app](https://claude.ai/download)
18 
19## Installation
20 
21First, ensure you've downloaded and installed the [Claude Desktop app](https://claude.ai/download) and you have npm installed.
22 
23Next, add this entry to your `claude_desktop_config.json` (on Mac, found at `~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`):
24 
25```json
26{
27  "mcpServers": {
28    "webresearch": {
29      "command": "npx",
30      "args": ["-y", "@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"]
31    }
32  }
33}
34```
35 
36This config allows Claude Desktop to automatically start the web research MCP server when needed.
37 
38## Usage
39 
40Simply start a chat with Claude and send a prompt that would benefit from web research. If you'd like a prebuilt prompt customized for deeper web research, you can use the `agentic-research` prompt that we provide through this package. Access that prompt in Claude Desktop by clicking the Paperclip icon in the chat input and then selecting `Choose an integration` → `webresearch` → `agentic-research`.
41 
42<img src="https://i.ibb.co/N6Y3C0q/Screenshot-2024-12-05-at-11-01-27-PM.png" alt="Example screenshot of web research" width="400"/>
43 
44### Tools
45 
461. `search_google`
47   - Performs Google searches and extracts results
48   - Arguments: `{ query: string }`
49 
502. `visit_page`
51   - Visits a webpage and extracts its content
52   - Arguments: `{ url: string, takeScreenshot?: boolean }`
53 
543. `take_screenshot`
55   - Takes a screenshot of the current page
56   - No arguments required
57 
58### Prompts
59 
60#### `agentic-research`
61A guided research prompt that helps Claude conduct thorough web research. The prompt instructs Claude to:
62- Start with broad searches to understand the topic landscape
63- Prioritize high-quality, authoritative sources
64- Iteratively refine the research direction based on findings
65- Keep you informed and let you guide the research interactively
66- Always cite sources with URLs
67 
68### Resources
69 
70We expose two things as MCP resources: (1) captured webpage screenshots, and (2) the research session.
71 
72#### Screenshots
73 
74When you take a screenshot, it's saved as an MCP resource. You can access captured screenshots in Claude Desktop via the Paperclip icon.
75 
76#### Research Session
77 
78The server maintains a research session that includes:
79- Search queries
80- Visited pages
81- Extracted content
82- Screenshots
83- Timestamps
84 
85### Suggestions
86 
87For the best results, if you choose not to use the `agentic-research` prompt when doing your research, it may be helpful to suggest high-quality sources for Claude to use when researching general topics. For example, you could prompt `news today from reuters or AP` instead of `news today`.
88 
89## Problems
90 
91This is very much pre-alpha code. And it is also AIGC, so expect bugs.
92 
93If you run into issues, it may be helpful to check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:
94 
95```bash
96tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log
97```
98 
99## Development
100 
101```bash
102# Install dependencies
103pnpm install
104 
105# Build the project
106pnpm build
107 
108# Watch for changes
109pnpm watch
110 
111# Run in development mode
112pnpm dev
113```
114 
115## Requirements
116 
117- Node.js >= 18
118- Playwright (automatically installed as a dependency)
119 
120## Verified Platforms
121 
122- [x] macOS
123- [ ] Linux
124 
125## License
126 
127MIT
128 
129## Author
130 
131[mzxrai](https://github.com/mzxrai)