mcp-server-webcrawl

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mcp-server-webcrawl

Bridge the gap between your web crawl and AI language models using Model Context Protocol (MCP). With mcp-server-webcrawl, your AI client filters and analyzes web content under your direction or autonomously. The server includes a full-text search interface with boolean support, resource filtering by type, HTTP status, and more.

mcp-server-webcrawl provides the LLM a complete menu with which to search your web content, and works with a variety of web crawlers:

• WARC
• wget
• InterroBot
• Katana
• SiteOne

mcp-server-webcrawl is free and open source, and requires Claude Desktop and Python (>=3.10). It is installed on the command line, via pip install:

pip install mcp-server-webcrawl

Features

• Claude Desktop ready
• Multi-crawler compatible
• Filter by type, status, and more
• Boolean search support
• Support for Markdown and snippets
• Roll your own website knowledgebase

MCP Configuration

From the Claude Desktop menu, navigate to File > Settings > Developer. Click Edit Config to locate the configuration file, open in the editor of your choice and modify the example to reflect your datasrc path.

You can set up more mcp-server-webcrawl connections under mcpServers as needed.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webcrawl": {
      "command": [varies by OS/env, see below],
       "args": [varies by crawler, see below]
    }
  }
}

For step-by-step setup, refer to the Setup Guides.

Windows vs. macOS

Windows: command set to "mcp-server-webcrawl"

macOS: command set to absolute path, i.e. the value of $ which mcp-server-webcrawl

For example:

"command": "/Users/yourusername/.local/bin/mcp-server-webcrawl",

To find the absolute path of the mcp-server-webcrawl executable on your system:

1. Open Terminal
2. Run which mcp-server-webcrawl
3. Copy the full path returned and use it in your config file

wget (using --mirror)

The datasrc argument should be set to the parent directory of the mirrors.

"args": ["--crawler", "wget", "--datasrc", "/path/to/wget/archives/"]

WARC

The datasrc argument should be set to the parent directory of the WARC files.

"args": ["--crawler", "warc", "--datasrc", "/path/to/warc/archives/"]

InterroBot

The datasrc argument should be set to the direct path to the database.

"args": ["--crawler", "interrobot", "--datasrc", "/path/to/Documents/InterroBot/interrobot.v2.db"]

Katana

The datasrc argument should be set to the directory of root hosts. Katana separates pages and media by hosts, ./archives/example.com/example.com is expected, and appropriate. More complicated sites expand the crawl data into origin host directories.

"args": ["--crawler", "katana", "--datasrc", "/path/to/katana/archives/"]

SiteOne (using Generate offline website)

The datasrc argument should be set to the parent directory of the archives, archiving must be enabled.

"args": ["--crawler", "siteone", "--datasrc", "/path/to/SiteOne/archives/"]

Boolean Search Syntax

The query engine supports field-specific (field: value) searches and complex boolean expressions. Fulltext is supported as a combination of the url, content, and headers fields.

While the API interface is designed to be consumed by the LLM directly, it can be helpful to familiarize yourself with the search syntax. Searches generated by the LLM are inspectable, but generally collapsed in the UI. If you need to see the query, expand the MCP collapsable.

Example Queries

Field Search Definitions

Field search provides search precision, allowing you to specify which columns of the search index to filter. Rather than searching the entire content, you can restrict your query to specific attributes like URLs, headers, or content body. This approach improves efficiency when looking for specific attributes or patterns within crawl data.

Content Types

Crawls contain a multitude of resource types beyond HTML pages. The type: field search allows filtering by broad content type groups, particularly useful when filtering images without complex extension queries. For example, you might search for type: html NOT content: login to find pages without "login," or type: img to analyze image resources. The table below lists all supported content types in the search system.

Extras

The extras parameter provides additional processing options, transforming result data (markdown, snippets), or connecting the LLM to external data (thumbnails). These options can be combined as needed to achieve the desired result format.