Content
# MCP Web Research Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for web research.
Bring real-time info into Claude and easily research any topic.
## Features
- Google search integration
- Webpage content extraction
- Research session tracking (list of visited pages, search queries, etc.)
- Screenshot capture
## Prerequisites
- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) >= 18 (includes `npm` and `npx`)
- [Claude Desktop app](https://claude.ai/download)
## Installation
First, ensure you've downloaded and installed the [Claude Desktop app](https://claude.ai/download) and you have npm installed.
Next, add this entry to your `claude_desktop_config.json` (on Mac, found at `~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`):
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"webresearch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@mzxrai/mcp-webresearch@latest"]
}
}
}
```
This config allows Claude Desktop to automatically start the web research MCP server when needed.
## Usage
Simply 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`.
<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"/>
### Tools
1. `search_google`
- Performs Google searches and extracts results
- Arguments: `{ query: string }`
2. `visit_page`
- Visits a webpage and extracts its content
- Arguments: `{ url: string, takeScreenshot?: boolean }`
3. `take_screenshot`
- Takes a screenshot of the current page
- No arguments required
### Prompts
#### `agentic-research`
A guided research prompt that helps Claude conduct thorough web research. The prompt instructs Claude to:
- Start with broad searches to understand the topic landscape
- Prioritize high-quality, authoritative sources
- Iteratively refine the research direction based on findings
- Keep you informed and let you guide the research interactively
- Always cite sources with URLs
### Resources
We expose two things as MCP resources: (1) captured webpage screenshots, and (2) the research session.
#### Screenshots
When you take a screenshot, it's saved as an MCP resource. You can access captured screenshots in Claude Desktop via the Paperclip icon.
#### Research Session
The server maintains a research session that includes:
- Search queries
- Visited pages
- Extracted content
- Screenshots
- Timestamps
### Suggestions
For 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`.
## Problems
This is very much pre-alpha code. And it is also AIGC, so expect bugs.
If you run into issues, it may be helpful to check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:
```bash
tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log
```
## Development
```bash
# Install dependencies
pnpm install
# Build the project
pnpm build
# Watch for changes
pnpm watch
# Run in development mode
pnpm dev
```
## Requirements
- Node.js >= 18
- Playwright (automatically installed as a dependency)
## Verified Platforms
- [x] macOS
- [ ] Linux
## License
MIT
## Author
[mzxrai](https://github.com/mzxrai)
