mcp-webresearch

# 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)