About AI-First Scraper
AI-First Scraper is a web scraping and search service for MCP agents that converts webpages, PDFs, and search results into Markdown. It is intended for users who need processable page content rather than raw HTML.
Key features
- 01Fetch webpages as Markdown
- 02Convert PDFs to Markdown
- 03Fetch up to 25 URLs in parallel
- 04Search the web and return Markdown pages
Use cases
- 01Retrieve webpage content for agent analysis
- 02Collect content from multiple URLs in batches
- 03Search for articles and obtain readable page text
MCP support
The MCP server provides `fetch_page`, `fetch_pages_batch`, and `search_web` tools for single-page fetching, batch fetching, and web search.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
uvx ai-first-scraper-mcpSCRAPER_URLURL of the ai-first-scraper instance to use. Default: https://ai-first-scraper.onrender.comSEARCH_URLURL of the ai-first-search instance to use. Default: https://ai-first-search.onrender.comAFS_TIMEOUTUpstream HTTP timeout in seconds. Default: 45Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEai-first-scraper-mcp
Plug Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Cline straight into an ad-free web scraper + search engine. Three tools, one line of config.
What it does
Adds three tools to any MCP-compatible agent:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
fetch_page | Fetch one URL → return clean Markdown (HTML or PDF). |
fetch_pages_batch | Fetch up to 25 URLs in parallel → return Markdown for each. |
search_web | Run a web search and return the top-k result pages already converted to Markdown. |
No more "the model called curl and then tried to parse 80kB of ad HTML." Your agent receives clean Markdown ready to reason about.
Backed by the ai-first-scraper and ai-first-search APIs.
Install
Fastest — uvx (no install, runs from PyPI on demand)
// claude_desktop_config.json / cline_mcp_settings.json / ~/.cursor/mcp.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"ai-first-scraper": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["ai-first-scraper-mcp"]
}
}
}
Restart your client (Claude Desktop / Cursor / Cline). The three tools above will appear automatically.
Alternative — pip install
pip install ai-first-scraper-mcp
{
"mcpServers": {
"ai-first-scraper": {
"command": "ai-first-scraper-mcp"
}
}
}
Where the config file lives
| Client | Config path |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop (macOS) | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json |
| Claude Desktop (Windows) | %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json |
| Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json |
| Cline (VS Code) | ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json |
Point at your own backend (optional)
By default this server calls the public ai-first-scraper.onrender.com and
ai-first-search.onrender.com instances. If you want to self-host, set env
vars in your MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ai-first-scraper": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["ai-first-scraper-mcp"],
"env": {
"SCRAPER_URL": "https://your-scraper.example.com",
"SEARCH_URL": "https://your-search.example.com",
"AFS_TIMEOUT": "60"
}
}
}
}
Verify it works
Open your MCP client and ask the agent:
"Use the search_web tool to find the top 3 recent articles about MCP and summarize them in 5 bullets each."
You should see the agent call search_web, get back Markdown for each result,
and produce the summary without ever touching raw HTML.
Companion projects
- ai-first-scraper — the per-URL Markdown cleaner this MCP server fans out to.
- ai-first-search — search → scrape → markdown pipeline.
- mcp-rec — record & replay any MCP server's traffic for tests and bug reports.
- llm-cache-proxy — local cache for OpenAI/Anthropic API calls.
- promptlocker — lockfile for prompts.
- context-diff — see what blew up your Claude Code context window.
- agentwatch — overlay for browser AI agents.
Develop locally
git clone https://github.com/yubinkim444/ai-first-scraper-mcp.git
cd ai-first-scraper-mcp
uv sync # or: pip install -e .
ai-first-scraper-mcp # speaks MCP over stdio
To test against a local client, point its MCP config at the same command.
About the author
Built by yubinkim444, who also makes Kay's Records — an app for iOS and Android.
If this project saved you time, giving the app a try is the nicest way to say thanks.
License
MIT © yubinkim444
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.