About seekfetch
seekfetch is an unofficial client for the DeepSeek Search & Fetch API, providing web search, page-to-Markdown extraction, and research for AI agents and developers. It is available as an MCP server, CLI, and TypeScript library, with model-ready summaries and paginated long-page content.
Key features
- 01Ranked web search results
- 02Extract pages as Markdown
- 03Return page content and sources from one research call
- 04Read long documents in offset-based chunks
- 05Retry with backoff and honor rate limits
- 06CLI and TypeScript library
Use cases
- 01Gather web sources for an agent
- 02Extract page content into Markdown notes
- 03Search results for specific sites or languages
- 04Read long pages in chunks to manage context
MCP support
The stdio MCP server provides MCP clients with DeepSeek search, page-fetch, and research tools; a DeepSeek API key is required.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
npx -y seekfetchDEEPSEEK_API_KEYSecretYour DeepSeek API key (platform.deepseek.com)Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
3Saved tool list · updated 1w ago
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| lang | array | No | Language codes, e.g. ["en", "es"]. |
| after | string | No | Only pages dated after this: YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD. |
| count | integer | No | Results to return (default 10). |
| query | string | Yes | Search query, max 128 chars after filters are added. |
| sites | array | No | Only return results from these domains, e.g. ["github.com"]. |
| before | string | No | Only pages dated before this: YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD. |
| min_score | number | No | Drop results below this rerank_score. |
| localization | string | No | Optional IP address used to localize results. |
| exclude_sites | array | No | Exclude results from these domains. |
| summary_chars | integer | No | Max characters of each summary (default 800). |
| include_content | boolean | No | Also return each page's text (truncated). Costs no extra request but uses much more context. |
| original_question | string | No | The user's original question, in their words. Improves ranking; trimmed to 128 chars. |
Details
From the project READMEseekfetch
Web search and page-to-Markdown for AI agents, powered by the DeepSeek Search & Fetch API. One package, three ways to use it: an MCP server, a CLI, and a TypeScript library.
Unofficial community project. seekfetch is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DeepSeek. It is a client for DeepSeek's public API and needs your own API key.
Why
- Calls the dedicated endpoints (
/v1/tools/search,/v1/tools/fetch). No chat model sits in between, so a search costs one API request and no model tokens. - Search, fetch and research.
researchreturns the best pages with their content from a single search request, and only fetches the pages that came back empty. - Built for context windows. It returns DeepSeek's model-ready summaries by default, filters by relevance score, and pages through long documents with an offset.
- Production behavior. It retries 408/429/5xx with backoff and honors
Retry-After. It paces requests to the 5 QPS account limit and validates inputs locally so bad requests never cost a call. It parses responses tolerantly, so new or missing fields don't break it.
Quick start
- Get an API key at platform.deepseek.com.
- Add seekfetch to your MCP client (below), or run it from the shell:
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...
npx -y seekfetch search "model context protocol registry"
Requires Node.js 22.12 or later.
MCP setup
The server runs over stdio with npx -y seekfetch mcp.
Claude Code
claude mcp add seekfetch -e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-... -- npx -y seekfetch mcp
Claude Desktop — claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"seekfetch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "seekfetch", "mcp"],
"env": { "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY": "sk-..." }
}
}
}
Cursor — ~/.cursor/mcp.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"seekfetch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "seekfetch", "mcp"],
"env": { "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY": "sk-..." }
}
}
}
VS Code — .vscode/mcp.json
{
"inputs": [
{ "type": "promptString", "id": "deepseek-key", "description": "DeepSeek API key", "password": true }
],
"servers": {
"seekfetch": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "seekfetch", "mcp"],
"env": { "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY": "${input:deepseek-key}" }
}
}
}
Codex — ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.seekfetch]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "seekfetch", "mcp"]
env = { DEEPSEEK_API_KEY = "sk-..." }
On Windows, if your client can't find npx, use "command": "cmd" with "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "seekfetch", "mcp"].
Tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
deepseek_search | Ranked web results with a summary each (capped at 800 chars; summary_chars to change). Optional filters: sites, exclude_sites, lang, after, before, min_score; include_content adds page text. |
deepseek_fetch | A URL as Markdown. Long pages come in chunks of max_chars; continue with offset. |
deepseek_research | Question → top-scoring pages with content and numbered sources, in one call. |
All tools are read-only.
CLI
npm i -g seekfetch # or prefix each command with npx -y
seekfetch search "rust async runtimes" -n 5 --min-score 1.5
seekfetch search "mcp server" --site github.com --lang en --after 2026-01-01
seekfetch research "how is the DeepSeek search API priced?" -o notes.md
seekfetch fetch https://example.com --max-chars 20000
seekfetch search "query" --json | jq '.results[].url'
Run seekfetch <command> --help for every flag.
Agent skill
skills/seekfetch/SKILL.md teaches agents with a shell (Claude Code, Codex and others that read SKILL.md) when and how to use the CLI. Copy the folder into your agent's skills directory, for example ~/.claude/skills/seekfetch/.
Library
import { DeepSeekWebClient, buildQuery, research } from "seekfetch";
const client = new DeepSeekWebClient({ apiKey: process.env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY! });
const { results } = await client.search({
query: buildQuery("vector databases", { sites: ["github.com"], after: "2026" }),
count: 10,
});
const page = await client.fetch("https://example.com"); // { title, content (Markdown) }
const report = await research(client, { question: "What changed in MCP this year?", maxPages: 3 });
Configuration
| Variable | Default | |
|---|---|---|
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY | — | Required. |
DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL | https://api.deepseek.com | Override for proxies. |
DEEPSEEK_TIMEOUT_MS | 60000 | Per attempt. |
DEEPSEEK_MAX_RETRIES | 3 | For 408, 429, 5xx and network errors. |
API limits and pricing
As documented by DeepSeek on 2026-10-18; check the Search & Fetch guide for current terms.
- Queries are limited to 128 characters, filters included.
countis 1–50. - Observed in practice: summaries run 1,000–3,500 characters (the docs say 600–800), page content from search is capped around 20,000 characters, and
site:is a strong preference rather than a strict filter. - 5 QPS per account for search, and separately for fetch. Fetch also has a per-domain limit.
- Billing is per successful request, published at $0.75 per 1,000 for each API. Empty results and errors are not billed.
Development
npm install
npm test # unit + MCP tests against a fake API
npm run build
Issues and PRs are welcome.
License
MIT. "DeepSeek" is a trademark of its owner and is used here only to describe the API this client calls.
Comments
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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.