webfetch-mcp

A local Python MCP server that replaces your AI assistant's built-in WebFetch tool with a fully configurable HTTP client — supporting domain-scoped headers, retries, proxies, timeouts, output formats, bot-block detection, and prompt-injection sanitization, all without touching a single line of your assistant's config beyond registering the server.

Why

The built-in WebFetch tool available in most AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Continue, Zed, etc.) sends requests without custom headers, which means it gets blocked by bot-protection systems (Akamai, Cloudflare, paywalls, etc.) and can't authenticate against APIs that require domain-specific tokens.

This server is a drop-in replacement: it exposes the same fetch tool to any MCP-compatible AI assistant, but enriches every outbound request with the right headers, format, and retry strategy based on the target domain — automatically, without you having to configure headers every time.

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Features

Feature	Description
Domain-scoped headers	Different auth headers per domain; global * fallback
Per-call headers	The client (or you) can inject extra headers for a single request
YAML config	Single readable file controls headers, timeouts, retries, proxies, and output formats
Configurable timeout	Per-domain request timeout (default 30 s)
Retry with backoff	Auto-retry on HTTP 5xx or network errors, with exponential backoff
Per-domain proxy	Route traffic through a different proxy per domain
Output formats	raw, markdown, trafilatura (main content), json (pretty-print), lighthtml (minimal HTML)
JSON auto-detection	Responses with application/json Content-Type are pretty-printed automatically
Metadata extraction	Extracts title, author, date, source via trafilatura (opt-in per domain)
Bot-block detection	Detects Cloudflare / CAPTCHA blocks; optionally retries with a Chrome User-Agent
Prompt-injection sanitization	Scans fetched content for injection patterns; flag or strip mode
CSS selector extraction	Extract specific HTML elements before format conversion, configurable per domain or per call
Redirect tracing	Optionally record and display the full redirect chain in the summary
Response assertions	assert_status / assert_contains raise an error on mismatch — useful for CI/CD smoke tests
Header injection protection	Validates headers for control characters (\r, \n, NUL)
Response truncation	max_bytes cap to avoid filling the assistant's context window
Detailed response summary	Every response includes a structured summary (status, elapsed ms, injected headers, format, etc.)
JS rendering (Playwright)	Render JavaScript-heavy SPAs with headless Chromium before extracting content; configurable globally, per-domain, or per-call
lighthtml output format	Strips <style>, <script> (except JSON-LD), comments, and all tag attributes — returns minimal bare HTML structure

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Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Any MCP-compatible AI assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Continue, Zed, etc.)

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Quick start

git clone https://github.com/simonediroma/webfetch_mcp.git
cd webfetch_mcp

# Mac / Linux
python -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
# Windows
python -m venv .venv && .venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt

cp webfetch.yaml.example webfetch.yaml   # then edit with your tokens

Then register the server in your AI assistant config and restart. Done.

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Installation

git clone https://github.com/simonediroma/webfetch_mcp.git
cd webfetch_mcp

python -m venv .venv

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt

# Mac / Linux
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

requirements.txt installs:

mcp[cli]>=1.0.0
httpx>=0.27.0
python-dotenv>=1.0.0
markdownify>=0.12.0
trafilatura>=1.12.0
pyyaml>=6.0
beautifulsoup4>=4.12.0

Optional — JS rendering requires Playwright:

pip install playwright && playwright install chromium

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Configuration

There are two ways to configure the server. YAML is recommended — it supports all options. The legacy environment variable approach still works for simple cases.

Option A — YAML config file (recommended)

Copy the example and edit it:

cp webfetch.yaml.example webfetch.yaml

Point the server at it:

# In your shell profile, or in the MCP server env block (see Registration below)
export WEBFETCH_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/webfetch.yaml

Full YAML reference

# Global defaults — applied to every request unless overridden
global:
  headers:
    User-Agent: "MyBot/1.0"
  output_format: raw       # raw | markdown | trafilatura | json | lighthtml
  timeout: 30              # seconds
  retry:
    attempts: 1            # 1 = no retry
    backoff: 2.0           # exponential multiplier (1s → 2s → 4s …)
  proxy: null              # e.g. "http://proxy.corp:8080"
  extract_metadata: false  # true = prepend title/author/date to content
  sanitize_content: false  # false | "flag" | "strip"
  bot_block_detection: false  # false | "report" | "retry"
  css_selector: null       # CSS selector to extract element(s) before format conversion
  render_js: false           # true = render JS via headless Chromium (requires playwright)

# Per-domain overrides — only the fields you list are overridden
domains:
  example.com:
    headers:
      X-Akamai-Token: "your-token-here"
    output_format: trafilatura
    timeout: 60
    retry:
      attempts: 3
      backoff: 2.0

  news-site.com:
    output_format: markdown
    bot_block_detection: retry   # auto-retry with Chrome UA if blocked
    css_selector: "article.main-content"  # extract only the article body

  internal.corp:
    proxy: "http://proxy.corp:8080"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer my-internal-token"

  api.example.com:
    output_format: json
    timeout: 10
    retry:
      attempts: 5
      backoff: 1.5

Domain matching uses suffix rules: example.com matches both example.com and www.example.com. When multiple domains match, the most specific (longest) key wins. Global settings are always applied first, then overridden by increasingly specific domain rules.

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Option B — Environment variables (legacy)

Copy .env.example and fill in your values:

cp .env.example .env

WEBFETCH_HEADERS — domain-scoped request headers (single-line JSON):

WEBFETCH_HEADERS={"*": {"User-Agent": "MyBot/1.0"}, "example.com": {"X-Auth-Token": "your-token"}}

WEBFETCH_OUTPUT — domain-scoped output format (single-line JSON):

WEBFETCH_OUTPUT={"*": "raw", "example.com": "trafilatura", "news.com": "markdown"}

WEBFETCH_SELECTORS — domain-scoped CSS selector (single-line JSON):

WEBFETCH_SELECTORS={"example.com": "article.main-content", "news.com": "div#article-body"}

When WEBFETCH_CONFIG is set, the env vars above are ignored entirely.

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Registering with your AI assistant

Most AI assistants use a mcpServers block in a JSON settings file. The format is the same across assistants — only the file location differs.

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webfetch": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "WEBFETCH_CONFIG": "/absolute/path/to/webfetch.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or the project-level .cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webfetch": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "WEBFETCH_CONFIG": "/absolute/path/to/webfetch.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (Mac / Windows)

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on Mac, or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webfetch": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "WEBFETCH_CONFIG": "/absolute/path/to/webfetch.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windows: use .venv\Scripts\python.exe as the command value.

Other assistants (Continue, Zed, etc.)

Consult your assistant's MCP documentation for the exact config file location. The server block is the same — only the file path differs.

Windows: use .venv\Scripts\python.exe instead of .venv/bin/python

Restart your client after saving. The tool is registered as mcp__webfetch__fetch.

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Verifying the server is active

After registering and restarting your client, confirm the tool is loaded:

• Claude Code: run /mcp in the chat — webfetch should appear with status connected and fetch listed as an available tool.
• Cursor: open Settings → MCP and check that webfetch appears in the active server list.
• Other clients: look for an MCP tool panel or server list in settings.

If the server doesn't appear, check:

1. The Python path and server.py path in your config are absolute and correct.
2. The virtual environment has all dependencies installed (pip install -r requirements.txt).
3. There are no errors in your YAML/env config — run python server.py directly in a terminal to see startup errors on stderr.

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Forcing your client to use webfetch instead of the native tool

Most AI assistants expose both their built-in WebFetch and any registered MCP tools. To ensure mcp__webfetch__fetch is always preferred:

Claude Code

Add the following to your project's CLAUDE.md (or ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md to apply it globally to all projects):

Always use the `mcp__webfetch__fetch` tool for all HTTP requests and web browsing.
Do not use the built-in WebFetch tool.

Alternatively, add a systemPrompt entry to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "systemPrompt": "Always use mcp__webfetch__fetch for all web requests. Do not use the built-in WebFetch tool.",
  "mcpServers": { "...": "..." }
}

Other AI assistants

Consult your assistant's documentation for how to set a system prompt or custom instruction. The instruction to include is:

Use mcp__webfetch__fetch for all web requests instead of any built-in fetch or browser tool.

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End-to-end example

Once installed and registered, open your AI assistant and try:

"Fetch https://example.com and return the main content"

The assistant calls mcp__webfetch__fetch automatically, applying whatever headers and output format you configured for that domain. You'll see a response like:

--- Request Summary ---
URL:              https://example.com
Method:           GET
Injected headers: User-Agent
Status:           200 OK
Elapsed:          312ms
Output format:    trafilatura
---

[Extracted article content here]

If you configured domain-specific auth headers, the summary line Injected headers will list them — confirming they were sent. No extra prompting needed; the configuration is applied automatically on every request to that domain.

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Tool API

All parameters are optional except url.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
url	str	—	URL to fetch
method	str	"GET"	HTTP verb (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, …)
body	str | None	None	Request body for POST/PUT
extra_headers	dict | None	None	Per-call headers merged on top of domain headers
extract_text	bool	False	Strip HTML tags, return plain text (legacy; overrides output_format)
max_bytes	int	0	Truncate response to N characters (0 = unlimited)
follow_redirects	bool	True	Follow HTTP redirects
output_format	str | None	None	Per-call format override: "raw", "markdown", "trafilatura", "json", "lighthtml"
css_selector	str | None	None	CSS selector to extract HTML element(s) before format conversion (e.g. "article", "#main")
trace_redirects	bool	False	Display the full redirect chain in the summary
assert_status	int | None	None	Raise an error if the response status code does not match this value
assert_contains	str | None	None	Raise an error if this string is not found in the response body (case-sensitive)
render_js	bool | None	None	Render the page with headless Chromium (executes JS, waits for network idle). Requires playwright.

Response format

Every response starts with a structured summary block:

--- Request Summary ---
URL:              https://example.com/article
Method:           GET
Injected headers: User-Agent, X-Akamai-Token
Status:           200 OK
Elapsed:          843ms
Response size:    42381 bytes
Output format:    trafilatura
Text extracted:   no
JS rendering:     no
Truncated:        no
Timeout:          60.0s
Proxy:            none
Retry:            disabled
Bot block:        none
Metadata:         extracted
Sanitization:     flag (0 pattern(s) found)
CSS selector:     "article.main-content" (applied)
---

**Title:** Example Article
**Author:** Jane Doe
**Date:** 2024-01-15
**Source:** Example News

---

[Main article content as Markdown …]

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Use cases

Bypass Akamai bot protection on a specific domain

# webfetch.yaml
domains:
  mysite.com:
    headers:
      X-Akamai-Token: "your-token"
      Cookie: "session=abc123"
    output_format: trafilatura

The server now fetches mysite.com pages with your session and extracts clean article text automatically.

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Extract clean article content from news sites

domains:
  theguardian.com:
    output_format: trafilatura
    extract_metadata: true

  reuters.com:
    output_format: markdown

---

Consume JSON APIs reliably

domains:
  api.example.com:
    output_format: json
    timeout: 10
    retry:
      attempts: 5
      backoff: 1.5
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer my-api-key"

Responses are pretty-printed JSON. If the endpoint returns application/json but you forget to set output_format, the server detects it automatically.

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Route corporate intranet traffic through a proxy

domains:
  internal.corp:
    proxy: "http://proxy.corp:8080"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer my-internal-token"
    timeout: 60

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Detect and recover from bot blocks automatically

domains:
  news-site.com:
    bot_block_detection: retry   # retry once with a Chrome User-Agent

In report mode, the summary block flags the block without retrying. In retry mode, the server automatically issues a second request with a realistic Chrome User-Agent.

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Protect against prompt-injection in untrusted pages

global:
  sanitize_content: flag    # warn when suspicious patterns are found

domains:
  untrusted-forum.com:
    sanitize_content: strip  # silently remove injection attempts

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Extract a specific section of a page with CSS selector

Configure it globally in the YAML for a domain:

domains:
  docs.example.com:
    css_selector: "main article"   # only the article content, not nav/sidebar
    output_format: markdown

Or pass it per-call:

fetch url="https://docs.example.com/guide" css_selector="section#quickstart"

If the selector matches nothing, the full HTML is used as fallback.

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Smoke test an endpoint (CI/CD style)

Use assert_status and assert_contains to make the tool raise an error if the response doesn't match expectations — useful for health checks and regression tests:

fetch url="https://api.example.com/health" assert_status=200 assert_contains='"status":"ok"'

If the check fails, the client receives a clear ValueError instead of silently returning a wrong response.

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Trace the redirect chain of a URL

fetch url="https://short.ly/abc123" trace_redirects=true

The summary will show each hop:

Redirect chain:
  301  https://short.ly/abc123  →  https://example.com/landing
  200  https://example.com/landing  (final)

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Leverage Cloudflare content negotiation for LLM-ready Markdown

Cloudflare's Markdown for Agents feature converts HTML to Markdown at the edge when the request includes an Accept: text/markdown header. This cuts token usage by ~80% compared to raw HTML — and the conversion happens server-side, so it's faster and more accurate than any local HTML-to-Markdown pipeline.

With webfetch_mcp you can inject that header automatically for every request, or only for specific domains:

# Global — every request negotiates Markdown
global:
  headers:
    Accept: "text/markdown"

# Or per-domain — only for sites you know support it
domains:
  docs.example.com:
    headers:
      Accept: "text/markdown"
    output_format: raw          # Cloudflare already returns Markdown; skip local conversion

Cloudflare's response includes useful extra headers:

Header	Description
x-markdown-tokens	Estimated token count of the Markdown document — useful for context-window budgeting
Content-Signal	AI usage permissions (e.g. ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes)

Sites that don't support the feature simply ignore the header and return normal HTML, so it is safe to set globally. You can verify support with a quick curl:

curl -sI https://example.com -H "Accept: text/markdown" | grep -i content-type
# text/markdown → supported; text/html → not supported

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Security

• Secrets stay local — .env and webfetch.yaml are git-ignored; tokens never leave your machine.
• Domain isolation — headers are injected only for matching domains; unrelated requests receive only global headers.
• Header injection protection — the server validates all header names and values for control characters before sending.
• Prompt-injection sanitization — optionally scan and flag/strip patterns like "ignore all previous instructions" from fetched content.

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Running locally (development)

# Mac / Linux
.venv/bin/python server.py

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\python.exe server.py

The server communicates over stdio (standard MCP transport). No HTTP port is used.

Run the test suite:

pytest tests/ -v

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License

MIT