Fetch
Enables fetching and converting web content into various formats including HTML, JSON, plain text, and Markdown. It supports custom request headers and provides specialized tools for on-demand web data retrieval and transformation.
What is Fetch?
Fetch is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to enables fetching and converting web content into various formats including html, json, plain text, and markdown. it supports custom request headers and provides specialized tools for on-demand web dat...
Enables fetching and converting web content into various formats including HTML, JSON, plain text, and Markdown. It supports custom request headers and provides specialized tools for on-demand web data retrieval and transformation.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Enables fetching and converting web content into various for
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
NPM
npx -y mcp-fetch-serverManual Installation
npx -y mcp-fetch-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Fetch
The Fetch MCP Server is a web content retrieval and transformation tool that lets AI assistants fetch any URL and receive the content in the format most useful for the task — raw HTML, clean Markdown, plain text, JSON, or a Readability-extracted article. It also provides a dedicated tool to pull YouTube video transcripts with optional language selection. Developers and researchers use it to let Claude browse documentation, extract article content, parse API responses, and summarize video content without leaving their workflow. It runs as a lightweight Node.js process with no external service dependencies.
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18+ with npx available
- Internet access from the machine running the MCP server
- An MCP client such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor
Test the server without installing
Run the server once with npx to confirm it works before committing it to your client configuration. The package is mcp-fetch-server on npm.
npx -y mcp-fetch-serverAdd to your MCP client configuration
Open your claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) and add the fetch server entry.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-fetch-server"]
}
}
}Optional: configure response size limits via environment variables
Two environment variables control how much content is returned. Set them in the env section of your MCP config if the defaults (5000 chars / 10 MB) do not suit your needs.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-fetch-server"],
"env": {
"DEFAULT_LIMIT": "10000",
"MAX_RESPONSE_BYTES": "5242880"
}
}
}
}Restart your MCP client
After saving the configuration file, fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop (or reload your editor) so the new server is registered.
Verify the tools are available
In Claude Desktop, click the tools/hammer icon to confirm fetch_html, fetch_markdown, fetch_txt, fetch_json, fetch_readable, and fetch_youtube_transcript are listed.
Fetch Examples
Client configuration
Minimal claude_desktop_config.json entry. Add DEFAULT_LIMIT and MAX_RESPONSE_BYTES to the env block if you need larger responses.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-fetch-server"]
}
}
}Prompts to try
Ask Claude to fetch and transform web content using any of the six available tools.
- "Fetch https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html as Markdown and summarize the key functions"
- "Get the plain text of https://example.com/article and extract the main argument"
- "Fetch the YouTube transcript for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
- "Retrieve the JSON response from https://api.github.com/repos/openai/openai-python"
- "Use fetch_readable on https://blog.example.com/post to get just the article content without ads"Troubleshooting Fetch
fetch_youtube_transcript returns an error for a valid video URL
Some YouTube videos have transcripts disabled by the uploader or are only available in certain regions. Try a different language with the `lang` parameter, or confirm the video has captions enabled in its YouTube settings.
Responses are truncated mid-content
The DEFAULT_LIMIT environment variable caps character count at 5000 by default. Set it to a higher value (e.g. "20000") in the env block of your MCP config, or use the start_index parameter to page through the content.
Requests fail for sites behind authentication or bot protection
Pass custom headers (such as cookies or Authorization tokens) via the headers parameter in your prompt. For sites with aggressive bot detection, the fetch may still fail as the server does not run a full browser.
Frequently Asked Questions about Fetch
What is Fetch?
Fetch is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables fetching and converting web content into various formats including html, json, plain text, and markdown. it supports custom request headers and provides specialized tools for on-demand web data retrieval and transformation. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Fetch?
Install via npm with the command: npx -y mcp-fetch-server. Then add the server configuration to your AI client's JSON config file (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json).
Which AI clients work with Fetch?
Fetch works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Fetch free to use?
Yes, Fetch is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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