MCP server · Reference servers
Fetch MCP server
Lets an assistant fetch a web page and read it as Markdown, in chunks, with private addresses blocked by default.
- Maintainer
- Model Context Protocol project (official)
- Licence
- MIT
- Runs
- Locally (uvx)
- Sign-in
- None
- Last activity
- 2026-10-11
Overview
What it does
Fetch is a Python reference server from the MCP project. It has one tool, fetch, which downloads a URL and turns the HTML into Markdown, or returns the raw content if asked. Long pages are cut to a set length, and the model can ask for the next chunk with a start index, so it can read a page in parts until it finds what it needs. The same action is also offered as a prompt.
It suits quick lookups of a known URL when you don’t need a search engine or a full browser. By default it obeys robots.txt for model-initiated requests and refuses private, loopback, link-local and cloud metadata addresses, checking each redirect too. Flags let you ignore robots.txt, allow private addresses, set a custom user agent or use a proxy. Installing Node.js is optional and switches it to a different HTML simplifier.
Tools
What the assistant can do
- Fetch a URL and convert the page to Markdown
- Return raw content without conversion
- Read long pages in chunks with max_length and start_index
- Offer the same fetch as a user prompt
Install
Install Fetch MCP server in your app
You need:
- uv (for uvx) or pip, with Python 3.10 or newer
- Node.js (optional, for the alternative HTML simplifier)
Run in your project. --scope local keeps the servers private to you in this project; use user for every project.
claude mcp add --scope local fetch -- uvx mcp-server-fetch
claude mcp add --scope local fetch -- uvx mcp-server-fetch
Project root. Commit it to share the servers with your team; each person sets the variables in their own shell.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-server-fetch"
]
}
}
}
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config). Restart Claude after saving.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-server-fetch"
]
}
}
}
In your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-server-fetch"
]
}
}
}
In your workspace. VS Code asks for each secret the first time a server starts and stores it securely.
{
"servers": {
"fetch": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-server-fetch"
]
}
}
}
macOS/Linux: ~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\devin\mcp_config.json. Read by the default Devin Local agent and by the legacy Cascade agent.
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-server-fetch"
]
}
}
}
Want it alongside other servers? Open Fetch MCP Server in the MCP config generator and add the rest; it writes one file per app. The snippets follow the setup in the server’s README, checked on 2026-10-14.
Before you install
- It reaches any public host on the internet, so page content it returns can contain prompt-injection text.
- Private, loopback and metadata addresses are refused by default; --allow-private-ips turns that guard off and the README notes it does not stop DNS rebinding.
- --ignore-robots-txt makes it ignore site crawling rules; leave it off unless you have a reason.
- A local MCP server runs with your user account’s permissions. Install it only from the source linked above. See how to choose a safe server.
Why it’s listed
Why we list it
The simplest way to let an assistant read a web page, with sensible network guards, kept by the MCP project.
Related
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- Knowledge Graph Memory ServerGives an assistant a persistent local knowledge graph of entities, relations and facts that it can add to and search.
- Sequential Thinking MCP ServerGives an assistant a tool for step-by-step reasoning that it can revise or branch as it works through a problem.
- Time MCP ServerLets an assistant get the current time in any IANA time zone and convert a time between zones.
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