MCP Fetch

Model Context Protocol server for fetching web content and processing images. This allows Claude Desktop (or any MCP client) to fetch web content and handle images appropriately.

Quick Start (For Users)

To use this tool with Claude Desktop, simply add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

This will automatically download and run the latest version of the tool when needed.

Required Setup

1. Enable Accessibility for Claude:

   • Open System Settings

   • Go to Privacy & Security > Accessibility

   • Click the "+" button

   • Add Claude from your Applications folder

   • Turn ON the toggle for Claude

This accessibility setting is required for automated clipboard operations (Cmd+V) to work properly.

Related MCP server: MCP Fetch

Features

• Web Content Extraction: Automatically extracts and formats web content as markdown

• Article Title Extraction: Extracts and displays the title of the article

• Image Processing: Optional processing of images from web pages with optimization (disabled by default, enable with enableFetchImages: true)

• File Saving: Images are automatically saved to ~/Downloads/mcp-fetch/YYYY-MM-DD/ directory when processed

• Dual Output: Both file saving and optional Base64 encoding for AI display

• Pagination Support: Supports pagination for both text and images

• JPEG Optimization: Automatically optimizes images as JPEG for better performance

• GIF Support: Extracts first frame from animated GIFs

For Developers

The following sections are for those who want to develop or modify the tool.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+

• macOS (for clipboard operations)

• Claude Desktop (install from https://claude.ai/desktop)

• tsx (install via npm install -g tsx)

Installation

Image Processing Specifications

When processing images from web content, the following optimizations are applied:

• Images are converted to JPEG format with quality control

• Maximum width limited to 1200px by default

• Maximum height limited to 1600px by default

• Chroma subsampling (4:2:0) for better compression

• MozJPEG optimization for smaller file sizes

Configuration

1. Make sure Claude Desktop is installed and running.

2. Install tsx globally if you haven't:

3. Modify your Claude Desktop config located at: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

You can easily find this through the Claude Desktop menu:

1. Open Claude Desktop

2. Click Claude on the Mac menu bar

3. Click "Settings"

4. Click "Developer"

Add the following to your MCP client's configuration:

Available Parameters

• url (required): The URL to fetch

• maxLength (default: 20000): Maximum length of content to return

• startIndex (default: 0): Starting position in content

• imageStartIndex (default: 0): Starting position for image collection

• raw (default: false): Return raw content instead of processed markdown

• imageMaxCount (default: 3): Maximum number of images to process per request

• imageMaxHeight (default: 4000): Maximum height of merged image

• imageMaxWidth (default: 1000): Maximum width of merged image

• imageQuality (default: 80): JPEG quality (1-100)

• enableFetchImages (default: false): Enable fetching and processing of images. FOR CLAUDE USERS ONLY: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO ENABLE THIS FEATURE!!! CLAUDE CAN FETCH AND PROCESS IMAGES!!! ENJOY THIS CAPABILITY!!!!!

• allowCrossOriginImages (default: true): When true, also fetch images hosted on different origins from the page

• saveImages (default: true): Save processed images to local files

• returnBase64 (default: false): Return base64 encoded images for AI display

• ignoreRobotsTxt (default: false): Ignore robots.txt restrictions

Security Hardening (v1.5.1)

• Only http:// and https:// URLs are allowed for page and image fetches

• Blocks private/loopback/link-local IPs and local hostnames (e.g., localhost, .local)

• Manual redirect handling with validation (max 3 hops)

• Request timeouts (default 12s, configurable via MCP_FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS)

• Response size limits: HTML up to 2MB, images up to 10MB (tunable via env)

Environment variables:

• MCP_FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS (default: 12000)

• MCP_FETCH_MAX_REDIRECTS (default: 3)

• MCP_FETCH_MAX_HTML_BYTES (default: 2000000)

• MCP_FETCH_MAX_IMAGE_BYTES (default: 10000000)

Examples

Basic Content Fetching (No Images)

Fetching with Images (File Saving Only)

Fetching with Images for AI Display

Paginating Through Images

Notes

• This tool is designed for macOS only due to its dependency on macOS-specific clipboard operations.

• Images are processed using Sharp for optimal performance and quality.

• When multiple images are found, they are merged vertically with consideration for size limits.

• Animated GIFs are automatically handled by extracting their first frame.

• File Saving: Images are automatically saved to ~/Downloads/mcp-fetch/YYYY-MM-DD/ with filename format hostname_HHMMSS_index.jpg

• Tool Name: The tool name has been changed from fetch to imageFetch to avoid conflicts with native fetch functions.

Changelog

v1.2.0

• BREAKING CHANGE: Tool name changed from fetch to imageFetch to avoid conflicts

• NEW: Automatic file saving - Images are now saved to ~/Downloads/mcp-fetch/YYYY-MM-DD/ by default

• NEW: Added saveImages parameter (default: true) to control file saving

• NEW: Added returnBase64 parameter (default: false) for AI image display

• BEHAVIOR CHANGE: Default behavior now saves files instead of only returning base64

• Improved AI assistant integration with clear instructions for base64 option

• Enhanced file organization with date-based directories and structured naming

v1.1.3

• Changed default behavior: Images are not fetched by default (enableFetchImages: false)

• Removed disableImages in favor of enableFetchImages parameter

v1.1.0

• Added article title extraction feature

• Improved response formatting to include article titles

• Fixed type issues with MCP response content

v1.0.0

• Initial release

• Web content extraction

• Image processing and optimization

• Pagination support