MCP Webpage Timestamps

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for extracting webpage creation, modification, and publication timestamps. This tool is designed for content freshness evaluation, web scraping, and temporal analysis of web content.

Features

Comprehensive Timestamp Extraction: Extracts creation, modification, and publication timestamps from webpages
Multiple Data Sources: Supports HTML meta tags, HTTP headers, JSON-LD, microdata, OpenGraph, Twitter cards, and heuristic analysis
Confidence Scoring: Provides confidence levels (high/medium/low) for extracted timestamps
Batch Processing: Extract timestamps from multiple URLs simultaneously
Configurable: Customizable timeout, user agent, redirect handling, and heuristic options
Production Ready: Robust error handling, comprehensive logging, and TypeScript support

Installation

Quick Install

npm install -g mcp-webpage-timestamps

Usage with npx

npx mcp-webpage-timestamps

Prerequisites

Node.js 18.0.0 or higher
npm or yarn

Development Install

git clone https://github.com/Fabien-desablens/mcp-webpage-timestamps.git
cd mcp-webpage-timestamps
npm install
npm run build

Usage

As MCP Server

The server can be used with any MCP-compatible client. Here's how to configure it:

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webpage-timestamps": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-webpage-timestamps"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Cline Configuration

Add to your MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webpage-timestamps": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-webpage-timestamps"]
    }
  }
}

Direct Usage

# Start the server
npm start

# Or run in development mode
npm run dev

API Reference

Tools

`extract_timestamps`

Extract timestamps from a single webpage.

Parameters:

url (string, required): The URL of the webpage to extract timestamps from
config (object, optional): Configuration options

Configuration Options:

timeout (number): Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 10000)
userAgent (string): User agent string for requests
followRedirects (boolean): Whether to follow HTTP redirects (default: true)
maxRedirects (number): Maximum number of redirects to follow (default: 5)
enableHeuristics (boolean): Enable heuristic timestamp detection (default: true)

Example:

{
  "name": "extract_timestamps",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "config": {
      "timeout": 15000,
      "enableHeuristics": true
    }
  }
}

`batch_extract_timestamps`

Extract timestamps from multiple webpages in batch.

Parameters:

urls (array of strings, required): Array of URLs to extract timestamps from
config (object, optional): Same configuration options as extract_timestamps

Example:

{
  "name": "batch_extract_timestamps",
  "arguments": {
    "urls": [
      "https://example.com/article1",
      "https://example.com/article2",
      "https://example.com/article3"
    ],
    "config": {
      "timeout": 10000
    }
  }
}

Response Format

Both tools return a JSON object with the following structure:

{
  url: string;
  createdAt?: Date;
  modifiedAt?: Date;
  publishedAt?: Date;
  sources: TimestampSource[];
  confidence: 'high' | 'medium' | 'low';
  errors?: string[];
}

TimestampSource:

{
  type: 'html-meta' | 'http-header' | 'json-ld' | 'microdata' | 'opengraph' | 'twitter' | 'heuristic';
  field: string;
  value: string;
  confidence: 'high' | 'medium' | 'low';
}

Supported Timestamp Sources

HTTP Headers

Last-Modified
Date

JSON-LD Structured Data

datePublished
dateModified
dateCreated

Microdata

datePublished
dateModified

OpenGraph

og:article:published_time
og:article:modified_time
og:updated_time

Twitter Cards

twitter:data1 (when containing date information)

Heuristic Analysis

Time elements with datetime attributes
Common date patterns in text
Date-related CSS classes

Development

Scripts

# Development with hot reload
npm run dev

# Build the project
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

# Lint code
npm run lint

# Fix linting issues
npm run lint:fix

# Format code
npm run format

Testing

The project includes comprehensive tests:

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run tests with coverage
npm test -- --coverage

# Run specific test file
npm test -- extractor.test.ts

Code Quality

TypeScript: Full TypeScript support with strict type checking
ESLint: Code linting with recommended rules
Prettier: Code formatting
Jest: Unit and integration testing
95%+ Test Coverage: Comprehensive test suite

Examples

Basic Usage

import { TimestampExtractor } from './src/extractor.js';

const extractor = new TimestampExtractor();
const result = await extractor.extractTimestamps('https://example.com/article');

console.log('Published:', result.publishedAt);
console.log('Modified:', result.modifiedAt);
console.log('Confidence:', result.confidence);
console.log('Sources:', result.sources.length);

Custom Configuration

const extractor = new TimestampExtractor({
  timeout: 15000,
  userAgent: 'MyBot/1.0',
  enableHeuristics: false,
  maxRedirects: 3
});

const result = await extractor.extractTimestamps('https://example.com');

Batch Processing

const urls = [
  'https://example.com/article1',
  'https://example.com/article2',
  'https://example.com/article3'
];

const results = await Promise.all(
  urls.map(url => extractor.extractTimestamps(url))
);

Use Cases

Content Freshness Analysis: Evaluate how recent web content is
Web Scraping: Extract temporal metadata from scraped pages
SEO Analysis: Analyze publication and modification patterns
Research: Study temporal aspects of web content
Content Management: Track content lifecycle and updates

Error Handling

The extractor handles various error conditions gracefully:

Network Errors: Timeout, connection refused, DNS resolution failures
HTTP Errors: 404, 500, and other HTTP status codes
Parsing Errors: Invalid HTML, malformed JSON-LD, unparseable dates
Configuration Errors: Invalid URLs, timeout values, etc.

All errors are captured in the errors array of the response, allowing for robust error handling and debugging.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Setup

Fork the repository
Clone your fork: git clone https://github.com/Fabien-desablens/mcp-webpage-timestamps.git
Install dependencies: npm install
Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
Make your changes
Run tests: npm test
Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
Push to the branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
Submit a pull request

Code Style

Follow the existing code style
Use TypeScript for all new code
Add tests for new functionality
Update documentation as needed

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

Issues: GitHub Issues
Discussions: GitHub Discussions
Documentation: Wiki

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes.

Acknowledgments

Model Context Protocol for the excellent MCP framework
Cheerio for HTML parsing
Axios for HTTP requests
date-fns for date parsing and manipulation

This server cannot be installed

security - not tested

license - permissive license

quality - not tested

How are these scores calculated?

A Model Context Protocol server that extracts webpage creation, modification, and publication timestamps from various sources including HTML meta tags, HTTP headers, and structured data.

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