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<section id="archivebox-mcp-setup-guide">
<h1>ArchiveBox MCP Setup Guide<a class="headerlink" href="#archivebox-mcp-setup-guide" title="Link to this heading"></a></h1>
<p>Instructions for setting up <a class="reference external" href="https://pragmar.com/mcp-server-webcrawl/">mcp-server-webcrawl</a> with <a class="reference external" href="https://archivebox.io/">ArchiveBox</a>.
This allows your LLM (e.g. Claude Desktop) to search content and metadata from websites you’ve archived using ArchiveBox.</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0KFqhSYf3f4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>Follow along with the video, or the step-action guide below.</p>
<section id="requirements">
<h2>Requirements<a class="headerlink" href="#requirements" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Before you begin, ensure you have:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://claude.ai/download">Claude Desktop</a> installed</p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://python.org">Python</a> 3.10 or later installed</p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://archivebox.io/">ArchiveBox</a> installed</p></li>
<li><p>Basic familiarity with command line interfaces</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="what-is-archivebox">
<h2>What is ArchiveBox?<a class="headerlink" href="#what-is-archivebox" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>ArchiveBox is a powerful open-source web archiving solution that offers:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Multiple output formats (HTML, PDF, screenshots, WARC, etc.)</p></li>
<li><p>Comprehensive metadata</p></li>
<li><p>CLI + webadmin for browsing and managing archives</p></li>
<li><p>Support for various input sources (URLs, browser bookmarks, RSS feeds)</p></li>
<li><p>Self-hosted solution for long-term web content preservation</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="installation-steps">
<h2>Installation Steps<a class="headerlink" href="#installation-steps" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<section id="install-mcp-server-webcrawl">
<h3>1. Install mcp-server-webcrawl<a class="headerlink" href="#install-mcp-server-webcrawl" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>Open your terminal or command line and install the package:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">pip</span> <span class="n">install</span> <span class="n">mcp</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">server</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">webcrawl</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Verify installation was successful:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">mcp</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">server</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">webcrawl</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">help</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="install-and-set-up-archivebox">
<h3>2. Install and Set Up ArchiveBox<a class="headerlink" href="#install-and-set-up-archivebox" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>macOS/Linux only, Windows may work under Docker but is untested.</p>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p>Install ArchiveBox (macOS/Linux):</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">pip</span> <span class="n">install</span> <span class="n">archivebox</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p>macOS only, install brew and wget:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">brew</span> <span class="n">install</span> <span class="n">wget</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p>Create ArchiveBox collections. Unlike other crawlers that focus on single websites, ArchiveBox uses a collection-based approach where each collection can contain multiple URLs. You can create separate content for different projects or group related URLs together:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># Create a directory structure for your collections</span>
<span class="n">mkdir</span> <span class="o">~/</span><span class="n">archivebox</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">data</span>
<span class="c1"># Create an "example" collection</span>
<span class="n">mkdir</span> <span class="o">~/</span><span class="n">archivebox</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">example</span>
<span class="n">cd</span> <span class="o">~/</span><span class="n">archivebox</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">example</span>
<span class="n">archivebox</span> <span class="n">init</span>
<span class="n">archivebox</span> <span class="n">add</span> <span class="n">https</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="o">//</span><span class="n">example</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">com</span>
<span class="c1"># Create a "pragmar" collection</span>
<span class="n">mkdir</span> <span class="o">~/</span><span class="n">archivebox</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">pragmar</span>
<span class="n">cd</span> <span class="o">~/</span><span class="n">archivebox</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">pragmar</span>
<span class="n">archivebox</span> <span class="n">init</span>
<span class="n">archivebox</span> <span class="n">add</span> <span class="n">https</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="o">//</span><span class="n">pragmar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">com</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p>Each <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">archivebox</span> <span class="pre">init</span></code> creates a complete ArchiveBox instance with its own database and archive directory structure. The typical structure includes:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>collection-name/
├── archive/ # Archived content organized by timestamp
├── logs/ # ArchiveBox operation logs
├── sources/ # Source URL lists and metadata
└── index.sqlite3 # Database containing all metadata
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
</section>
<section id="configure-claude-desktop">
<h3>3. Configure Claude Desktop<a class="headerlink" href="#configure-claude-desktop" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li><p>Open Claude Desktop</p></li>
<li><p>Go to <strong>File → Settings → Developer → Edit Config</strong></p></li>
<li><p>Add the following configuration (modify paths as needed):</p></li>
</ol>
<div class="highlight-json notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="p">{</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">"mcpServers"</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">"webcrawl"</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">"command"</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">"/path/to/mcp-server-webcrawl"</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">"args"</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"--crawler"</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">"archivebox"</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">"--datasrc"</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">"/path/to/archivebox-data/"</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>On Windows, use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"mcp-server-webcrawl"</span></code> as the command</p></li>
<li><p>On macOS/Linux, use the absolute path (output of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">which</span> <span class="pre">mcp-server-webcrawl</span></code>)</p></li>
<li><p>The datasrc path should point to the parent directory containing your ArchiveBox collections (e.g., <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">~/archivebox-data/</span></code>), not to individual collection directories</p></li>
<li><p>Each collection directory (example, pragmar, etc.) will appear as a separate “site” in MCP</p></li>
</ul>
</div>
<ol class="arabic simple" start="4">
<li><p>Save the file and <strong>completely exit</strong> Claude Desktop (not just close the window)</p></li>
<li><p>Restart Claude Desktop</p></li>
</ol>
</section>
<section id="verify-and-use">
<h3>4. Verify and Use<a class="headerlink" href="#verify-and-use" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p>In Claude Desktop, you should now see MCP tools available under Search and Tools</p></li>
<li><p>Ask Claude to list your archived sites:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Can you list the crawled sites available?
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p>Try searching content from your archives:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Can you find information about [topic] on [archived site]?
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p>Use the rich metadata for content discovery:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Can you find all the archived pages related to [keyword] from [archive]?
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
</section>
</section>
<section id="troubleshooting">
<h2>Troubleshooting<a class="headerlink" href="#troubleshooting" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>If Claude doesn’t show MCP tools after restart, verify your configuration file is correctly formatted</p></li>
<li><p>Ensure Python and mcp-server-webcrawl are properly installed</p></li>
<li><p>Check that your ArchiveBox archive directory path in the configuration is correct</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure ArchiveBox has successfully archived the websites and created the database</p></li>
<li><p>Verify that files exist in your archive/[timestamp] directories</p></li>
<li><p>Remember that the first time you use a function, Claude will ask for permission</p></li>
<li><p>For large archives, initial indexing may take some time during the first search</p></li>
</ul>
<p>ArchiveBox’s comprehensive archiving capabilities combined with mcp-server-webcrawl provide powerful tools for content preservation, research, and analysis across your archived web content.</p>
<p>For more details, including API documentation and other crawler options, visit the <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/pragmar/mcp-server-webcrawl">mcp-server-webcrawl documentation</a>.</p>
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