webmcp

webmcp is an MCP server for web search and content extraction. LLM agents can use it to:

• search the web with DuckDuckGo (default) or SearXNG (optional)

• fetch and clean page content from one or more URLs

• send cleaned content to a local LLM for structured extraction

Features

• search_web(query, limit=10) returns web results (title, URL, description)

• extract(urls, prompt=None, schema=None, use_browser=True) extracts data from pages

• browser-based fetching with Playwright for JavaScript-heavy sites

• lightweight HTTP fetching mode for faster/simple pages

• persistent tool-call logging to tool_calls.log.json

• configurable search provider: DDG by default, optional SearXNG

Critical Requirement

For the main researcher llama.cpp server, include --webui-mcp-proxy in launch parameters. Without this flag, this workflow will not function correctly.

Prompting And Tested Setup

For best results, use research_prompt.txt as your system prompt. This prompt is a core part of the intended workflow and quality; it is effectively half of how this repository is meant to function.

Tested setup:

• Main researcher LLM: Qwen3.5:27b-Q3_K_M.gguf via llama.cpp on an RTX 4090, context length 200,000, about 40 tok/s.

• Extract tool LLM: Qwen3.5:9b-Q4_K_M.gguf via llama.cpp on a GTX 1080 Ti, context length 32,768, about 40 tok/s.

• This workflow has been tested with the llama.cpp WebUI specifically, and has not been validated with other MCP clients yet.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

• A local OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint (for example, llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM, ollama, etc)

Configuration

The app reads LLM settings from environment variables and supports a local .env file.

1. Copy .env.example to .env

2. Set values:

LLM_URL=http://localhost:1234
LLM_MODEL=your-model-name
SEARCH_PROVIDER=ddg
# Optional when SEARCH_PROVIDER=searxng
SEARXNG_URL=http://localhost:8080

LLM_URL and LLM_MODEL are required at startup. SEARCH_PROVIDER defaults to ddg. Set it to searxng to replace DDG, and provide SEARXNG_URL.

Search Providers

search_web supports two providers:

• ddg (default): uses DuckDuckGo via ddgs

• searxng: uses your SearXNG instance

SearXNG notes:

• Set SEARCH_PROVIDER=searxng

• Set SEARXNG_URL to your instance base URL (for example, http://192.168.0.55:8888)

• webmcp calls <SEARXNG_URL>/search with format=json

Install

Install dependencies from the pinned requirements file:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m playwright install chromium

Run

python app.py

Server starts on:

• http://0.0.0.0:8642

MCP Usage Notes

• extract(..., use_browser=True) is best for dynamic pages that require JS rendering.

• extract(..., use_browser=False) is faster for static pages.

• If extraction quality is poor, the LLM should provide a more specific prompt and/or a stricter schema.

TODO

• Revisit JS page rendering and extraction strategy. Right now, roughly 25-30% of pages return little or no usable content even when fetched successfully.

• Improve anti-bot handling for page fetches. Many targets still return 400-range errors, so investigate stronger browser mimicry (Playwright/Chromium behavior, headers, fingerprinting, and potentially user-agent/profile rotation).

License

MIT. See LICENSE.