Playwright Fetch MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that provides web content fetching capabilities using Playwright for browser automation. This server enables LLMs to retrieve and process JavaScript-rendered content from web pages, converting HTML to markdown for easier consumption.

Author

Created by Wyatt Roersma with assistance from Claude Code.

Related MCP server: MCP Playwright CDP

Key Features

• Browser Automation: Uses Playwright to render web pages with full JavaScript support

• Content Extraction: Automatically identifies and extracts main content areas from web pages

• Markdown Conversion: Converts HTML to clean, readable markdown

• Pagination Support: Handles large content through pagination

• Robots.txt Compliance: Respects robots.txt directives for autonomous fetching

• Proxy Support: Allows routing requests through a proxy server

• Docker Ready: Available as pre-built Docker images via Docker Hub and GitHub Container Registry

Available Tools

• playwright-fetch - Fetches a URL using Playwright browser automation and extracts its contents as markdown.

  • url (string, required): URL to fetch

  • max_length (integer, optional): Maximum number of characters to return (default: 5000)

  • start_index (integer, optional): Start content from this character index (default: 0)

  • raw (boolean, optional): Get raw content without markdown conversion (default: false)

  • wait_for_js (boolean, optional): Wait for JavaScript to execute (default: true)

Prompts

• playwright-fetch

  • Fetch a URL using Playwright and extract its contents as markdown

  • Arguments:

    • url (string, required): URL to fetch

Requirements

• Python 3.13.2 or newer

• uv package manager

• Playwright browsers installed

Installation

1. Install with uv (recommended)

uv pip install git+https://github.com/ThreatFlux/playwright-fetch.git
# Install Playwright browsers
uv pip exec playwright install

Alternatively, clone the repository and install:

git clone https://github.com/ThreatFlux/playwright-fetch.git
cd playwright-fetch
uv pip install -e .
# Install Playwright browsers
uv pip exec playwright install

2. Using Docker

You can use our pre-built Docker images from Docker Hub or GitHub Container Registry:

# From Docker Hub
docker pull threatflux/playwright-fetch:latest

# From GitHub Container Registry
docker pull ghcr.io/threatflux/playwright-fetch:latest

Or build it yourself:

docker build -t threatflux/playwright-fetch .

Configuration

Configure for Claude.app

Add to your Claude settings:

"mcpServers": {
  "playwright-fetch": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["mcp-server-playwright-fetch"]
  }
}

"mcpServers": {
  "playwright-fetch": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "threatflux/playwright-fetch"]
  }
}

Configure for VS Code

For manual installation, add the following JSON block to your User Settings (JSON) file in VS Code.

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "playwright-fetch": {
        "command": "uvx",
        "args": ["mcp-server-playwright-fetch"]
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "playwright-fetch": {
        "command": "docker",
        "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "threatflux/playwright-fetch"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Command Line Options

The server supports these command-line options:

• --user-agent: Custom User-Agent string

• --ignore-robots-txt: Ignore robots.txt restrictions

• --proxy-url: Proxy URL to use for requests

• --headless: Run browser in headless mode (default: True)

• --wait-until: When to consider navigation succeeded (choices: "load", "domcontentloaded", "networkidle", "commit", default: "networkidle")

Example Usage

# Run with default settings
uv run mcp-server-playwright-fetch

# Run with a custom user agent and proxy
uv run mcp-server-playwright-fetch --user-agent="MyCustomAgent/1.0" --proxy-url="http://myproxy:8080"

# Run with visible browser for debugging
uv run mcp-server-playwright-fetch --headless=false

Debugging

You can use the MCP inspector to debug the server:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx mcp-server-playwright-fetch

Differences from Standard Fetch Server

This implementation differs from the standard fetch MCP server in these ways:

1. Browser Automation: Uses Playwright to render JavaScript-heavy pages

2. Content Extraction: Attempts to extract main content from common page structures

3. Wait Options: Configurable page loading strategy (wait for load, DOM content, network idle)

4. Visible Browser Option: Can run with a visible browser for debugging

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.