Distill MCP server

Give your AI agent clean Markdown from any web page: the main content only, without navigation, ads or scripts. Distill honours robots.txt and AI opt-outs.

The server is open source (MIT). It calls the Distill API, which is paid, with a free plan.

• You use your own key, from RapidAPI or api.market.

• Every tool call is one request on your plan.

• The free Basic plan has 15 requests a month, with a hard limit, so it never runs up a bill.

1. Get a key

Related MCP server: read-website-fast

2. Add the server to your MCP client

The server runs locally over stdio with uv. Put your key in its environment.

JSON configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and most clients):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "distill": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "bytestay-distill-mcp", "distill-mcp"],
      "env": { "RAPIDAPI_KEY": "your-rapidapi-key" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add distill --env RAPIDAPI_KEY=your-rapidapi-key -- uvx --from bytestay-distill-mcp distill-mcp

Environment

Without a key the server still starts. The first tool call then explains where to get one.

Also listed on Glama:

3. Tools

When a site refuses (robots.txt, a noai directive, bot protection), status says so and a note asks the agent to respect it. Don't fetch the page another way: the terms forbid it.

status is ok on success. Other values (robots_txt, opted_out, blocked, not_html, http_error, unreachable) explain why there is no content.

Every tool returns the API's JSON response.

• When the marketplace reports it, quota_remaining is added: the requests left on your plan this month.

• Errors are explained in plain words, with what to do next:

  • key refused, with the link to subscribe;

  • quota reached, with the plans;

  • input the API couldn't process, with the API's reason.

Privacy

• Local files are read only when a tool is given their path. They are sent to the API for that one request.

• The API processes inputs in memory and doesn't store them. See the privacy policy.

• Your key is only sent to the marketplace you chose.

Limits

• html up to 5 MB.

• Only HTML pages; PDFs and other files are refused (use Unfold for documents).

• The server needs Python 3.10+ (uv installs it for you).

Development

uv venv && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
.venv/bin/pytest            # unit tests, no network; 100% coverage required
.venv/bin/ruff check src tests scripts

scripts/e2e_stdio.py distill runs the server over stdio, as a client would, and calls its tools against the real API. It needs RAPIDAPI_KEY or API_MARKET_KEY.

Licence

MIT. Distill itself is a paid API with a free plan, run by ByteStay.