The w3c-mcp server provides AI assistants with programmatic access to official W3C, WHATWG, and IETF web standards data through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Core Capabilities:
Specification Discovery: List, search, and retrieve detailed information about web specifications with filtering by organization, keyword, category, or query string. View specification status, URLs, repository, test info, and dependency relationships (both dependencies and dependents)
WebIDL Access: Get JavaScript API interface definitions (WebIDL) for specific specifications or list all specs with WebIDL available
CSS Properties: Query CSS property definitions from specific or all CSS specifications, search properties by name, and list all CSS specs with property definitions
HTML Elements: Retrieve HTML element definitions from specific or all HTML/SVG specifications, and search for specific elements by name
PWA Standards: Access Progressive Web App related specifications including core PWA specs (Service Worker, Web App Manifest, Push API, Background Sync, Notifications, etc.)
Technical Features:
Uses official W3C-maintained data packages (web-specs, @webref/idl, @webref/css, @webref/elements) for accurate, machine-readable standards data
Fast startup (~70ms) with optimized search and O(1) spec lookups
Works with Claude Desktop and Cursor via MCP protocol configuration
Includes debug and performance logging options for development
Provides tools to list and retrieve CSS property definitions, values, and specifications from official W3C web standards.
Enables discovery and detailed information retrieval for Progressive Web App (PWA) related specifications like Service Worker and Web App Manifest.
Provides access to SVG element definitions and specification metadata from official web standards.
W3C MCP Server
MCP Server for accessing W3C/WHATWG/IETF web specifications. Provides AI assistants with access to official web standards data including specifications, WebIDL definitions, CSS properties, and HTML elements.
Installation
npm install -g @shuji-bonji/w3c-mcpOr use directly with npx:
npx @shuji-bonji/w3c-mcpConfiguration
Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"w3c": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@shuji-bonji/w3c-mcp"]
}
}
}Cursor
Add to your Cursor MCP settings (.cursor/mcp.json in your project or global settings):
{
"mcpServers": {
"w3c": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@shuji-bonji/w3c-mcp"]
}
}
}Available Tools
Specification Discovery
list_w3c_specs
List W3C/WHATWG/IETF web specifications with optional filtering.
Parameters:
organization(optional): Filter by organization -"W3C","WHATWG","IETF", or"all"keyword(optional): Filter by keyword in title or shortnamecategory(optional): Filter by categorylimit(optional): Maximum number of results (default: 50)
get_w3c_spec
Get detailed information about a specific web specification.
Parameters:
shortname(required): Specification shortname (e.g.,"service-workers","appmanifest","fetch")
search_w3c_specs
Search web specifications by query string.
Parameters:
query(required): Search query (e.g.,"service worker","manifest","storage")limit(optional): Maximum number of results (default: 20)
WebIDL
get_webidl
Get WebIDL interface definitions for a specification. WebIDL defines the JavaScript APIs.
Parameters:
shortname(required): Specification shortname (e.g.,"service-workers","fetch","dom")
list_webidl_specs
List all specifications that have WebIDL definitions available.
CSS
get_css_properties
Get CSS property definitions from a specific spec or all specs.
Parameters:
spec(optional): Specification shortname (e.g.,"css-grid-1","css-flexbox-1")property(optional): Search for a specific CSS property by name
list_css_specs
List all CSS specifications that have property definitions available.
HTML Elements
get_html_elements
Get HTML element definitions from a specific spec or all specs.
Parameters:
spec(optional): Specification shortname (e.g.,"html","svg")element(optional): Search for a specific element by name (e.g.,"video","canvas")
list_element_specs
List all specifications that have HTML element definitions available.
PWA
get_pwa_specs
Get all Progressive Web App (PWA) related specifications.
Parameters:
coreOnly(optional): If true, return only the core PWA specs (Service Worker, Manifest, Push, Notifications)
get_spec_dependencies
Get dependency information for a specification.
Parameters:
shortname(required): Specification shortname
Usage Examples
Find Service Worker APIs
Use the get_webidl tool with shortname "service-workers" to see the ServiceWorker interface definitions.Explore PWA Technologies
Use get_pwa_specs to see all PWA-related specifications, then use get_w3c_spec for details on each one.Look up CSS Grid Properties
Use get_css_properties with spec "css-grid-1" to see all CSS Grid layout properties.Search for Storage APIs
Use search_w3c_specs with query "storage" to find all storage-related specifications.Data Sources
This MCP server uses the following W3C/webref data packages:
Package | Description |
Metadata for all web specifications | |
WebIDL interface definitions | |
CSS properties and values | |
HTML element definitions |
These packages are maintained by the W3C and provide machine-readable data extracted from official specifications.
GitHub Repositories:
Debug Mode
Enable debug logging with environment variables:
# Enable debug logging
W3C_MCP_DEBUG=true npx @shuji-bonji/w3c-mcp
# Enable performance logging only
W3C_MCP_PERF=true npx @shuji-bonji/w3c-mcpDebug output includes:
Tool call arguments
Execution timing
Data loading performance
Architecture
src/
├── index.ts # MCP server entry point
├── constants/
│ └── index.ts # Centralized configuration constants
├── data/
│ └── loader.ts # Data loading with caching
├── tools/ # Tool implementations
│ ├── list-specs.ts
│ ├── get-spec.ts
│ ├── search-specs.ts
│ ├── get-webidl.ts
│ ├── get-css.ts
│ ├── get-elements.ts
│ └── get-pwa-specs.ts
├── schemas/
│ └── index.ts # Zod validation schemas
├── errors/
│ └── index.ts # Custom error classes
├── utils/
│ ├── logger.ts # Debug logging utilities
│ ├── mapper.ts # Spec data mapping utilities
│ ├── search.ts # Generic search utilities
│ └── suggestions.ts # Suggestion generation utilities
└── types/
└── index.ts # TypeScript type definitions
tests/
├── setup.ts # Test setup
├── data/ # Data loader tests
├── tools/ # Tool tests
└── integration/ # MCP server integration testsPerformance
Startup: ~70ms parallel preloading of all data
Spec Lookup: O(1) using Map-based index
Search: Optimized with early termination on exact matches
Development
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/shuji-bonji/w3c-mcp.git
cd w3c-mcp
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Build
npm run build
# Run in development mode
npm run dev
# Run with debug logging
W3C_MCP_DEBUG=true npm start
# Run tests
npm test
# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage
# Lint code
npm run lint
# Format code
npm run format
# Lint + format (auto-fix)
npm run checkLicense
MIT