Fetch MCP Server

A flexible HTTP fetching Model Context Protocol server.

Local serverstdio

What is the Fetch MCP server?

A flexible HTTP fetching Model Context Protocol server. That is what the fetch mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.

The short version

An MCP server for fetching web content in multiple formats — HTML, JSON, plain text, Markdown, readable article content, and YouTube transcripts.

  • Fetch web content as HTML, JSON, plain text, or Markdown
  • Extract article content with Mozilla Readability (strips ads, nav, boilerplate)
  • Extract YouTube video transcripts (via yt-dlp or direct extraction)
  • Proxy support for requests behind firewalls
  • Pagination with max_length and start_index
  • Custom request headers

Getting it running

Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at mcp-fetch on npm and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.

The tools it exposes

The server publishes 14 tools. What each one is for:

  • fetch_html — Fetch a website and return its raw HTML content
  • fetch_markdown — Fetch a website and return its content converted to Markdown
  • fetch_txt — Fetch a website and return plain text with HTML tags, scripts, and styles removed
  • fetch_json — Fetch a URL and return the JSON response
  • fetch_readable — Fetch a website and extract the main article content using Mozilla Readability, returned as Markdown
  • fetch_youtube_transcript — Fetch a YouTube video's captions/transcript. Uses yt-dlp if available, otherwise extracts directly from the page. Accepts an additional lang
  • url — string
  • headers — object
  • max_length — number
  • start_index — number
  • proxy — string
  • html — Fetch a URL and return raw HTML

What it needs from you

Configuration is passed through the environment: DEFAULT_LIMIT. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

Things to watch

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • With 14 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Fetch.
  • Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

How it compares

Plenty of search and retrieval servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Fetch's toolset — fetch_html, fetch_markdown, fetch_txt and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by zcaceres; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
fetch_htmlFetch a website and return its raw HTML content.
fetch_markdownFetch a website and return its content converted to Markdown.
fetch_txtFetch a website and return plain text with HTML tags, scripts, and styles removed.
fetch_jsonFetch a URL and return the JSON response.
fetch_readableFetch a website and extract the main article content using [Mozilla Readability](https://github.com/mozilla/readability), returned as Markdown. Strips navigation, ads, and boilerplate. Ideal for articles and blog posts.
fetch_youtube_transcriptFetch a YouTube video's captions/transcript. Uses yt-dlp if available, otherwise extracts directly from the page. Accepts an additional lang parameter (default: "en") to select the caption language.
urlstring
headersobject
max_lengthnumber
start_indexnumber
proxystring
htmlFetch a URL and return raw HTML
markdownFetch a URL and return Markdown
readableFetch a URL and return article content as Markdown (via Readability)

How to install the Fetch MCP server

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

Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.

Configuration

VariableDescriptionRequired
DEFAULT_LIMITConfiguration value read at startup.Optional

Example prompts to try

  • Use Fetch to fetch html.
  • Use Fetch to fetch markdown.
  • Use Fetch to fetch txt.

Frequently asked questions

It supports HTML, Markdown, plain text, JSON, readable article content (Markdown via Mozilla Readability), and YouTube transcripts.