MCP Server Steel Scraper

A simple Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that wraps the steel-dev API for visiting websites with browser automation.

Quick Start

1. Install the package:

   npm install -g @jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper

1. Add to your MCP client configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "steel-scraper": {
         "command": "npx",
        "args": ["@jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper", "--mode=both"],
        "env": {
          "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
        }
      }
    }
  }

1. Start using the stateless `visit_with_browser` tool, or the stateful interactive tools.

Features

• Dual Modes: Run stateless scraping, stateful interaction, or both via --mode=stateless|stateful|both (default: both)
• Stateless Tool: visit_with_browser - Visit websites using steel-dev API
• Stateful Tools: Create sessions and interact with pages (navigate, click, type, scroll, snapshot)
• Flexible Return Types: HTML, markdown, readability, or cleaned HTML
• Local/Remote Support: Works with local or remote steel-dev instances
• Browser Automation: Screenshot capture, PDF generation, proxy support
• Smart Length Management: Single maxLength parameter with intelligent defaults and automatic content/metadata split
• Clean Output by Default: Minimal metadata output perfect for 7B models and summarization
• Verbose Mode: Optional full metadata when detailed information is needed
• TypeScript: Fully typed implementation

Installation

Option 1: NPM Package (Recommended)

Install the package globally to use it with npx:

npm install -g @jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper

Or use it directly with npx without installing:

npx @jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper

Option 2: Local Development

1. Clone this repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd mcp-server-steel-scraper

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

1. Build the project:

npm run build

Configuration

The server uses environment variables for configuration:

• STEEL_API_URL: The steel-dev API endpoint (default: http://localhost:3000)
• STEEL_TIMEOUT: Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000)
• STEEL_RETRIES: Number of retry attempts (default: 3)
• STEEL_LOCAL: Set to true when using a local Steel instance for stateful sessions
• STEEL_BASE_URL: Base URL for the Steel Sessions API (default: https://api.steel.dev, or http://localhost:3000 when STEEL_LOCAL=true)
• STEEL_API_KEY: Required for cloud mode stateful sessions
• STEEL_SESSION_TIMEOUT_MS: Session timeout in milliseconds (default: 900000)
• STEEL_GLOBAL_WAIT_SECONDS: Optional delay after each stateful action (default: 0)
• STEEL_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS: Auto-release idle sessions after this many milliseconds (default: 600000, set to 0 to disable)

Copy env.example to .env and modify as needed:

cp env.example .env

Usage

Running the Server

# Development mode
npm run dev

# Auto-rebuild on changes (recommended for npm link workflows)
npm run build:watch

# Production mode
npm start

# Only stateless scraping tools
npm start -- --mode=stateless

# Only stateful interactive tools
npm start -- --mode=stateful

# Both tool sets (default)
npm start -- --mode=both

MCP Client Configuration

Add this server to your MCP client configuration. Here are examples for popular LLM clients:

#### For Claude Desktop / Cline / Other MCP Clients (NPM Package)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper", "--mode=stateless"],
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

To expose the stateful interactive tools, add --mode=stateful or --mode=both to the args array.

#### For Continue.dev (NPM Package)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper", "--mode=stateless"],
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

#### For Cursor IDE (NPM Package)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper", "--mode=stateless"],
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

#### For Remote Steel-dev Instance (NPM Package)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper", "--mode=stateless"],
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "https://your-steel-dev-instance.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

#### Alternative: Using Global Installation

If you've installed the package globally with npm install -g @jharding_npm/mcp-server-steel-scraper, you can use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "mcp-server-steel-scraper",
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

#### For Local Development (using absolute path)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "steel-scraper": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp-server-steel-scraper/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "STEEL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool Usage

The server provides one tool: visit_with_browser

#### Parameters

• url (required): The URL to visit
• format (optional): Content formats to extract - ["html"] for raw HTML source (may be very large), ["markdown"] for clean formatted text converted from HTML (recommended for reading), ["readability"] for Mozilla Readability format, ["cleaned_html"] for cleaned HTML. You can request multiple formats (default: ["markdown"])
• screenshot (optional): Take a screenshot of the page (returns base64 encoded image) (default: false)
• pdf (optional): Generate a PDF of the page (returns base64 encoded PDF) (default: false)
• proxyUrl (optional): Proxy URL to use for the request (e.g., "http://proxy:port")
• delay (optional): Delay in seconds to wait after page load before scraping (default: 0)
• logUrl (optional): URL to send logs to for debugging purposes
• maxLength (optional): Maximum characters to return. Smart defaults: markdown=8000, readability=10000, html=15000, cleaned_html=12000. For markdown, automatically reserves space for metadata
• verboseMode (optional): Return full metadata instead of clean content-focused output (default: false). Use when you need detailed visit information

#### Example Usage

// Basic website visit
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com"
  }
}

// Advanced visit with multiple formats
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": ["markdown", "html"],
    "screenshot": true,
    "delay": 2
  }
}

// Simple visit with smart defaults (perfect for 7B models)
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": ["markdown"]
  }
}

// Custom length limit (automatically handles content vs metadata split)
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Article",
    "format": ["markdown"],
    "maxLength": 5000
  }
}

// Verbose mode when you need detailed visit information
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": ["markdown"],
    "maxLength": 8000,
    "verboseMode": true
  }
}

// With proxy and PDF generation
{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": ["readability"],
    "pdf": true,
    "proxyUrl": "http://proxy:8080"
  }
}

Stateful Interactive Tools

When running with --mode=stateful or --mode=both, the server exposes stateful tools that let the LLM interact with a live page. Stateful sessions are created via the Steel Sessions API and connected over CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol).

#### Available Tools

• session_create - Create a new Steel session and connect
• session_release - Release the current session
• navigate - Navigate to a URL
• search - Open Google search results for a query
• click - Click an element by label
• type - Type into an element by label
• scroll_down / scroll_up - Scroll the page
• go_back - Navigate back
• wait - Wait a few seconds for dynamic content
• snapshot - Annotated screenshot + labels list
• snapshot_unmarked - Screenshot without labels
• page_content - Return page HTML or text

#### Example Session

// Create a session
{
  "tool": "session_create",
  "arguments": { "timeoutMs": 900000 }
}

// Navigate
{
  "tool": "navigate",
  "arguments": { "url": "https://example.com" }
}

// Get an annotated snapshot (labels + image)
{
  "tool": "snapshot",
  "arguments": {}
}

// Click a labeled element
{
  "tool": "click",
  "arguments": { "label": 3 }
}

// Type into a labeled input
{
  "tool": "type",
  "arguments": { "label": 5, "text": "hello", "replaceText": true }
}

Smart Length Management

The server automatically handles content length optimization:

• Unified Length Control: Single maxLength parameter handles both content and metadata
• Automatic Content/Metadata Split: For markdown, reserves 10% for metadata, uses 90% for content
• Smart Defaults: Reasonable defaults when no length is specified (markdown=8000, text=10000, html=15000, json=5000)
• Better Truncation: Avoids double-truncation issues that could result in incomplete content
• Conversion Detection: Automatically detects when HTML-to-markdown conversion may have failed
• Warning System: Provides warnings when content appears truncated or incomplete

How It Works

// Simple usage - uses smart defaults
{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "format": ["markdown"]
  // Automatically uses 8000 characters, reserves 800 for metadata, 7200 for content
}

// Custom length - automatically splits appropriately
{
  "url": "https://example.com", 
  "format": ["markdown"],
  "maxLength": 5000
  // Uses 5000 total, reserves 500 for metadata, 4500 for content
}

This approach ensures you get complete, properly formatted content while maintaining simple, intuitive parameter management.

Handling Large Pages (Like Amazon)

For large, complex pages like Amazon.com, follow these best practices:

Recommended Approach for Complex Pages

{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://www.amazon.com",
    "format": ["readability"],  // Most reliable for complex pages
    "maxLength": 5000,          // Reasonable limit for large pages
    "delay": 3                  // Wait for main content to load
  }
}

Format Comparison for Large Pages

• HTML: Returns raw HTML source (can be 900,000+ characters for Amazon)
• Readability: Mozilla Readability format (most reliable, good for complex pages)
• Markdown: Converts HTML to clean, readable text (may fail on complex pages like Amazon)
• Cleaned HTML: Cleaned HTML with better structure

Note: Markdown conversion may fail on complex, JavaScript-heavy pages like Amazon. Use ["readability"] for the most reliable results.

Troubleshooting

If you get HTML instead of Markdown:

• The steel-dev API may not support markdown conversion for that page type
• Try using format: ["readability"] instead for better text extraction
• Complex pages with heavy JavaScript may not convert properly

If you get truncated content:

• The page may be too large for the specified maxLength
• Try increasing maxLength or using a longer delay
• Consider using format: ["readability"] for more reliable truncation

For Dynamic Content

Use delay parameter to wait for content to load:

{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://www.amazon.com",
    "format": ["markdown"],
    "delay": 5,                 // Wait 5 seconds for content to load
    "maxLength": 10000          // Longer content for complex pages
  }
}

Clean Output by Default

The server is designed with 7B models in mind, providing clean, content-focused output by default:

• Content Summarization: Perfect for weaker models that need to summarize web content
• Content Analysis: Ideal for processing large amounts of text
• Context Optimization: Maximizes the content-to-metadata ratio automatically

How It Works

Default Mode (clean output):

# Article Title
This is the actual content...

Verbose Mode (verboseMode: true):

SUCCESS: Successfully scraped https://example.com
Method: full-browser-automation (stealth browser, anti-detection)
Format: markdown
Status Code: 200
Processing Time: 1250ms
Content Length: 5000 characters
Content Type: text/html
Timestamp: 2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z
Title: Article Title
Description: Article description
Language: en
Screenshot: Available (base64)
Links Found: 15

SCRAPED CONTENT:
# Article Title
This is the actual content...

Benefits of Clean Output

• Maximum Content Space: Removes ~200-300 characters of metadata overhead
• Cleaner Output: Direct content without verbose headers
• Better for 7B Models: Focuses the model's attention on the actual content
• Preserves Warnings: Still shows important warnings if conversion issues occur

Recommended Usage

For summarization tasks, use the default clean output:

{
  "tool": "visit_with_browser",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://article-to-summarize.com",
    "format": ["markdown"],
    "maxLength": 10000  // Automatically optimizes content vs metadata split
  }
}

Steel-dev API Requirements

This MCP server expects a steel-dev API instance running with the following endpoints:

• POST /scrape - Main scraping endpoint
• GET /health - Health check endpoint (optional)
• GET /info - API information endpoint (optional)
• POST /v1/sessions - Create a stateful browser session
• POST /v1/sessions/{id}/release - Release a stateful session

Expected Request Format

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "format": ["html", "markdown"],
  "screenshot": true,
  "pdf": false,
  "proxyUrl": "http://proxy:8080",
  "delay": 2,
  "logUrl": "https://logs.example.com"
}

Expected Response Format

{
  "content": {
    "html": "<html>...</html>",
    "markdown": "# Title\nContent..."
  },
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Page Title",
    "description": "Page description",
    "statusCode": 200,
    "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
  },
  "links": [
    {"url": "https://example.com/link1", "text": "Link Text"}
  ],
  "screenshot": "base64...",
  "pdf": "base64..."
}

Development

Project Structure

src/
├── index.ts          # Main MCP server implementation
├── steel-api.ts      # Steel-dev API wrapper
└── config.ts         # Configuration management

Scripts

• npm run build - Build TypeScript to JavaScript
• npm run start - Run the built server
• npm run dev - Run in development mode with tsx

Adding New Features

1. Modify the tool schema in src/index.ts
2. Update the SteelAPI class in src/steel-api.ts if needed
3. Rebuild and test

Error Handling

The server includes comprehensive error handling:

• Network errors are caught and returned as error responses
• Invalid parameters are validated
• Steel-dev API errors are properly forwarded
• Timeout handling for long-running requests

License

MIT