web-retrieval-mcp
Gives Claude neural web search via Exa and a tiered fetch chain that tries Exa's content API first, then optionally a local camoufox browser for JavaScript-heavy pages, and finally Firecrawl as a last resort. Each search result preserves its own title, URL, and highlights instead of merging everything into one summary. The fetch tool adds a provenance header so you know which tier served the content. Ships with an SSRF guard that blocks private IP ranges and a PreToolUse hook to disable Claude's built-in WebSearch and WebFetch tools. Both Exa and Firecrawl offer 1,000 free requests per month with no credit card, and because Exa handles most fetches, you rarely hit Firecrawl's quota. Cross-platform key resolution works through environment variables, a dotenv file, or native keystores on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
- tools
- 6
- auth
- Secret needed
- transport
- STDIO
- env vars
- 2
- last updated
- Jun 2, 2026
Tools
6 toolsPublic tool metadata for what this MCP can expose to an agent.
web_searchGeneral web search through Exa or Tavily, with source-separated results and Firecrawl fallback
General web search through Exa or Tavily, with source-separated results and Firecrawl fallback
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
web_fetchReadable page bodies, concise summaries, or grounded answers through a tiered fetch cascade
Readable page bodies, concise summaries, or grounded answers through a tiered fetch cascade
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
research_papersRanked AI/ML paper discovery through Firecrawl's Research Index
Ranked AI/ML paper discovery through Firecrawl's Research Index
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
research_paperPaper metadata and optional query-relevant full-text passages for claim verification
Paper metadata and optional query-relevant full-text passages for claim verification
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
research_similarRelated papers, citers, or references guided by a natural-language intent
Related papers, citers, or references guided by a natural-language intent
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
research_githubDeveloper documentation, repository READMEs, issues, and merged pull requests
Developer documentation, repository READMEs, issues, and merged pull requests
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
Sponsors
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EXA_API_KEY*secretExa API key (free tier at https://exa.ai)
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY*secretFirecrawl API key (free tier at https://firecrawl.dev)
Readme
web-retrieval-mcp — reliable MCP web search and web fetch for AI agents
An open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for source-grounded web research. Connect Codex CLI and the Codex IDE extension, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT desktop, or any other compatible MCP client to six read-only tools for Exa or Tavily search, resilient Exa → Camoufox → Tavily → Firecrawl page retrieval, AI/ML paper discovery, and developer-source search—with explicit provenance, optional local caching, and SSRF guards.
Details
- Repository
- github.com/velvetsp/web-retrieval-mcp
- Website
- github.com/VelvetSP/web-retrieval-mcp
- Category
- Search & Web Crawling
- Package
web-retrieval-mcp- Transport
- STDIO
- Auth
- Required
- Registry
- MCP registry, active
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