mcp-webresearch-stealthified

MCP Web Research Server - Stealthified

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for web research with enhanced stealth capabilities to avoid detection.

Bring real-time web information into Claude and easily research any topic without getting blocked by CAPTCHAs.

Features

• Google search integration with anti-blocking measures
• Google Scholar academic research capabilities
• Webpage content extraction with clean markdown formatting
• Screenshot capture with automatic sizing optimization
• Research session tracking (search queries, visited pages, etc.)
• Bot detection avoidance techniques

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18 (includes npm and npx)
• Claude Desktop app

Installation

First, ensure you've downloaded and installed the Claude Desktop app and you have npm installed.

Next, add this entry to your claude_desktop_config.json (location varies by platform):

• Mac: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webresearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-webresearch-stealthified@latest"]
    }
  }
}

This config allows Claude Desktop to automatically start the web research MCP server when needed.

Usage

Simply start a chat with Claude and send a prompt that would benefit from web research. For a prebuilt prompt optimized for deeper web research, use the agentic-research prompt that comes with this package. Access that prompt in Claude Desktop by clicking the Paperclip icon in the chat input and then selecting Choose an integration → webresearch → agentic-research.

Tools

1. search_google

   • Performs Google searches with anti-detection measures
   • Arguments: { query: string }

2. search_scholar

   • Searches Google Scholar for academic papers and scholarly content
   • Arguments: { query: string }

3. visit_page

   • Visits a webpage and extracts its content in clean markdown format
   • Arguments: { url: string, takeScreenshot?: boolean }

4. take_screenshot

   • Takes a screenshot of the current page with automatic resizing
   • No arguments required

Prompts

agentic-research

A guided research prompt that helps Claude conduct thorough web research. The prompt instructs Claude to:

• Start with broad searches to understand the topic landscape
• Prioritize high-quality, authoritative sources
• Iteratively refine the research direction based on findings
• Keep you informed and let you guide the research interactively
• Always cite sources with URLs

Resources

This server exposes two types of MCP resources:

Screenshots

When you take a screenshot, it's saved as an MCP resource. You can access captured screenshots in Claude Desktop via the Paperclip icon.

Research Session

The server maintains a research session that includes:

• Search queries
• Visited pages
• Extracted content
• Screenshots
• Timestamps

You can review this information through the MCP resources interface.

Advanced Usage Tips

1. Optimized Search Queries: For general topics, suggest high-quality sources in your query (e.g., "news today from reuters or AP" instead of just "news today").

2. Academic Research: Use the search_scholar tool specifically for academic or scientific topics to get scholarly articles.

3. Sequential Research: For complex topics, guide Claude through a step-by-step research process, focusing on one aspect at a time.

4. Reading Depth: When Claude finds a relevant page, you can ask it to visit the page and analyze the content in depth.

5. Visual Information: Use the screenshot capability when understanding a page's layout or visual elements is important.

Troubleshooting

This is pre-alpha code with potential issues. If you run into problems:

1. Check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:

# Mac/Linux
tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log

# Windows
Get-Content -Path "$env:APPDATA\Claude\mcp*.log" -Tail 20 -Wait

2. Common issues:
   • CAPTCHAs: This fork includes anti-detection measures, but some sites may still show CAPTCHAs
   • Content extraction: Some sites may not extract properly due to complex layouts
   • Rate limiting: Excessive searches may trigger rate limiting from Google

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/phialsbasement/mcp-webresearch-stealthified.git
cd mcp-webresearch-stealthified

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build the project
pnpm build

# Watch for changes
pnpm watch

# Run in development mode
pnpm dev

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• Playwright (automatically installed as a dependency)

Verified Platforms

• [x] macOS
• [x] Linux
• [x] Windows

License

MIT

Credits

Originally created by mzxrai
Enhanced with stealth capabilities by Phiality