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Fetch MCP Server for Claude Desktop: Setup & Config

Claude Desktop: Fetch MCP Server retrieves web pages as HTML, text, Markdown, JSON, or cleaned article content.

What you can do with Fetch in Claude Desktop

Choose format-specific web retrieval with readable articles, transcripts, and bounded output.

  • Bring a web article into an assistant as cleaned Markdown.
  • Retrieve JSON from a URL with custom request headers.

Before you start: Fetch in Claude Desktop

  • Node.js with npx
  • Optional yt-dlp for transcript extraction

This is the README MCP launch, not the mcp-fetch CLI invocation. The supplied structured tool catalog and README list different tools; verify the running server tool list.

Fetch Claude Desktop configuration

  1. Choose Claude Desktop configuration scope

    For Fetch MCP Server, open macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. Merge under mcpServers via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

  2. Add Fetch MCP Server to Claude Desktop

    Use the fetch-mcp-zcaceres entry below in mcpServers. Keep Fetch MCP Server's documented stdio connection fields and your other Claude Desktop entries.

  3. Check Fetch MCP Server in Claude Desktop

    Fetch MCP Server: Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop; check developer diagnostics.

Config file · macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch-mcp-zcaceres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-fetch-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "DEFAULT_LIMIT": "<Optional default response character limit>",
        "MAX_RESPONSE_BYTES": "<Optional response-body byte limit>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fetch tools available to Claude Desktop

Fetch's stored tool list documents 11 tools; compare it with Claude Desktop's connected tool list, because the stored list is not a live check.

fetch_html

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_html from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Retrieve a page as raw HTML.

fetch_markdown

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_markdown from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Convert fetched page content to Markdown.

fetch_txt

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_txt from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Return page text without HTML tags, scripts, or styles.

fetch_json

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_json from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Retrieve a URL returning JSON.

fetch_readable

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_readable from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Extract the main article body as Markdown using Readability.

fetch_youtube_transcript

When Claude Desktop requests fetch_youtube_transcript from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Retrieve video captions with an optional language selection.

fetch

When Claude Desktop requests fetch from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

get-rules

When Claude Desktop requests get-rules from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

graphql

When Claude Desktop requests graphql from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

puppeteer

When Claude Desktop requests puppeteer from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

socket

When Claude Desktop requests socket from Fetch, review the action before approving it.

Fetch: full stored tool descriptions

Troubleshooting Fetch in Claude Desktop

  • Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop for Fetch MCP Server. If npx mcp-fetch-server (Node.js/npm) is missing, check the desktop process's PATH, which may differ from your terminal.
  • In Claude Desktop's Fetch MCP Server entry, check DEFAULT_LIMIT, MAX_RESPONSE_BYTES. Keep secrets out of shared screenshots and repositories.
  • Fetch MCP Server uses stdio here: Claude Desktop must keep the configured process running; protocol output belongs on stdout and diagnostics on stderr.
  • Known limitation: Default response character and byte limits constrain large fetches.
  • Known limitation: Structured input tools differ from the README tool list.
  • Known limitation: Private and localhost targets are blocked by the documented SSRF protection.
  • General Claude Desktop troubleshooting lives in the /clients/claude-desktop guide.

Fetch MCP Server — details. Claude Desktop guide

Frequently asked questions

Claude Desktop loads Fetch MCP Server from claude_desktop_config.json: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows. Open it via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

Claude Desktop's fetch-mcp-zcaceres example uses stdio.

Fetch MCP Server's Claude Desktop configuration invokes npx mcp-fetch-server (Node.js/npm).

Claude Desktop's Fetch MCP Server example references DEFAULT_LIMIT, MAX_RESPONSE_BYTES. Check these names if startup or authentication fails; the example alone does not distinguish required from optional values.

Fetch MCP Server's stored list contains 11 tools, including fetch_html, fetch_markdown, fetch_txt. Compare those names with Claude Desktop's connected tool list; the stored list is not a live check.

The README provides fetch_readable, which uses Mozilla Readability and returns Markdown.

Yes. Tools accept max_length and start_index for character-based slices.

No. The README says transcript retrieval falls back to direct page extraction when yt-dlp is unavailable.