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 (on Mac, found at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):
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. If you'd like a prebuilt prompt customized for deeper web research, you can use the agentic-research prompt that we provide through this package. Access that prompt in Claude Desktop by clicking the Paperclip icon in the chat input and then selecting Choose an integrationwebresearchagentic-research.
Tools
search_google
visit_page
take_screenshot
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
We expose two things as MCP resources: (1) captured webpage screenshots, and (2) the research session.
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
Suggestions
For the best results, if you choose not to use the agentic-research prompt when doing your research, it may be helpful to suggest high-quality sources for Claude to use when researching general topics. For example, you could prompt news today from reuters or AP instead of news today.
Problems
This is very much pre-alpha code. And it is also AIGC, so expect bugs.
If you run into issues, it may be helpful to check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:
Development
Requirements
Node.js >= 18
Playwright (automatically installed as a dependency)
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 (on Mac, found at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):
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. If you'd like a prebuilt prompt customized for deeper web research, you can use the agentic-research prompt that we provide through this package. Access that prompt in Claude Desktop by clicking the Paperclip icon in the chat input and then selecting Choose an integrationwebresearchagentic-research.
Tools
search_google
visit_page
take_screenshot
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
We expose two things as MCP resources: (1) captured webpage screenshots, and (2) the research session.
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
Suggestions
For the best results, if you choose not to use the agentic-research prompt when doing your research, it may be helpful to suggest high-quality sources for Claude to use when researching general topics. For example, you could prompt news today from reuters or AP instead of news today.
Problems
This is very much pre-alpha code. And it is also AIGC, so expect bugs.
If you run into issues, it may be helpful to check Claude Desktop's MCP logs:
Development
Requirements
Node.js >= 18
Playwright (automatically installed as a dependency)