Web Basics

Basic web tools for agents. No API keys.

Search the web, fetch URLs, and read Reddit posts from any MCP client.

What It Provides

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer
• npm
• Docker, only if you want to run the optional local SearXNG backend

Setup

git clone https://github.com/yoloyash/web-basics-mcp.git
cd web-basics-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Optional: copy the example environment file if you want to change the search backend.

cp .env.example .env

Search Backend

If you want local web search, start the bundled search backend:

docker compose up -d

Stop it with:

docker compose down

By default, the server expects search at http://127.0.0.1:8088. Set SEARXNG_URL if you use a different search backend.

Install In MCP Clients

Replace ~/web-basics-mcp with the path where you cloned this repo.

claude mcp add web-basics -- node ~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js

codex mcp add web-basics -- node ~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js

{
  "mcp": {
    "web-basics": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["node", "~/web-basics-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "environment": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8088"
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Development

npm run build
npm test

Under The Hood

• The server runs as a local MCP server over stdio.
• Search uses the SearXNG instance configured by SEARXNG_URL.
• fetch_url only supports public HTTP(S) pages and blocks private/local addresses.
• Set WEB_BASICS_USER_AGENT to customize the fetch user agent.
• Reddit support uses Reddit's RSS feed, so it may return fewer comments than the full website.
• Returned content is capped to keep MCP responses manageable.
• Search quality depends on the engines enabled in your SearXNG configuration.