WebScraper MCP Server v2.0 (Playwright Edition)

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides advanced web scraping and HTML to Markdown conversion using Microsoft Playwright. This version automatically detects and handles JavaScript-rendered pages.

🆕 What's New in v2.0

• 🚀 Microsoft Playwright - Superior JavaScript rendering with automatic fallback
• 🎯 Smart Detection - Automatically switches to JS rendering when needed
• 📸 Screenshots - Capture page screenshots as base64
• ⏱️ Custom Waits - Wait for specific selectors or time periods
• 🔄 Dual Mode - Static scraping for speed, JS rendering for dynamic content
• 📊 Performance Metrics - Track load times and render methods

Features

Core Capabilities

• 🌐 Intelligent Web Scraping: Automatic detection of static vs dynamic pages
• 📝 HTML to Markdown: Clean, well-formatted Markdown conversion
• 🎭 JavaScript Rendering: Full Playwright support for SPA and dynamic content
• 🔗 Link Extraction: Extract all hyperlinks with filtering options
• 🖼️ Image Extraction: Extract images including lazy-loaded ones
• 📦 Batch Processing: Scrape up to 10 URLs simultaneously
• 🎯 Metadata Extraction: Title, description, author, keywords, and more
• ⚙️ Flexible Options: Control timeouts, redirects, content inclusion
• 📊 Multiple Formats: Output in Markdown or JSON
• 📸 Screenshot Capture: Get base64 screenshots of pages

Rendering Modes

1. Static Mode (Default, Fast)

   • Uses Axios + Cheerio
   • Suitable for traditional HTML pages
   • Fastest performance

2. JavaScript Mode (Auto-detected or Forced)

   • Uses Playwright with Chromium
   • Executes JavaScript
   • Handles SPAs, lazy loading, dynamic content
   • Auto-activates when static mode returns < 50 words

Installation

# Clone or navigate to the project
cd webscraper-mcp-server-v2

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Install Playwright browsers
npm run install:browsers

# Build the project
npm run build

Usage

Running with stdio (Local)

npm start

Running with HTTP (Remote)

TRANSPORT=http PORT=3000 npm start

Available Tools

1. webscraper_scrape_page - Advanced Web Scraping

Automatically detects and handles both static and dynamic pages.

New Parameters:

• use_javascript (boolean): Force JavaScript rendering
• wait_for_selector (string): CSS selector to wait for
• wait_time (number): Additional wait time in milliseconds
• take_screenshot (boolean): Capture page screenshot

Example - Force JavaScript Rendering:

{
  "url": "https://docs.uazapi.com/endpoint/post/instance~init",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "wait_for_selector": ".content",
  "wait_time": 3000,
  "take_screenshot": true
}

Example - Auto-Detection:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/spa-app"
}

Automatically switches to JavaScript if static content is insufficient

2. webscraper_extract_links - Link Extraction

New Parameter:

• use_javascript (boolean): Use JavaScript rendering for dynamic links

Example:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "filter_external": true
}

3. webscraper_extract_images - Image Extraction

New Parameter:

• use_javascript (boolean): Extract lazy-loaded images

Example:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/gallery",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "limit": 50
}

4. webscraper_batch_scrape - Batch Operations

New Parameter:

• use_javascript (boolean): Use JavaScript for all URLs

Example:

{
  "urls": ["https://page1.com", "https://page2.com"],
  "use_javascript": true,
  "timeout": 60000
}

Configuration

Environment Variables

• TRANSPORT: Transport type ('stdio' or 'http', default: 'stdio')
• PORT: HTTP server port (default: 3000, only for HTTP transport)

Client Configuration (Claude Desktop)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webscraper": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/webscraper-mcp-server-v2/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Output Formats

Markdown Format (Enhanced)

# Page Title

**URL:** https://example.com
**Render Method:** javascript

**Description:** Page description
**Author:** Author Name
**Word Count:** 1500 | **Status:** 200 | **Load Time:** 2340ms

---

[Page content in Markdown...]

JSON Format (Enhanced)

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "title": "Page Title",
  "content": "Markdown content...",
  "renderMethod": "javascript",
  "metadata": {
    "description": "Page description",
    "wordCount": 1500,
    "loadTime": 2340,
    "screenshot": "base64..." // if requested
  }
}

Performance Comparison

| Feature | Static Mode | JavaScript Mode | |---------|-------------|-----------------| | Speed | ~1-3s | ~3-8s | | JavaScript | ❌ | ✅ | | SPA Support | ❌ | ✅ | | Lazy Loading | ❌ | ✅ | | Resource Usage | Low | Medium | | Best For | Traditional HTML | Modern Web Apps |

Use Cases

1. Scraping JavaScript-Heavy Sites

// Site with React/Vue/Angular
{
  "url": "https://spa-site.com",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "wait_for_selector": "#root > div",
  "wait_time": 2000
}

2. Capturing Visual State

// Get screenshot along with content
{
  "url": "https://example.com/dashboard",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "take_screenshot": true
}

3. API Documentation Sites

// Like your UAZ API docs example
{
  "url": "https://docs.uazapi.com/endpoint/post/instance~init",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "wait_for_selector": ".api-content",
  "response_format": "json"
}

4. E-commerce Product Pages

// Lazy-loaded images and dynamic prices
{
  "url": "https://shop.example.com/product/123",
  "use_javascript": true,
  "wait_time": 3000
}

Troubleshooting

Playwright Issues

# Reinstall browsers
npm run install:browsers

# Check Playwright installation
npx playwright --version

Low Word Count on Dynamic Sites

Problem: Getting < 50 words from a JavaScript site?

Solution:

• Set use_javascript: true explicitly
• Use wait_for_selector for specific elements
• Increase wait_time if content loads slowly

Memory Issues

Problem: Browser consuming too much memory?

Solution:

• The browser instance is reused and shared
• Contexts are closed after each operation
• Consider increasing system resources for heavy usage

Advantages over Puppeteer

✅ Better Performance: Playwright is generally faster
✅ More Reliable: Better handling of modern web apps
✅ Auto-waiting: Smarter element waiting
✅ Multiple Browsers: Can use Chromium, Firefox, or WebKit
✅ Modern APIs: Cleaner, more intuitive API
✅ Active Development: Microsoft-backed, frequent updates

Development

Project Structure

webscraper-mcp-server-v2/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts           # Main entry point
│   ├── types.ts           # TypeScript definitions (enhanced)
│   ├── constants.ts       # Configuration constants
│   ├── schemas/           # Zod validation (updated)
│   ├── services/          # Playwright-based scraping
│   └── tools/             # MCP tool implementations
├── dist/                  # Compiled JavaScript
├── package.json           # Dependencies (with Playwright)
└── README.md

Building

npm run build

Testing

# With MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

Limitations

• Maximum 10 URLs for batch scraping
• Content truncated at 100,000 characters
• Request timeout: 1-120 seconds
• Chromium browser required (~170MB download)
• Supports only HTTP/HTTPS protocols
• Requires publicly accessible URLs

Performance Tips

1. Use Static Mode When Possible: 3-5x faster for traditional sites
2. Batch Related URLs: More efficient than individual calls
3. Set Appropriate Timeouts: Longer for slow sites, shorter for fast ones
4. Use Selectors Wisely: Wait for specific elements instead of fixed times
5. Limit Screenshot Usage: Screenshots increase response size significantly

Comparison with v1.0

| Feature | v1.0 (Cheerio Only) | v2.0 (Playwright) | |---------|---------------------|-------------------| | Static HTML | ✅ Fast | ✅ Fast | | JavaScript | ❌ | ✅ Full Support | | Auto-Detection | ❌ | ✅ Smart Fallback | | Screenshots | ❌ | ✅ Base64 Output | | Lazy Loading | ❌ | ✅ Supported | | SPAs | ❌ Limited | ✅ Full Support |

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Areas for improvement:

• [ ] Support for other Playwright browsers (Firefox, WebKit)
• [ ] PDF generation from pages
• [ ] Advanced selector strategies
• [ ] Request interception for blocking ads
• [ ] Cookie management
• [ ] Proxy support

Support

For issues or questions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

Made with ❤️ using Microsoft Playwright and Model Context Protocol