MCP for agents

Use the Live Web Data API as a tool in Claude, Cursor, VS Code and any other MCP client — with one URL and your existing API key.

What is MCP

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI agents discover and call external tools. Our MCP server exposes the Contents API as two tools, so an agent can read any public web page on its own.

Server & auth

	Value
Server URL	`https://contextretrieval.net/mcp`
Transport	Streamable HTTP (stateless): JSON-RPC over `POST`; `GET` and `DELETE` answer `405`
Auth	`Authorization: Bearer <api_key>`
Keys	Same keys as the REST API — create one under API keys

Missing or invalid keys are rejected with HTTP 401 (suspended accounts: 403, "API access for this account is suspended. Contact support.") before any tool runs.

Client setup

Replace YOUR_KEY with your API key. In the dashboard, the Integrations page fills in your key for you.

Run this in your terminal. The server is then available in every Claude Code session for this project.

Terminal

claude mcp add --transport http live-web-data https://livewebdata.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"

Add --scope user to make it available in all projects. Check with claude mcp list.

get_page_contents

Fetch a public web page live and return its main content as clean Markdown, plain text or HTML. Read-only, idempotent. Single URL per call.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`url`	string (http/https, at most 8,192 characters)	required	The public URL to fetch.
`country`	ISO-3166 alpha-2	`"us"`	Fetch the page as seen from this country, e.g. 'de', 'gb', 'us'.
`format`	`"markdown"` \| `"text"` \| `"html"`	`"markdown"`	Output format. Prefer markdown. The page HTML is fetched and returned only for `"html"`.
`max_characters`	integer 500–100000	`8000`	Maximum characters of content to return. Smaller than the REST API's default (`text.maxCharacters`, 100,000) because the result goes into the agent's context; raise it when the content is cut.
`verbosity`	`"compact"` \| `"full"`	`"compact"`	compact = main content only, full = whole page body.

The result is one text item with a short header, followed by the content. The full REST-style JSON is also returned as structuredContent (with results[].html only for format: "html").

Tool result

# Example article
Source: https://example.com/article · country: us · live · credits used: 1 · credits left: 8,411

# Example article

Main content as clean Markdown…

get_account_status

Check the remaining credits, plan and rate limit for the connected account. Agents should call it before large batches. No parameters, free. Returns the same numbers as GET /v1/account.

Tool result

Plan: Starter · Credits left: 8,412 · Rate limit: 2 URL/s (burst 4) · Status: active

Errors

Errors are returned with isError: true and one actionable sentence the agent can follow. When nothing was charged, the message ends with “No credits were charged.”

Case	Message to the agent
451 restricted target	This website is restricted and cannot be retrieved. Do not retry; use another source.
`CRAWL_NOT_RENDERED`	The page has no usable text: it needs JavaScript rendering, or shows no text even when rendered. Try another source or a different URL for the same information.
`CRAWL_NOT_FOUND`	Page not found (404/410).
`SOURCE_NOT_AVAILABLE`	The website refused this request. Retry once with a different country, otherwise use another source.
`SOURCE_BLOCKED`	Access denied by the website. Retry later or with a different country, otherwise use another source.
`CRAWL_LIVECRAWL_TIMEOUT`	The page timed out. Retry once with a longer timeout, otherwise use another source.
`BROWSER_UNAVAILABLE`	Browser rendering is temporarily unavailable. Retry in a few minutes, otherwise use another source.
`RATE_LIMITED`	The rendering limit for the user's plan is reached. Do not retry rendering now; use another source.
402 insufficient credits	The account is out of credits. Tell the user to top up at …/dashboard/billing.
429 rate limited	Rate limit reached. Wait N seconds before retrying.
401 / 403	The API key is invalid or suspended. Tell the user to check their key at …/dashboard/keys.
Still fetching after 5 minutes	The page did not finish loading within 5 minutes, and the fetch may still be charged. Use another source.

Credits

MCP calls are billed exactly like REST calls: 1 credit per successful page, failed requests (including access denied by the site) are free. They appear in Usage with channel mcp. See Credits.