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Firecrawl Lite MCP Server
by @ariangibson
GitHub Repo(1 stars)

Privacy-first, standalone MCP server for web scraping and data extraction using local browser automation and your own LLM API key

Created 8/31/2025
Updated 7 days ago
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Repository documentation and setup instructions

Firecrawl Lite MCP Server

License: MIT

A privacy-first, standalone MCP server that provides web scraping and data extraction tools using local browser automation and your own LLM API key. No external dependencies or API keys required - completely decoupled from Firecrawl's cloud service.

� What Makes Firecrawl Lite Special

🔒 Privacy-First Architecture

  • Local Processing - All web scraping and data extraction happens on your machine
  • Your Data Stays Local - Content is processed locally, not sent to third parties
  • No External Service Lock-in - Doesn't require Firecrawl's cloud API
  • Complete Control - You own your data and infrastructure

💰 Cost-Effective & Transparent

  • Pay Only for LLM Usage - No additional subscription or API fees
  • Your LLM Provider - Compatible with OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, Ollama, etc.
  • Predictable Costs - Transparent pricing based on your chosen LLM rates

⚡ Performance & Simplicity

  • Lightning-Fast Startup - Lightweight design means quick initialization
  • Single Container - Simple deployment with Docker support
  • Minimal Resource Usage - Optimized for efficiency and low memory footprint

📊 Feature Comparison

| Feature | Firecrawl Lite ✅ | Original Firecrawl ❌ | |---------|-------------------|----------------------| | 🏠 Deployment | Standalone/Local | Cloud Service | | 🔑 API Keys Required | Your LLM key only | Firecrawl API + LLM keys | | 🔒 Data Privacy | 100% local processing | Cloud processing | | 💰 Cost Model | LLM usage only | Subscription + LLM costs | | ⚙️ Setup Complexity | Single container | Multi-service deployment | | 📦 Bundle Size | ~50MB lightweight | Heavy multi-service | | 🏠 Local LLM Support | ✅ Ollama/Local LLMs | Limited local options | | 🎛️ Customization | Full control | Limited customization | | 🚀 Startup Time | < 5 seconds | Variable (cloud dependent) | | 🔧 Maintenance | Self-managed | Managed service |

�️ Available Tools

This standalone version provides local web scraping and data extraction using Puppeteer and your own LLM:

✅ scrape_page - Extract content from a single webpage

  • Implementation: Local browser automation with Puppeteer
  • Use case: Get webpage content for LLMs to read
  • Parameters: url, onlyMainContent
  • Privacy: All data processed locally

✅ batch_scrape - Scrape multiple URLs in a single request

  • Implementation: Sequential local scraping with rate limiting
  • Use case: Process multiple pages efficiently
  • Parameters: urls[], onlyMainContent
  • Privacy: All data processed locally

✅ extract_data - Extract structured data using LLM

  • Implementation: Local scraping + your LLM for data extraction
  • Use case: Pull specific data from pages using natural language prompts
  • Parameters: urls[], prompt, enableWebSearch
  • Privacy: Content scraped locally, sent to your LLM only

✅ extract_with_schema - Extract data using JSON schema

  • Implementation: Local scraping + schema-guided LLM extraction
  • Use case: Extract structured data with predefined schema
  • Parameters: urls[], schema, prompt, enableWebSearch
  • Privacy: Content scraped locally, sent to your LLM only

🚀 Quick Start

1. No Installation Required!

This MCP server runs via npx - no global installation needed.

2. Configure your MCP client:

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "firecrawl-lite": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ariangibson/firecrawl-lite-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "LLM_API_KEY": "your_llm_api_key_here",
        "LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL": "https://api.x.ai/v1",
        "LLM_MODEL": "grok-code-fast-1"
      }
    }
  }
}

LM Studio

If npx doesn't work with LM Studio, you can globally install first:

npm install -g @ariangibson/firecrawl-lite-mcp-server

Then use "command": "firecrawl-lite-mcp-server" without npx.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude config mcp add firecrawl-lite \
  --command "npx" \
  --args "-y" --args "@ariangibson/firecrawl-lite-mcp-server" \
  --env LLM_API_KEY=your_llm_api_key_here \
  --env LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.x.ai/v1 \
  --env LLM_MODEL=grok-code-fast-1

3. Restart your MCP client and start scraping!

⚙️ Configuration Guide

Required Environment Variables

# Your LLM API key (xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
LLM_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

# LLM provider base URL
LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.x.ai/v1

# LLM model name
LLM_MODEL=grok-code-fast-1

LLM Provider Examples

# xAI (Grok)
LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.x.ai/v1
LLM_API_KEY=xai-your-key-here
LLM_MODEL=grok-code-fast-1

# OpenAI
LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
LLM_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here
LLM_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini

# Anthropic
LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.anthropic.com
LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here
LLM_MODEL=claude-3-haiku-20240307

# Local LLM (Ollama)
LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1
LLM_API_KEY=your-local-key
LLM_MODEL=llama2

Optional Configuration

# Proxy configuration (for web scraping and LLM API calls)
PROXY_SERVER_URL=http://your-proxy.com:8080
PROXY_SERVER_USERNAME=your_proxy_username
PROXY_SERVER_PASSWORD=your_proxy_password

# Scraping configuration (anti-detection and rate limiting)
SCRAPE_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
SCRAPE_VIEWPORT_WIDTH=1920
SCRAPE_VIEWPORT_HEIGHT=1080
SCRAPE_DELAY_MIN=1000
SCRAPE_DELAY_MAX=3000

🛡️ Anti-Detection Features

Firecrawl Lite includes sophisticated anti-detection measures to handle modern websites with bot protection:

✅ Built-in Anti-Detection

  • Realistic Browser Fingerprinting: Spoofs navigator properties, plugins, and browser APIs
  • Random Delays: Adds human-like delays between requests (configurable)
  • Modern User Agent: Uses up-to-date Chrome user agent strings
  • Viewport Simulation: Sets realistic desktop viewport sizes
  • Headless Optimization: Configured for maximum stealth in headless mode

✅ Configurable Settings

# Control delays (in milliseconds)
SCRAPE_DELAY_MIN=1000      # Minimum delay before navigation
SCRAPE_DELAY_MAX=3000      # Maximum delay before navigation
SCRAPE_BATCH_DELAY_MIN=2000 # Minimum delay between batch requests
SCRAPE_BATCH_DELAY_MAX=5000 # Maximum delay between batch requests

🐳 Docker Deployment

Option 1: Pre-built Image (Recommended)

Perfect for production, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes deployments:

# Pull and run the latest image
docker-compose up -d

# Or run directly with Docker
docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e LLM_API_KEY=your_key_here \
  -e LLM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.x.ai/v1 \
  -e LLM_MODEL=grok-code-fast-1 \
  ariangibson/firecrawl-lite-mcp-server:latest

Option 2: Build from Source

For development or customization:

# Edit docker-compose.yml to uncomment the build section
# Then build and run
docker-compose up --build -d

Docker Hub Repository

Pre-built images are automatically published to: ariangibson/firecrawl-lite-mcp-server

  • Multi-architecture support: linux/amd64, linux/arm64
  • Automatic updates: Built on every release
  • Tagged versions: latest, v1.1.2, etc.

The server will be available at http://localhost:3000 with a health endpoint at http://localhost:3000/health.

📊 Usage Examples

Scrape a webpage

{
  "name": "scrape_page",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com"
  }
}

Batch scrape multiple URLs

{
  "name": "batch_scrape",
  "arguments": {
    "urls": ["https://example.com", "https://example.org"],
    "onlyMainContent": true
  }
}

Extract data with prompt

{
  "name": "extract_data",
  "arguments": {
    "urls": ["https://example.com"],
    "prompt": "Extract the main article title and summary"
  }
}

Extract with schema

{
  "name": "extract_with_schema",
  "arguments": {
    "urls": ["https://example.com"],
    "schema": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "title": {"type": "string"},
        "description": {"type": "string"}
      }
    }
  }
}

❓ Important Notes

🌐 Internet Requirements

  • Requires Internet Access - Still needs to access target websites
  • LLM API Access - Requires connection to your chosen LLM provider
  • No Offline Operation - Cannot work completely offline

� Intentionally Excluded Features

By design, this lite version excludes advanced features to maintain simplicity:

  • Web search functionality
  • Website URL discovery/mapping
  • Multi-page website crawling
  • LLMs.txt file generation
  • Advanced research capabilities
  • Crawl job status checking

🙏 Credits & Acknowledgments

This project is inspired by and builds upon the excellent work of the original Firecrawl projects:

🔥 Firecrawl

The original Firecrawl project by Mendable.ai - a comprehensive web scraping and crawling platform with advanced features like website mapping, multi-page crawling, and deep research capabilities.

🔥 Firecrawl MCP Server

The official MCP server implementation by the Firecrawl team, providing MCP integration for their cloud-based scraping service.

We give huge thanks to the Firecrawl team for their pioneering work in web scraping and MCP integration! 🚀

💡 Looking for a very generous free tier and dead-simple cloud-hosted solution?
Visit firecrawl.com and sign up for a Firecrawl account! Their cloud service offers enterprise-grade web scraping with zero setup complexity.

�📝 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Quick Setup
Installation guide for this server

Install Package (if required)

npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-firecrawl-lite-mcp-server

Cursor configuration (mcp.json)

{ "mcpServers": { "ariangibson-firecrawl-lite-mcp-server": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "ariangibson-firecrawl-lite-mcp-server" ] } } }