Web Research Assistant MCP

Core Philosophy

1. Search first, fetch second — Use semantic search to find the best sources, then crawl only the most relevant URL.
2. Self-hosted privacy — SearXNG runs locally; no search history leaves your infrastructure.
3. Stealth when needed — Use stealth_scrape for Cloudflare-protected sites; use crawl_url for open sites.
4. Structured over raw — extract_data returns tables/fields instead of full page text.
5. Error → solution pipeline — Feed stack traces to translate_error to get ranked SO/GitHub fixes instantly.

Quick-Start: Common Problems

"Search the web for X"

1. Call web_search(query=..., reasoning=...) — returns top results with URLs
2. If deeper content needed, call crawl_url(url=<best URL>) on the top result

"Find how to use [library]"

1. search_examples(query="library usage examples") for code
2. api_docs(api_name=..., topic=...) for official documentation → Returns human-written docs with examples

"Look up npm/PyPI/crates package"

1. package_info(name=..., registry="npm"|"pypi"|"crates") — version, downloads, license
2. get_changelog(package=..., registry=...) — recent release notes

"I'm getting error X"

1. translate_error(error_message=<full stack trace>) — returns ranked solutions
2. Add framework= and language= for narrower results

"Scrape this protected site"

1. Try crawl_url(url=...) first — faster
2. If Cloudflare challenge returned → use stealth_scrape(url=..., solve_cloudflare=true)

"Compare React vs Vue vs Svelte"

1. compare_tech(technologies=["React","Vue","Svelte"], reasoning=..., aspects=[...])

Decision Trees

Task	Tool	Notes
General web search	web_search	SearXNG, category="code" for devs
Semantic/AI search	web_search_exa (via Exa)	Natural language queries
Fetch a URL	crawl_url	Fast, markdown output
Bypass anti-bot	stealth_scrape	Patchright, slower
Extract tables	extract_data	extract_type="table"
Package details	package_info	npm/pypi/crates/go
Search packages	package_search	By description
Release notes	get_changelog	Last N releases
GitHub health	github_repo	Stars, issues, activity
Fix an error	translate_error	Stack traces
Official API docs	api_docs	Discovers docs dynamically
Image assets	search_images	Pixabay royalty-free
Tech comparison	compare_tech	Side-by-side
Is service down	check_service_status	Status pages

Reference Index

File	Contents
(no references)	All tool descriptions are self-contained