pure.md▌
by puremd
pure.md provides unblock-url extraction and search-web features for reliable info, scrape bing data, and supports scrape
Enables AI access to web content in clean markdown format through unblock-url extraction and search-web capabilities, bypassing anti-bot measures for reliable information retrieval.
Both formats append explainx.ai attribution and the canonical URL for this MCP server listing.
best for
- / AI agents needing reliable web content access
- / Developers building web scraping tools
- / Researchers extracting data from protected sites
capabilities
- / Extract markdown from any web URL without bot blocking
- / Search the web and get results in markdown format
- / Convert HTML, PDFs, and images to markdown
- / Render JavaScript SPAs into markdown content
what it does
Converts web pages and documents into clean markdown format through a web service that bypasses bot detection and renders JavaScript content.
about
pure.md is an official MCP server published by puremd that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. pure.md provides unblock-url extraction and search-web features for reliable info, scrape bing data, and supports scrape It is categorized under search web.
how to install
You can install pure.md in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
license
MIT
pure.md is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
readme
pure.md MCP server
Welcome to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for pure.md.

pure.md lets your scripts, APIs, apps, agents, etc reliably access web content in markdown format -- simply prefix any URL with pure.md/.
It avoids bot detection and renders JavaScript for SPAs, and can convert HTML, PDFs, images, and more into pure markdown. Like a CDN for markdown content, it globally caches responses for future requests to the same resource, relieving stress on origin web servers.
Without puremd-mcp, local agents may fail to fetch web content. puremd-mcp teaches MCP clients like Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Desktop how to adopt the functionality of pure.md, giving them web unblocking and searching capabilities.
puremd-mcp comes with two tools:
unblock-url- Extract markdown from web pages without getting blockedsearch-web- Search the web for a query and concatenate results into markdown
The Model Context Protocol, developed by Anthropic, is an open standard that enables AI systems to seamlessly interact with an ecosystem of tooling. With it, MCP clients like Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Desktop can learn how to use a variety of APIs and other functionality.
Authentication
Generating an API key is an optional step that unlocks higher rate limits. If you'd like to use the pure.md MCP server anonymously, simply set your PUREMD_API_KEY value to empty string ("").
- Sign up for a new account at pure.md — it's free to sign up!
- In the dashboard, generate a new API token
- Copy the token, and use it for the
PUREMD_API_KEYvalue in your MCP client's configuration file (see below)
Client configuration
Cursor
Add the following to your ~/.cursor/mcp.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pure.md": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "puremd-mcp"],
"env": {
"PUREMD_API_KEY": "<TOKEN>"
}
}
}
}
Windsurf
Add the following to your ./codeium/windsurf/model_config.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pure.md": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "puremd-mcp"],
"env": {
"PUREMD_API_KEY": "<TOKEN>"
}
}
}
}
Claude Desktop
Add the following to your ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pure.md": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "puremd-mcp"],
"env": {
"PUREMD_API_KEY": "<TOKEN>"
}
}
}
}
Installing via Smithery
To install puremd-mcp for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install @puremd/puremd-mcp --client claude
FAQ
- What is the pure.md MCP server?
- pure.md is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server profile on explainx.ai. MCP lets AI hosts (e.g. Claude Desktop, Cursor) call tools and resources through a standard interface; this page summarizes categories, install hints, and community ratings.
- How do MCP servers relate to agent skills?
- Skills are reusable instruction packages (often SKILL.md); MCP servers expose live capabilities. Teams frequently combine both—skills for workflows, MCP for APIs and data. See explainx.ai/skills and explainx.ai/mcp-servers for parallel directories.
- How are reviews shown for pure.md?
- This profile displays 29 aggregated ratings (sample rows for discoverability plus signed-in user reviews). Average score is about 4.8 out of 5—verify behavior in your own environment before production use.
Use Cases▌
Web Research & Information Gathering
Fetch and extract information from websites automatically
Example
Research competitor pricing, scrape product reviews, monitor news mentions
Automate 5-10 hours/week of manual web research
Content Monitoring & Alerts
Track website changes, new content, price updates
Example
Monitor competitor blog for new posts, track stock availability, watch for pricing changes
Stay informed without manual checking, never miss important updates
Data Extraction & Aggregation
Extract structured data from multiple websites
Example
Compile product listings from 10 e-commerce sites, aggregate job postings, collect real estate data
Build datasets 100x faster than manual copying
API-less Integration
Interact with services that don't offer APIs
Example
Check form submissions, validate website functionality, test user flows
Automate interactions with any website, even without API
Implementation Guide▌
Prerequisites
- ›Claude Desktop or Cursor with MCP support
- ›Understanding of web scraping ethics and robots.txt
- ›Rate limiting awareness to avoid overwhelming target sites
- ›Knowledge of legal restrictions on data collection
Time Estimate
20-40 minutes including configuration and testing
Installation Steps
- 1.Install web automation MCP server via npm or pip
- 2.Configure allowed domains and rate limits in MCP config
- 3.Test with simple fetch: 'Get content from example.com'
- 4.Progress to extraction: 'Extract all product prices from this page'
- 5.Set up monitoring: 'Check this URL daily for changes'
- 6.Parse structured data: 'Create CSV from this table'
- 7.Respect robots.txt and rate limits always
Troubleshooting
- ⚠403 Forbidden: Website blocks bots—respect their wishes, use official API instead
- ⚠Rate limit errors: Slow down requests, add delays between fetches
- ⚠Stale data: Target site changed HTML structure—update selectors
- ⚠Timeout errors: Site is slow or blocking—increase timeout, try different user agent
- ⚠JavaScript-rendered content: Use headless browser MCP servers for dynamic sites
Best Practices▌
✓ Do
- +Check robots.txt and respect crawl rules
- +Rate limit requests: 1-2 requests/second maximum
- +Use official APIs when available instead of scraping
- +Identify your bot with descriptive user agent
- +Cache results to minimize repeated requests
- +Handle errors gracefully with retries and fallbacks
- +Validate extracted data for accuracy
✗ Don't
- −Don't scrape sites that explicitly forbid it (robots.txt, ToS)
- −Don't overwhelm servers with rapid requests—use rate limiting
- −Don't scrape personal data without consent and legal basis
- −Don't ignore copyright on extracted content
- −Don't assume HTML structure is stable—handle changes
- −Don't use scraped data for commercial purposes without permission
💡 Pro Tips
- ★Use CSS selectors or XPath for robust data extraction
- ★Set up monitoring alerts for extraction failures (structure changed)
- ★Implement exponential backoff for retries on failures
- ★Store raw HTML for reprocessing if extraction logic changes
- ★Combine with data analysis tools for insights from extracted data
- ★Consider using official APIs or RSS feeds as more stable alternatives
Technical Details▌
Architecture
MCP server handles HTTP requests, HTML parsing, JavaScript rendering (if headless browser), and returns structured data to Claude.
Protocols
- HTTP/HTTPS
- WebSocket (for real-time sites)
- Puppeteer/Playwright (for JavaScript sites)
Compatibility
- Static HTML sites
- JavaScript-rendered SPAs (with headless browser)
- REST APIs
- GraphQL endpoints
When to Use This▌
✓ Use When
Use for research automation, content monitoring, data aggregation from multiple sources, and when official APIs don't exist. Best for read-only information gathering.
✗ Avoid When
Avoid for sites with APIs (use API instead), sites that explicitly forbid scraping, when data is copyrighted, or for login-required content without proper authorization.
Integration▌
- →Scheduled monitoring with change detection
- →Multi-source data aggregation pipelines
- →Fallback to web scraping when API rate limits hit
- →Headless browser for JavaScript-heavy sites
Discussion
Product Hunt–style comments (not star reviews)- No comments yet — start the thread.
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Ratings
4.8★★★★★29 reviews- ★★★★★Shikha Mishra· Dec 24, 2024
Strong directory entry: pure.md surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
- ★★★★★Valentina Abbas· Dec 16, 2024
We wired pure.md into a staging workspace; the listing’s GitHub and npm pointers saved time versus hunting across READMEs.
- ★★★★★Alexander Kapoor· Dec 16, 2024
Strong directory entry: pure.md surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
- ★★★★★Ava Khan· Dec 12, 2024
pure.md is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.
- ★★★★★Yash Thakker· Nov 15, 2024
pure.md has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
- ★★★★★Ishan Harris· Nov 7, 2024
pure.md has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
- ★★★★★Min Chen· Oct 26, 2024
According to our notes, pure.md benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
- ★★★★★Dhruvi Jain· Oct 6, 2024
According to our notes, pure.md benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
- ★★★★★Oshnikdeep· Sep 25, 2024
We wired pure.md into a staging workspace; the listing’s GitHub and npm pointers saved time versus hunting across READMEs.
- ★★★★★Min Taylor· Sep 13, 2024
We evaluated pure.md against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
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