# Developers & MCP (/use-cases/developers-mcp)

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Related: [Product & E-commerce](/use-cases/product-ecommerce.md), [Content Generation](/use-cases/content-generation.md), [Investment & Finance](/use-cases/investment-finance.md), [Competitive Intelligence](/use-cases/competitive-intelligence.md), [Data Migration](/use-cases/data-migration.md), [Observability & Monitoring](/use-cases/observability.md)

Give your AI coding assistant the ability to scrape, crawl, and search the web in real time. Firecrawl's MCP server connects to Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other Model Context Protocol clients so your assistant can pull live documentation, discover site structures, and extract structured data on demand.

## Start with a Template [#start-with-a-template]

<CardGroup cols="2">
  <Card title="MCP Server Firecrawl" icon="<svg xmlns=&#x22;http://www.w3.org/2000/svg&#x22; viewBox=&#x22;0 0 24 24&#x22; fill=&#x22;none&#x22;><path d=&#x22;M8 7L16 7&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M8 11L12 11&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M13 21.5V21C13 18.1716 13 16.7574 13.8787 15.8787C14.7574 15 16.1716 15 19 15H19.5M20 13.3431V10C20 6.22876 20 4.34315 18.8284 3.17157C17.6569 2 15.7712 2 12 2C8.22877 2 6.34315 2 5.17157 3.17157C4 4.34314 4 6.22876 4 10L4 14.5442C4 17.7892 4 19.4117 4.88607 20.5107C5.06508 20.7327 5.26731 20.9349 5.48933 21.1139C6.58831 22 8.21082 22 11.4558 22C12.1614 22 12.5141 22 12.8372 21.886C12.9044 21.8623 12.9702 21.835 13.0345 21.8043C13.3436 21.6564 13.593 21.407 14.0919 20.9081L18.8284 16.1716C19.4065 15.5935 19.6955 15.3045 19.8478 14.9369C20 14.5694 20 14.1606 20 13.3431Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/></svg>" href="https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server">
    Official MCP server - Add web scraping to Claude Desktop and Cursor
  </Card>

  <Card title="Open Lovable" icon="<svg xmlns=&#x22;http://www.w3.org/2000/svg&#x22; viewBox=&#x22;0 0 24 24&#x22; fill=&#x22;none&#x22;><path d=&#x22;M8 7L16 7&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M8 11L12 11&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M13 21.5V21C13 18.1716 13 16.7574 13.8787 15.8787C14.7574 15 16.1716 15 19 15H19.5M20 13.3431V10C20 6.22876 20 4.34315 18.8284 3.17157C17.6569 2 15.7712 2 12 2C8.22877 2 6.34315 2 5.17157 3.17157C4 4.34314 4 6.22876 4 10L4 14.5442C4 17.7892 4 19.4117 4.88607 20.5107C5.06508 20.7327 5.26731 20.9349 5.48933 21.1139C6.58831 22 8.21082 22 11.4558 22C12.1614 22 12.5141 22 12.8372 21.886C12.9044 21.8623 12.9702 21.835 13.0345 21.8043C13.3436 21.6564 13.593 21.407 14.0919 20.9081L18.8284 16.1716C19.4065 15.5935 19.6955 15.3045 19.8478 14.9369C20 14.5694 20 14.1606 20 13.3431Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/></svg>" href="https://github.com/firecrawl/open-lovable">
    Build complete applications from any website instantly
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  **Get started with MCP in minutes.** Follow our [setup guide](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server#installation) to integrate Firecrawl into Claude Desktop or Cursor.
</Note>

## How It Works [#how-it-works]

Integrate Firecrawl directly into your AI coding workflow through Model Context Protocol. Once configured, your AI assistant gains access to a set of web scraping tools it can call on your behalf:

| Tool             | What it does                                               |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Scrape**       | Extract content or structured data from a single URL       |
| **Batch Scrape** | Extract content from multiple known URLs in parallel       |
| **Map**          | Discover all indexed URLs on a website                     |
| **Crawl**        | Walk a site section and extract content from every page    |
| **Search**       | Search the web and optionally extract content from results |

Your assistant picks the right tool automatically. Ask it to "read the Next.js docs" and it will scrape. Ask it to "find all blog posts on example.com" and it will map then batch scrape.

## Why Developers Choose Firecrawl MCP [#why-developers-choose-firecrawl-mcp]

### Build Smarter AI Assistants [#build-smarter-ai-assistants]

Give your AI real-time access to documentation, APIs, and web resources. Reduce outdated information and hallucinations by providing your assistant with the latest data.

### Zero Infrastructure Required [#zero-infrastructure-required]

No servers to manage, no crawlers to maintain. Just configure once and your AI assistant can access websites instantly through the Model Context Protocol.

## Customer Stories [#customer-stories]

<CardGroup cols="2">
  <Card href="https://www.firecrawl.dev/blog/how-botpress-enhances-knowledge-base-creation-with-firecrawl">
    **Botpress**

    Discover how Botpress uses Firecrawl to streamline knowledge base population and improve developer experience.
  </Card>

  <Card href="https://www.firecrawl.dev/blog/how-answer-hq-powers-ai-customer-support-with-firecrawl">
    **Answer HQ**

    Learn how Answer HQ uses Firecrawl to help businesses import website data and build intelligent support assistants.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## FAQs [#faqs]

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Which AI assistants support MCP?">
    Currently, Claude Desktop and Cursor have native MCP support. More AI assistants are adding support regularly. You can also use the MCP SDK to build custom integrations.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I use MCP in VS Code or other IDEs?">
    VS Code and other IDEs can use MCP through community extensions or terminal integrations. Native support varies by IDE. Check our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server) for IDE-specific setup guides.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I cache frequently accessed docs?">
    The MCP server automatically caches responses for 15 minutes. You can configure cache duration in your MCP server settings or implement custom caching logic.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is there a rate limit for MCP requests?">
    MCP requests use your standard Firecrawl API rate limits. We recommend batching related requests and using caching for frequently accessed documentation.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I set up MCP with my Firecrawl API key?">
    Follow our [setup guide](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server#installation) to configure MCP. You'll need to add your Firecrawl API key to your MCP configuration file. The process takes just a few minutes.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related Use Cases [#related-use-cases]

* [AI Platforms](/use-cases/ai-platforms) - Build AI-powered dev tools
* [Deep Research](/use-cases/deep-research) - Complex technical research
* [Content Generation](/use-cases/content-generation) - Generate documentation