Spider Cloud MCP Server

Spider MCP server: crawl, scrape, search, and automate browsers at scale

Documentation

Spider MCP Server

The fastest web crawling, scraping, and browser automation server for AI agents. Gives Claude direct access to the web through 22 tools — crawl sites at 100K+ pages/sec, extract structured data with AI, and control remote browsers with built-in anti-bot bypass.

Why Spider

  • Speed — Crawl 100K+ pages per second. Smart request routing picks HTTP or headless Chrome automatically. Streaming responses start delivering data immediately.
  • Cost — Pay-per-use credits with no subscription required for core tools. Check your balance anytime with spider_get_credits. AI tools available with an AI subscription.
  • Reliability — Anti-bot bypass with fingerprinting and proxy rotation. Browser fleet with automatic fallback across Chrome, Firefox, and more. Built-in retry and stealth escalation.

Quick Start

Claude Code

claude mcp add spider -- npx -y spider-cloud-mcp

Set your API key:

export SPIDER_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spider": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "spider-cloud-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SPIDER_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spider": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "spider-cloud-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SPIDER_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spider": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "spider-cloud-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SPIDER_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

VariableRequiredDescription
SPIDER_API_KEYYesYour Spider API key. Get one at spider.cloud/api-keys

Tools

Core Tools (8)

These work on pay-per-use credits with no subscription required.

ToolDescription
spider_crawlCrawl a website and extract content from multiple pages. Follows links up to a depth/limit.
spider_scrapeScrape a single page. Faster and cheaper than crawling when you need one URL.
spider_searchSearch the web. Optionally fetch full page content from results.
spider_linksExtract all links from a page without fetching content.
spider_screenshotCapture a page screenshot as base64 PNG.
spider_unblockerAccess bot-protected content with advanced anti-bot bypass.
spider_transformConvert HTML to markdown or text without making web requests.
spider_get_creditsCheck your API credit balance.

AI Tools (5)

Natural language web interaction. Describe what you want in plain English.

Requires an AI subscription.

ToolDescription
spider_ai_crawlAI-guided crawling — describe what content to find.
spider_ai_scrapeExtract structured data with plain English — no CSS selectors.
spider_ai_searchAI-enhanced search with intent understanding.
spider_ai_browserAutomate browser actions with natural language.
spider_ai_linksFind and filter links by description.

Browser Automation Tools (9)

Direct browser control via spider-browser. Browsers run in Spider's cloud with smart retry, browser switching, anti-bot protection, proxy rotation, and automatic stealth escalation. Supports CDP and BiDi protocols.

ToolDescription
spider_browser_openOpen a remote browser session. Returns a session_id.
spider_browser_navigateNavigate to a URL and wait for load.
spider_browser_clickClick an element by CSS selector.
spider_browser_fillFill a form field with text.
spider_browser_screenshotTake a screenshot of the current page. Returns base64 PNG.
spider_browser_contentGet page HTML or visible text.
spider_browser_evaluateExecute JavaScript in the page context.
spider_browser_wait_forWait for an element, navigation, or network idle.
spider_browser_closeClose the session and stop billing.

Browser sessions auto-close after 5 minutes of inactivity. Always call spider_browser_close when done.

Examples

Research and RAG

"Crawl the React documentation and summarize the hooks API"

Uses spider_crawl to fetch 50+ pages in seconds and return clean markdown ready for context.

spider_crawl: {
  url: "https://react.dev/reference/react",
  limit: 50,
  return_format: "markdown",
  filter_output_main_only: true
}

Structured Data Extraction

"Get all product names and prices from this e-commerce page"

Uses spider_ai_scrape to extract structured JSON with zero CSS selectors.

spider_ai_scrape: {
  url: "https://example-store.com/products",
  prompt: "Extract every product name, price, and availability status as JSON"
}

Multi-Step Browser Automation

"Log into the dashboard, go to reports, and screenshot the monthly summary"

Uses spider_browser_* tools to drive a remote browser with full anti-bot protection.

1. spider_browser_open: { browser: "auto" }
2. spider_browser_navigate: { url: "https://app.example.com/login" }
3. spider_browser_fill: { selector: "input[name='email']", value: "[email protected]" }
4. spider_browser_fill: { selector: "input[name='password']", value: "..." }
5. spider_browser_click: { selector: "button[type='submit']" }
6. spider_browser_wait_for: { navigation: true }
7. spider_browser_navigate: { url: "https://app.example.com/reports/monthly" }
8. spider_browser_screenshot: {}
9. spider_browser_close: {}

Competitive Intelligence

"Search for recent AI startup funding rounds and get the details"

Uses spider_search with time filtering, then spider_scrape for details.

spider_search: {
  search: "AI startup Series A funding 2025",
  num: 10,
  fetch_page_content: true,
  return_format: "markdown",
  tbs: "qdr:m"
}

API Reference

All tools map directly to the Spider API. Core tools accept the same parameters as their API counterparts:

  • Crawl/Scrape: url, return_format, request, readability, root_selector, proxy_enabled, cache, and many more
  • Search: search, num, fetch_page_content, country, language, tbs
  • AI tools: Add a prompt parameter describing what you want in natural language
  • Browser tools: Use session_id from spider_browser_open for all operations

Full parameter reference: spider.cloud/docs/api

Links

License

MIT