🔍 Using Prysm MCP Server with Cursor

This guide explains how to integrate the Prysm MCP Server with Cursor to enable powerful web scraping capabilities for AI assistants.

✨ Installation

1. First, make sure you have the Prysm MCP Server installed:

   # Recommended: Install the LLM-optimized version
   npm install -g @pinkpixel/prysm-mcp
   
   # Or install without global installation
   # You can use npx directly as shown in the configuration examples
   

2. Configure Cursor to use the Prysm MCP Server:

   • Open Cursor and go to Settings > Features > MCP
   • Click + Add New MCP Server
   • Fill in the details as follows:

   Field	Value
   Name	Prysm Web Scraper
   Type	stdio
   Command	npx @pinkpixel/prysm-mcp

3. Click Add Server

🛠️ Configuration Options

Basic Configuration

You can add the Prysm MCP Server to your project by creating a .cursor/mcp.json file in your project directory:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prysm-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pinkpixel/prysm-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

For global configuration, create the same file at ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

Advanced Configuration

Here's a more comprehensive configuration with multiple options:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prysm-scraper-local": {
      "description": "Use this for local development with a cloned repo",
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "./dist/index.js"
      ],
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/path/to/prysm-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR": "${workspaceFolder}/scrape_results",
        "PRYSM_IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR": "${workspaceFolder}/scrape_results/images"
      }
    },
    "prysm-scraper-npx": {
      "description": "Use this for the npm published package",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pinkpixel/prysm-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR": "${workspaceFolder}/scrape_results",
        "PRYSM_IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR": "${workspaceFolder}/scrape_results/images"
      }
    },
    "prysm-scraper-with-output": {
      "description": "Use this to specify a custom output directory",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pinkpixel/prysm-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR": "${workspaceFolder}/scrape_results"
      }
    }
  }
}

This configuration provides three different server setups:

1. Local Development: Uses a local cloned repository with custom output directories
2. NPX Standard: Uses the published npm package directly with custom output directories
3. Custom Output: Uses the published package with just a custom general output directory

⚙️ Environment Configuration

You can customize where results are saved by setting environment variables before starting Cursor:

# Linux/macOS
export PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR="/path/to/custom/directory"
export PRYSM_IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR="/path/to/custom/image/directory"
# Then start Cursor

# Windows (Command Prompt)
set PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR=C:\path\to\custom\directory
set PRYSM_IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR=C:\path\to\custom\image\directory
# Then start Cursor

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:PRYSM_OUTPUT_DIR="C:\path\to\custom\directory"
$env:PRYSM_IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR="C:\path\to\custom\image\directory"
# Then start Cursor

By default, general results will be saved to ~/prysm-mcp/output/ and images to ~/prysm-mcp/output/images/.

🚀 Available Tools

The Prysm MCP Server provides the following tools:

Tool Name	Description	Key Parameters
scrapeFocused	Fast web scraping (fewer scrolls, main content)	url, maxScrolls (default: 5)
scrapeBalanced	Balanced scraping (good coverage, reasonable speed)	url, maxScrolls (default: 10), timeout
scrapeDeep	Maximum extraction (slower but thorough)	url, maxScrolls (default: 20)
formatResult	Format data as markdown, HTML, or JSON	data, format, output

📝 Examples

Here are some examples of how to use the Prysm MCP tools in Cursor:

Simple Scraping

Ask the agent to scrape a webpage:

Please scrape https://example.com using the balanced mode

Content Analysis

Ask the agent to analyze a URL first:

Analyze the structure of https://example.com

Custom Scraping

Ask the agent to use specific parameters:

Scrape https://example.com using deep mode with maximum 15 scrolls and download images

Formatting Results

Ask the agent to format the results:

Format the scraped data as markdown with images included

You can also ask the agent to save the formatted results to a file:

Format the scraped data as markdown and save it to "my-results/output.md"

Or specify an absolute path:

Format the scraped data as HTML and save it to "/home/user/documents/webpages/example.html"

If you don't specify a file extension, one will be added automatically based on the format.

💡 Tips

• For large websites, use scrapeDeep for thorough extraction
• For blog articles, use scrapeFocused for faster extraction of main content
• For product pages, use scrapeBalanced for a good mix of content and images
• Always analyze a URL first if you're unsure which scraping mode to use
• When saving formatted results, specify just a filename to save in the default directory
• Use the environment variable for consistent output locations across projects

🔒 Security Notes

• The server runs locally on your machine
• No data is sent to external servers (all processing happens locally)
• Images are only downloaded if specifically requested
• Saved files are stored on your local machine in the configured output directory

For more information, visit Pink Pixel or check the GitHub repository.