MCP Server

Content Core includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes content extraction and summarization to Claude Desktop and other MCP-compatible applications.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI applications connect to external tools and data sources. Content Core's MCP server gives Claude the ability to extract content from URLs and files, and to summarize text, directly within a conversation.

Installation

With pip

pip install content-core

With uvx (zero install)

uvx content-core mcp

Claude Desktop Setup

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Config file location:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Minimal Configuration (extraction only, no API key needed)

Most extraction sources (URLs, PDFs, documents, YouTube transcripts) work without any API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "content-core": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["content-core", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Recommended Configuration (extraction + summarization)

Add OPENAI_API_KEY to enable summarization and audio/video transcription:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "content-core": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["content-core", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

With Additional API Keys

For best results with URL extraction, add web crawling API keys:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "content-core": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["content-core", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key-here",
        "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY": "fc-your-key-here",
        "JINA_API_KEY": "jina-your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local Development Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "content-core": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/your/content-core",
        "run",
        "content-core",
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

The MCP server provides two tools. Both return plain text responses.

extract_content

Extracts content from a URL or file. Does not require an API key for most sources (web pages, PDFs, documents, YouTube transcripts). An API key is only needed for audio/video transcription.

Parameters:

url (string, optional) -- URL to extract content from
file_path (string, optional) -- local file path to extract content from
engine (string, optional) -- extraction engine override, routed by input type:
- with url: auto, simple, firecrawl, jina, crawl4ai
- with file_path: auto, simple, docling An engine outside the list for that input type is rejected with an error naming the accepted values. docling requires the optional extra (pip install "content-core[docling]"); without it, use auto or simple.
formulas (bool, optional) -- Enable formula extraction via Docling
pictures (bool, optional) -- Enable image description + chart data extraction via Docling
no_ocr (bool, optional) -- Disable OCR in Docling

Exactly one of url or file_path must be provided.

summarize_content

Summarizes text content using an LLM. Always requires an LLM API key (e.g., OPENAI_API_KEY). If no API key is configured, use extract_content to get the raw content instead.

Parameters:

content (string, required) -- the text to summarize
context (string, optional) -- guidance for the summary style (e.g., "bullet points", "explain to a child", "action items")

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can use these tools naturally in Claude Desktop conversations:

Extracting a web page:

"Extract the content from https://example.com/article"

Extracting a local file:

"Read the content of /path/to/document.pdf"

Transcribing a video:

"Extract the transcript from /path/to/lecture.mp4"

Summarizing extracted content:

"Extract https://example.com/long-article and summarize it in bullet points"

Claude will call the appropriate MCP tools automatically based on your request.

Configuration via Environment Variables

Engine selection and other settings can be passed through the env block in the Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "content-core": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["content-core", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-...",
        "CCORE_URL_ENGINE": "firecrawl",
        "CCORE_DOCUMENT_ENGINE": "simple",
        "CCORE_AUDIO_CONCURRENCY": "5",
        "FIRECRAWL_API_URL": "http://localhost:3002"
      }
    }
  }
}

See the usage guide for the full list of CCORE_ environment variables.

API Keys

Key	Purpose	Required?
An LLM/STT API key (e.g., `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `GROQ_API_KEY`)	Audio/video transcription, summarization	Required for `summarize_content` and audio/video extraction. Not needed for URL, PDF, document, or YouTube extraction. Any provider supported by Esperanto works.
`FIRECRAWL_API_KEY`	High-quality web extraction	Optional (improves URL extraction)
`JINA_API_KEY`	Alternative web extraction	Optional (avoids Jina rate limits)

When no API key is configured, the AI agent should prefer extract_content over summarize_content. Most extraction sources (URLs, PDFs, Office documents, YouTube transcripts) work without any API key. Only audio/video transcription and summarization require OPENAI_API_KEY (or another LLM provider key). Without web crawling API keys, URL extraction falls back to BeautifulSoup.

Getting API keys:

Troubleshooting

"Unexpected token" errors in Claude Desktop:

Usually caused by library output leaking to stdout. Update to the latest version of content-core.

Connection failures:

# Test the MCP server directly
content-core mcp

# Or with uvx
uvx content-core mcp

Audio/video extraction failing:

Verify OPENAI_API_KEY is set and has sufficient credits.

Poor web extraction quality:

Add FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or JINA_API_KEY for better results.

Debug logging:

export LOGURU_LEVEL=DEBUG
content-core mcp

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