Claude Desktop
Add justcrawl as an MCP server in Claude Desktop. Once wired, you can ask Claude things like "submit a scrape for https://walmart.com/p/abc and tell me when it's done" — and it will use the jc_jobs_* tools directly.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- Claude Desktop installed (download)
- Node.js 20 or newer on PATH (
node --versionto check) - A justcrawl API key — Settings → API Keys in the dashboard. Starts with
sr_live_.
Configure
Section titled “Configure”-
Open the Claude Desktop config file. Claude Desktop reads
claude_desktop_config.jsonon every launch.| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS |
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json| | Windows |%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json|Claude Desktop officially ships for macOS and Windows. If the file doesn't exist, create it with
{}as the contents. Easiest path: open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Claude creates the file on first edit. -
Add the justcrawl MCP server block. Merge this into the file (preserve any other servers you already have):
{"mcpServers": {"justcrawl": {"command": "npx","args": ["-y", "@justcrawl/mcp-server"],"env": {"JUSTCRAWL_API_KEY": "sr_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"}}}}Replace
sr_live_xxxxx…with your real key. Do not commit this file to a public repo — the key is plaintext. -
Restart Claude Desktop. Fully quit (⌘Q on macOS, right-click → Quit on Windows / Linux) and reopen. MCP servers are spawned only on cold start.
-
Confirm it's wired. Open Settings → Developer → MCP Servers. You should see
justcrawllisted with a green status dot. Click the row to see the discovered tools — you should seejc_jobs_submit,jc_workflows_list, etc.
First prompt to try
Section titled “First prompt to try”In any conversation:
List my justcrawl workflows.
Claude calls jc_workflows_list() and renders the result. If you see the workflows from your dashboard, you're done.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”Red status dot in Settings → Developer → MCP Servers. Click the row to see the stderr log. The most common failures:
JUSTCRAWL_API_KEY is required— theenv.JUSTCRAWL_API_KEYfield is missing or empty. Re-check step 2.command not found: npx— Node.js isn't on the PATH Claude Desktop sees. On macOS, install Node via the official installer (not nvm) so it lands in/usr/local/bin, which Claude Desktop searches.401 unauthorized— the API key is malformed or revoked. Generate a fresh one in the dashboard.
No tools show up after a green dot. The server started but no tools registered. Restart Claude Desktop one more time; if it persists, file an issue with the stderr log.
Stderr shows npm error 404 Not Found - GET https://registry.npmjs.org/@justcrawl%2Fmcp-server.
The package isn't published yet (Phase 3). Your config is correct — restart Claude Desktop after the package lands and the same config will spawn the real server.