Webclaw vs ShadowCrawl

A side-by-side look at the Webclaw and ShadowCrawl MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.

WebclawOther Tools and Integrations · Local subprocess (stdio)Web content extraction for AI agents. 10 tools: scrape, crawl, map, batch, extract, summarize, diff, brand, search, research. TLS fingerprinting bypasses anti-bot without a browser. 67% fewer tokens than raw HTML. npx create-webclaw auto-configures Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, OpenCode.71GreatAuth: no auth required

ShadowCrawlSearch & Data Extraction · Remote HTTP/SSERust MCP stealth scraper: anti-bot search/scrape with CDP fallback + HITL non-robot.44FairAuth: not declared

Verdict: choose Webclaw for other tools and integrations work as a local process; choose ShadowCrawl for search & data extraction over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.

Which MCP server should you choose?

Choose Webclaw when

You need dedicated capabilities in the Other Tools and Integrations domain.
You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
Its auth model fits you: No auth required.
You want tools like scrape, crawl, map.

Explore Webclaw

Choose ShadowCrawl when

You need dedicated capabilities in the Search & Data Extraction domain.
You prefer a remote HTTP/SSE transport.
You have the keys it needs: CORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECS, CORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECS_SCRAPE_URL, CORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECS_SEARCH_STRUCTURED, CORTEX_SCOUT_PORT, PORT, RUST_LOG.

Explore ShadowCrawl

Feature & specification comparison

Rows where the two servers differ are marked.

Spec	Webclaw	ShadowCrawl
Category	Other Tools and Integrations	Search & Data Extraction
Quality signal	71/100 · Great	44/100 · Fair
Install command	Confirmed	Confirmed
Transport	Local subprocess (stdio)	Remote HTTP/SSE
Auth	No auth required	Not declared
Pricing	Free	Not declared
Required env vars	None listed	`CORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECSCORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECS_SCRAPE_URLCORTEX_SCOUT_TOOL_TIMEOUT_SECS_SEARCH_STRUCTUREDCORTEX_SCOUT_PORTPORTRUST_LOG`
Verified owner	Community listing	Community listing
GitHub stars	2,373	70
Directory activity	13 views 2 installs 0 upvotes	1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes
Tools	10	Not listed
Full listing	View Webclaw	View ShadowCrawl

Tools & capabilities

Webclaw tools 10

scrapeExtract one URL as markdown, text, JSON, LLM format, or HTML
crawlFollow same-origin links and extract discovered pages
mapDiscover URLs without extracting every page
batchScrape multiple URLs in parallel
extractConvert page content into structured data
summarizeSummarize a page
diffCompare page content snapshots
brandExtract colors, fonts, logos, and metadata
searchSearch the web and scrape results
researchMulti-source research workflow

ShadowCrawl tools

No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.

Ready-to-paste client configs

Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.

Webclaw

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "0xmassi-webclaw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "create-webclaw"
      ]
    }
  }
}

ShadowCrawl

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shadowcrawl": {
      "url": "https://api.openai.com/v1"
    }
  }
}

Frequently asked questions

Webclaw is categorized under Other Tools and Integrations and uses a local stdio subprocess. ShadowCrawl belongs to Search & Data Extraction and uses a remote HTTP/SSE transport. Pick Webclaw for other tools and integrations work and ShadowCrawl for search & data extraction.

Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.

Webclaw is listed as free. Auth: no auth required. ShadowCrawl has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.

Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add 0xmassi-webclaw and shadowcrawl as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.

On AllMCPs, Webclaw has a quality signal of 71/100 (Great) with 13 views, 2 installs and 2,373 GitHub stars. ShadowCrawl has 44/100 (Fair) with 1 views, 0 installs and 70 GitHub stars.