setup

name	setup
description	This skill should be used when the user asks to "verify web search setup", "check search services", "test firecrawl connection", "test exa connection", "is jina working", "check perplexity MCP", or needs to confirm which web search and scraping services are operational.

Web Search Services Setup Verification

Verify which search and scraping services are connected and operational.

Service Availability Check

Run one lightweight call per service to confirm connectivity. Not all services need to be active — the plugin works with any subset.

1. Firecrawl

Tool: firecrawl_search
Input: { "query": "test", "limit": 1 }

Expected: Returns search results. If error, check FIRECRAWL_API_TOKEN — the env var this plugin's .mcp.json maps to the server's FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.

2. Exa

Tool: web_search_exa
Input: { "query": "test", "numResults": 1 }

Expected: Returns results with URLs. If error, check Exa API key.

3. Perplexity

Tool: perplexity_search
Input: { "query": "test" }

Expected: Returns AI-synthesized answer. If error, check PERPLEXITY_API_KEY.

4. Jina

Tool: read_url
Input: { "url": "https://example.com" }

Expected: Returns markdown content. Works without API key (rate-limited), with key for full access.

5. Context7

Tool: resolve-library-id
Input: { "libraryName": "react" }

Expected: Returns library ID like /facebook/react. API key optional — keyless works with low rate limits; a key (context7.com/dashboard) grants higher limits and private repos.

6. Media Services (Pexels / Unsplash)

Check if media search tools are available in your session:

Tool: searchPhotos (Pexels)
Input: { "query": "nature", "per_page": 1 }

Tool: get_search_photos (Unsplash)
Input: { "query": "nature", "per_page": 1 }

Media services require separate MCP configuration — they are not bundled with this plugin.

Service Status Summary

After running checks, report which services are available:

Service	Status	Capabilities
Firecrawl	Connected / Not available	scrape, crawl, search, extract, parse, agent, interact, monitors, research/developer search
Exa	Connected / Not available	semantic search, page fetch
Perplexity	Connected / Not available	AI search, research, reasoning
Jina	Connected / Not available	read pages, search, images, classify, deduplicate
Context7	Connected / Not available	framework documentation search
Pexels	Connected / Not available	stock photos and videos
Unsplash	Connected / Not available	stock photos

Working with Partial Availability

Not all services need to be active — the plugin works with any subset. Here's what you can do with common combinations:

Available Services	You Can Do
Firecrawl only	Scrape, crawl, search, extract structured data, live-page interaction, parse files, monitor changes
Jina only	Read pages, search web, image search, classify, deduplicate, batch ops
Exa only	Semantic search, page fetch, domain-scoped search
Perplexity only	AI Q&A, research, reasoning with citations
Context7 only	Framework/library documentation search
Firecrawl + Jina	Full scraping pipeline with fallbacks
Any service + Context7	Dev workflow with doc search

If a recommended tool is unavailable, the mcp-patterns skill routing table shows fallback alternatives for every task.

Common Issues

Symptom	Cause	Fix
npx command not found	Node.js not installed	Install Node.js 18+
401 Unauthorized	Invalid API key	Check key in plugin settings or regenerate
Connection timeout	Network or firewall	Check internet connectivity
MCP server not starting	npm package issue	Run npx -y firecrawl-mcp manually to see errors
Tool not found	MCP server not configured	Check .mcp.json or Claude Code MCP settings

What This Skill Does NOT Cover

• Creating API accounts — visit each service's website to sign up
• Configuring MCP servers from scratch — the plugin's .mcp.json handles this automatically