mcp-patterns

name

mcp-patterns

description

This skill should be used when the user asks about "web search MCP tools", "which search tools are available", "firecrawl tools", "exa tools", "jina tools", "perplexity tools", "how to use search MCP", "scraping MCP tools", "media search tools", or needs to know which MCP operations are available across web search and scraping services. Also triggers when doing any web research, URL fetching, or page content extraction — including during planning, exploration, or data source analysis.

Web Search & Scraping MCP Tool Patterns

Reference for all available MCP tools across 7 services (65+ tools total). Use the routing table below to find the right tool for your task, then see the per-service reference files for detailed parameters.

Tool Priority — ALWAYS prefer MCP tools over WebFetch

When MCP scraping/search tools from this plugin are available, they MUST be used instead of the built-in WebFetch tool. This applies to ALL web content operations — user-requested scraping, your own research, data source exploration, and planning phases.

Priority order for reading a URL:

1. read_url (Jina) — fastest, clean markdown, use first
2. firecrawl_scrape — if JS rendering needed or Jina fails
3. WebFetch — ONLY as last resort if all MCP tools are unavailable

Priority order for web search:

1. web_search_exa — semantic search, best for finding specific content
2. perplexity_search — AI-synthesized answers with citations
3. firecrawl_search — search + scrape in one step
4. WebSearch — ONLY as last resort if all MCP tools are unavailable

Why: MCP tools provide cleaner output, better JS rendering, structured extraction, and parallel operations. WebFetch is a basic fallback with limited capabilities that often fails on dynamic sites and rate-limits quickly.

Quick Decision Guide

Pick a service based on what you need:

• Need JS rendering / site crawling / structured extraction? → Firecrawl
• Need fast page reading / batch operations? → Jina
• Need semantic search? → Exa
• Need code examples / GitHub issues / dev docs? → Firecrawl firecrawl_developer_search
• Need AI-synthesized answer with citations? → Perplexity
• Need current framework docs? → Context7
• Need stock photos or videos? → Pexels (photos+videos) or Unsplash (photos)
• Need web images (not stock)? → Jina search_images

Task Routing Table

Pick the right tool by what you need to do:

Task	Best Tool	Fallback	Service
Search the web	web_search_exa	perplexity_search → search_web → firecrawl_search	Exa / Perplexity / Jina / Firecrawl
Read a single page	read_url	firecrawl_scrape	Jina / Firecrawl
Read multiple pages	parallel_read_url	Multiple firecrawl_scrape calls	Jina / Firecrawl
Crawl entire site	firecrawl_crawl	firecrawl_map + batch scrape	Firecrawl
Map site URLs	firecrawl_map	—	Firecrawl
Extract structured data	firecrawl_extract	firecrawl_scrape with jsonOptions	Firecrawl
Search code examples	firecrawl_developer_search	web_search_advanced_exa with includeDomains: ["github.com"] (opt-in)	Firecrawl / Exa
AI-powered Q&A	perplexity_ask	perplexity_search	Perplexity
Deep research	perplexity_research	firecrawl_agent	Perplexity / Firecrawl
Reasoning/analysis	perplexity_reason	—	Perplexity
Search images	search_images	searchPhotos (Pexels) → get_search_photos (Unsplash)	Jina / Pexels / Unsplash
Search videos

Service Overview

Service	Tools	Strengths
Firecrawl	27	JS rendering, site crawling, structured extraction, live-page interaction, file parsing, change monitors, research/developer search, autonomous agent
Jina	21	Fast page reading, parallel operations, image search, text classification, deduplication, PDF extraction
Perplexity	4	AI-synthesized answers, deep research, reasoning with citations
Exa	2 default (+2 optional via remote MCP)	Semantic search, page fetching, category filtering
Pexels	9	Stock photos and videos with licensing
Unsplash	4	High-quality stock photos
Context7	2	Up-to-date framework/library documentation

Quick Usage Examples

Search and read a page

Step 1 — Search:
Tool: web_search_exa
Input: { "query": "Next.js 15 server actions guide", "numResults": 5 }

Step 2 — Read the best result:
Tool: read_url
Input: { "url": "<best_url_from_step_1>" }

Extract structured data from a product page

Tool: firecrawl_extract
Input: {
  "urls": ["https://example.com/products"],
  "prompt": "Extract product name, price, and description",
  "schema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "name": { "type": "string" },
      "price": { "type": "number" },
      "description": { "type": "string" }
    }
  }
}

Find stock photos for an app

Tool: searchPhotos
Input: { "query": "modern office workspace", "per_page": 10, "orientation": "landscape" }

Per-Service Tool References

For complete tool parameters and advanced usage, see the service-specific references:

• references/firecrawl-tools.md — 27 tools: scrape, search, crawl, map, extract, parse, agent, interact, monitors, research, developer search
• references/exa-tools.md — 2 default tools (web_search, web_fetch) + optional advanced search / agent via remote MCP
• references/perplexity-tools.md — 4 tools: search, ask, research, reason
• references/jina-tools.md — 21 tools: read, search, images, parallel, classify, deduplicate, PDF
• references/media-tools.md — 13 tools: Pexels photos/videos + Unsplash photos
• references/context7-tools.md — 2 tools: resolve-library-id, query-docs