Web Validator by DigestSEO

Web Validator by DigestSEO

An MCP server for HTML and CSS validation, technical SEO and accessibility checks, JSON-LD syntax validation, broken-link checks, and responsive screenshots. It is part of the DigestSEO suite of open-source SEO tools.

• Product: digestseo.com/validator-mcp
• Engineering case study: DigestSEO MCP Suite — AI visibility, Search Console, web validation, and trend intelligence
• Documentation: this README
• Support: digestseo.com/support
• Privacy: digestseo.com/privacy

Choose the right surface

This repository contains two deliberately separate MCP surfaces:

Local installation:

npx -y mcp-web-validator

Hosted endpoint:

https://web-validator-mcp.digestseo.com/mcp

Requirements

• Node.js 22.12.0 or newer
• An MCP client that supports stdio, or a client that supports Streamable HTTP for the hosted endpoint

The validation, SEO, schema, link, and report tools do not download a browser during installation. The local screenshot.capture tool installs its pinned headless browser into Puppeteer's cache on first use, then reuses that browser for later screenshots. Set PUPPETEER_CACHE_DIR if you need a custom cache location.

Tools

The npm package exposes these exact runtime tool names:

For direct Node.js integrations, auditSeoMetadata(html, xRobotsTag) and auditSeoMetadataDetailed(html, xRobotsTag) from dist/seo-auditor.js accept an optional caller-observed X-Robots-Tag HTTP response-header value. Separate multiple header fields with newlines. This inspection is offline and never fetches headers; the MCP seo.metadata tool still analyzes supplied HTML only.

Hosted app tools

The hosted app exposes eight tools:

audit_public_webpage follows at most three validated redirects, accepts a bounded text/html response, and records the final URL. It does not crawl additional pages, execute JavaScript, authenticate, or fetch linked stylesheets and assets. audit_public_site first locks the final public origin, then reads bounded robots.txt plus same-origin XML Sitemap, RSS 2.0, Atom 1.0, and plain-text sitemap representations before auditing at most eight eligible sitemap pages in one call. Robots discovery may follow up to five validated public redirects across authorities, as defined by the robots protocol; the resulting rules and relative Sitemap directives are still interpreted for the originally audited authority. Sitemap entries and audited pages remain same-origin, and private/reserved destinations, credentials, custom ports, service self-fetches, and HTTPS-to-HTTP redirect downgrades are rejected. The tool never follows HTML links or external sitemap entries; use page_offset when the response says more eligible pages remain. The fetched HTML is sent to https://html5.validator.nu/, the same external Nu HTML Checker used by validate_html and the report tool. CSS parsing, SEO analysis, and JSON-LD parsing run inside the DigestSEO Worker. Optional link checks make capped HEAD requests, with a bounded GET fallback where necessary, to eligible public HTTP(S) URLs; link redirects are reported but not followed. The site tool intentionally does not perform site-wide link checking. The hosted app does not retain tool inputs, fetched HTML, or results.

Privacy Policy

Only validate files, markup, and public webpages that you own or are authorized to inspect. Public page URLs can contain sensitive query values, so remove tokens and private identifiers before submitting them. Do not submit passwords, API keys, access tokens, payment data, health data, private source code, or other sensitive personal data.

The local server runs with the same operating-system permissions as its MCP client. Review tool inputs before approving file access, outbound validation, link checking, or screenshot creation. The hosted app has no access to your local filesystem.

See the published privacy policy for data-handling details and SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reporting.

Configure a local client

Claude Desktop

Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json:

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

{

"mcpServers": { "mcp-web-validator": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-web-validator"] } } }

Restart Claude Desktop after saving the configuration.

Cursor and compatible clients

Create a command/stdio MCP server with:

npx -y mcp-web-validator

This repository also includes a Cursor Marketplace plugin manifest. After the plugin is published, install Web Validator by DigestSEO from Cursor's Marketplace or add the repository from Cursor's plugin UI. The plugin bundles the same local stdio server and does not require API keys or environment variables.

Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot

In VS Code, run MCP: Add Server from the Command Palette and choose Command (stdio) with npx -y mcp-web-validator. Or add the following to your own workspace's .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code format):

{

"servers": { "mcp-web-validator": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-web-validator"] } } }

For a remote-only connection, use this server entry instead (no local Node.js required, but local-file and screenshot tools are unavailable):

{

"servers": { "mcp-web-validator-hosted": { "type": "http", "url": "https://web-validator-mcp.digestseo.com/mcp" } } }

Open MCP: List Servers to start/check the connection. In Copilot Agent chat, ask it to run seo.metadata on an HTML snippet you provide (input field htmlContent) and report its metadata issues. This is an offline, no-network smoke test of the local stdio server; it should return structured issues and totalIssues without contacting W3C or fetching a webpage. Use the local server for this check, since the hosted surface has different tool names.

The repository also contains a portable root .mcp.json for compatible Copilot harness clients. Its top-level key is mcpServers, not servers; do not copy that object unchanged into .vscode/mcp.json. VS Code's MCP configuration reference explains the file formats and supported scopes. Review tool permissions before allowing outbound validation or filesystem-writing screenshot calls.

OpenAI Codex

Codex CLI can add the published local stdio package directly:

codex mcp add mcp-web-validator -- npx -y mcp-web-validator

Or add the existing hosted Streamable HTTP surface instead:

codex mcp add mcp-web-validator-hosted --url https://web-validator-mcp.digestseo.com/mcp

Verify either configuration with:

codex mcp list

The local package includes workspace-file validation and responsive screenshot capture. The hosted surface is remote-only and cannot access local files or create screenshots.

Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI supports local stdio MCP servers. Add the published package with:

gemini mcp add mcp-web-validator npx -y mcp-web-validator

This writes the server definition to Gemini CLI's MCP configuration. No API keys or environment variables are required by Web Validator.

GitHub Copilot CLI

Add the published local stdio server with:

copilot mcp add mcp-web-validator -- npx -y mcp-web-validator

When Copilot CLI is started inside a clone of this repository, it can also discover the checked-in root .mcp.json, which already points mcp-web-validator at npx -y mcp-web-validator.

Kiro

[](https://kiro.dev/launch/mcp/add?name=mc