MCP server

Connect Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients to shotkit to take screenshots and read pages as Markdown.

shotkit runs a remote Model Context Protocol server at https://shotkit.net/mcp. Add it to your MCP client with your access key, and your agent can screenshot pages and read them as Markdown. There's nothing to install.

Tools

Tool	What it does
`screenshot`	Renders a URL, HTML or Markdown and returns the screenshot as an image the model can see, plus its URL. PDF, GIF and video come back as a link. Takes the same options as the API, apart from async, webhook and vision options.
`page_to_markdown`	Loads a URL in a real browser and returns its content as Markdown. `selector` narrows it to the part that matters.

Tool calls count as API requests: they use your plan's rate limit and monthly screenshots, and cached results are free. If your workspace requires signed requests, MCP calls are rejected, because they can't be signed.

Authentication

Send your access key from the API keys page in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY

X-Access-Key: YOUR_ACCESS_KEY works as well. For clients that can't set headers, put it in the server URL: https://shotkit.net/mcp?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY. Keep that URL private, since it contains the key.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http shotkit https://shotkit.net/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"

Cursor

In ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shotkit": {
      "url": "https://shotkit.net/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

In .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "shotkit": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://shotkit.net/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Clients that only run local servers

For clients that only start local (stdio) servers, such as Claude Desktop's config file, bridge to the remote server with mcp-remote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shotkit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://shotkit.net/mcp", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

Tips for agents

Ask for block_cookie_banners and block_ads to get clean captures.
Keep screenshots small enough for the model: format jpg with image_width around 1024. Full-page captures of long pages can be too tall for some clients, so cap them with full_page_max_height.
Use page_to_markdown to read a page's text, and screenshot to check how it looks. See AI agents for more patterns.