Automating Web Scraping with MCP: Control Your Browser Using AI
Web scraping has reached a new level of sophistication with Model Control Protocol (MCP), a powerful tool that enables AI to take control of your browser. This technology allows you to automate web interactions without physically clicking or typing anything.
MCP works by letting applications like Cursor control other software, including real browsers. The result is seamless automation where the AI handles all the interactions—searching properties on Redfin, filtering listings, and analyzing data—all without human intervention.
Setting Up MCP for Web Scraping
To get started with MCP-powered web scraping, you’ll need a few prerequisites:
- Install Node.js and Python (verify installation by checking versions in terminal)
- Install Playwright, Microsoft’s browser automation library, using the terminal
- Install Playwright MCP from Microsoft’s official page
- Configure Cursor to use the MCP server
When setting up in Cursor, navigate to Preferences > Cursor Settings > MCP tab, then add a new global MCP server by pasting the installation command. A green indicator next to the MCP server means it’s ready to use.
Running Your First Automated Web Scraping Tasks
Once configured, you can test your setup by instructing Cursor to perform web tasks like loading websites. When using agent mode in Cursor, you can give natural language commands such as:
- “Load YouTube homepage”
- “Go to Redfin, look for properties in Los Angeles”
- “Only look at properties for sale”
- “Look for properties under $300,000”
- “Go through the top five results for me”
The AI executes these commands by controlling the browser directly—navigating to sites, clicking filters, entering search parameters, and even summarizing the information it finds.
From Manual Commands to Full Automation
While giving individual commands through the interface works well, the real power comes from creating fully automated workflows. This involves setting up scripts that can run the entire scraping process from start to finish without requiring manual input for each step.
The technology enables AI to function like a digital intern, handling repetitive web tasks while you focus on analyzing the collected data and making decisions based on the results.
Advanced automation can help with real estate market analysis, competitive research, price monitoring, and many other data-intensive tasks that previously required hours of manual browsing and data collection.
The Future of AI-Powered Web Interaction
As tools like MCP continue to evolve, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in how we interact with web data. Rather than manually navigating sites and extracting information, we can now describe what we need in natural language and let AI handle the mechanics.
This represents a significant step forward in making web data more accessible and useful, reducing the technical barriers to gathering information from across the internet.