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MCP Webpage Timestamps

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MCP server for extracting webpage creation, modification, and publication timestamps

MCP Webpage Timestamps

npm versionLicense: MITNode.js Version

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for extracting webpage creation, modification, and publication timestamps. This tool is designed for content freshness evaluation, web scraping, and temporal analysis of web content.

Features

  • Comprehensive Timestamp Extraction: Extracts creation, modification, and publication timestamps from webpages
  • Multiple Data Sources: Supports HTML meta tags, HTTP headers, JSON-LD, microdata, OpenGraph, Twitter cards, and heuristic analysis
  • Confidence Scoring: Provides confidence levels (high/medium/low) for extracted timestamps
  • Batch Processing: Extract timestamps from multiple URLs simultaneously
  • Configurable: Customizable timeout, user agent, redirect handling, and heuristic options
  • Production Ready: Robust error handling, comprehensive logging, and TypeScript support

Installation

Quick Install

npm install -g mcp-webpage-timestamps

Usage with npx

npx mcp-webpage-timestamps

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18.0.0 or higher
  • npm or yarn

Development Install

git clone https://github.com/Fabien-desablens/mcp-webpage-timestamps.git
cd mcp-webpage-timestamps
npm install
npm run build

Usage

As MCP Server

The server can be used with any MCP-compatible client. Here's how to configure it:

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webpage-timestamps": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-webpage-timestamps"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}
Cline Configuration

Add to your MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webpage-timestamps": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-webpage-timestamps"]
    }
  }
}

Direct Usage

# Start the server
npm start

# Or run in development mode
npm run dev

API Reference

Tools

extract_timestamps

Extract timestamps from a single webpage.

Parameters:

  • url (string, required): The URL of the webpage to extract timestamps from
  • config (object, optional): Configuration options

Configuration Options:

  • timeout (number): Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 10000)
  • userAgent (string): User agent string for requests
  • followRedirects (boolean): Whether to follow HTTP redirects (default: true)
  • maxRedirects (number): Maximum number of redirects to follow (default: 5)
  • enableHeuristics (boolean): Enable heuristic timestamp detection (default: true)

Example:

{
  "name": "extract_timestamps",
  "arguments": {
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "config": {
      "timeout": 15000,
      "enableHeuristics": true
    }
  }
}
batch_extract_timestamps

Extract timestamps from multiple webpages in batch.

Parameters:

  • urls (array of strings, required): Array of URLs to extract timestamps from
  • config (object, optional): Same configuration options as extract_timestamps

Example:

{
  "name": "batch_extract_timestamps",
  "arguments": {
    "urls": [
      "https://example.com/article1",
      "https://example.com/article2",
      "https://example.com/article3"
    ],
    "config": {
      "timeout": 10000
    }
  }
}

Response Format

Both tools return a JSON object with the following structure:

{
  url: string;
  createdAt?: Date;
  modifiedAt?: Date;
  publishedAt?: Date;
  sources: TimestampSource[];
  confidence: 'high' | 'medium' | 'low';
  errors?: string[];
}

TimestampSource:

{
  type: 'html-meta' | 'http-header' | 'json-ld' | 'microdata' | 'opengraph' | 'twitter' | 'heuristic';
  field: string;
  value: string;
  confidence: 'high' | 'medium' | 'low';
}

Supported Timestamp Sources

HTML Meta Tags

  • article:published_time
  • article:modified_time
  • date
  • pubdate
  • publishdate
  • last-modified
  • dc.date.created
  • dc.date.modified
  • dcterms.created
  • dcterms.modified

HTTP Headers

  • Last-Modified
  • Date

JSON-LD Structured Data

  • datePublished
  • dateModified
  • dateCreated

Microdata

  • datePublished
  • dateModified

OpenGraph

  • og:article:published_time
  • og:article:modified_time
  • og:updated_time

Twitter Cards

  • twitter:data1 (when containing date information)

Heuristic Analysis

  • Time elements with datetime attributes
  • Common date patterns in text
  • Date-related CSS classes

Development

Scripts

# Development with hot reload
npm run dev

# Build the project
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

# Lint code
npm run lint

# Fix linting issues
npm run lint:fix

# Format code
npm run format

Testing

The project includes comprehensive tests:

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run tests with coverage
npm test -- --coverage

# Run specific test file
npm test -- extractor.test.ts

Code Quality

  • TypeScript: Full TypeScript support with strict type checking
  • ESLint: Code linting with recommended rules
  • Prettier: Code formatting
  • Jest: Unit and integration testing
  • 95%+ Test Coverage: Comprehensive test suite

Examples

Basic Usage

import { TimestampExtractor } from './src/extractor.js';

const extractor = new TimestampExtractor();
const result = await extractor.extractTimestamps('https://example.com/article');

console.log('Published:', result.publishedAt);
console.log('Modified:', result.modifiedAt);
console.log('Confidence:', result.confidence);
console.log('Sources:', result.sources.length);

Custom Configuration

const extractor = new TimestampExtractor({
  timeout: 15000,
  userAgent: 'MyBot/1.0',
  enableHeuristics: false,
  maxRedirects: 3
});

const result = await extractor.extractTimestamps('https://example.com');

Batch Processing

const urls = [
  'https://example.com/article1',
  'https://example.com/article2',
  'https://example.com/article3'
];

const results = await Promise.all(
  urls.map(url => extractor.extractTimestamps(url))
);

Use Cases

  • Content Freshness Analysis: Evaluate how recent web content is
  • Web Scraping: Extract temporal metadata from scraped pages
  • SEO Analysis: Analyze publication and modification patterns
  • Research: Study temporal aspects of web content
  • Content Management: Track content lifecycle and updates

Error Handling

The extractor handles various error conditions gracefully:

  • Network Errors: Timeout, connection refused, DNS resolution failures
  • HTTP Errors: 404, 500, and other HTTP status codes
  • Parsing Errors: Invalid HTML, malformed JSON-LD, unparseable dates
  • Configuration Errors: Invalid URLs, timeout values, etc.

All errors are captured in the errors array of the response, allowing for robust error handling and debugging.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Setup

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Clone your fork: git clone https://github.com/Fabien-desablens/mcp-webpage-timestamps.git
  3. Install dependencies: npm install
  4. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
  5. Make your changes
  6. Run tests: npm test
  7. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
  8. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
  9. Submit a pull request

Code Style

  • Follow the existing code style
  • Use TypeScript for all new code
  • Add tests for new functionality
  • Update documentation as needed

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes.

Acknowledgments

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