Charlotte MCP Server

Your AI agent burns ~50,000 characters of accessibility tree just to look at the Hacker News front page. Charlotte does it in 364. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.

People connecting web scraping tools to Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in TypeScript.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-08-21 · ★ 175 · #8 OF 78 MAINTAINED WEB SCRAPING · VERIFIED 2026-08-25

MIT · TypeScript servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Charlotte

before you install - you'll need

CHARLOTTE_NO_SANDBOX is optional or environment-specific per the README.

Claude Code

claude mcp add ticktockbent-charlotte -- npx -y @ticktockbent/charlotte

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ticktockbent-charlotte": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@ticktockbent/charlotte"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.

Using another client? Same JSON, different key

Claude Desktop · mcpServers

Cursor · mcpServers

VS Code · servers

Windsurf · mcpServers

Zed · context_servers

Cline · mcpServers

Roo Code · mcpServers

Continue · mcpServers

LibreChat · mcpServers

Gemini CLI · mcpServers

Codex CLI · mcp_servers

Full setup guides: every client.

02 · Evidence

Security posture

What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.

runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions

license MIT - declared in the repository

npm package @ticktockbent/charlotte - published under the repo owner's npm scope (@ticktockbent)

registry namespace io.github.TickTockBent is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner

03 · What Charlotte can do

Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.

Limitations (from the README)

Shadow DOM - Open shadow DOM works transparently. Chromium's accessibility tree pierces open shadow boundaries, so web components (e.g., GitHub's , ) render their content into Charlotte's representation without special handling. Closed shadow roots are opaque to the accessibility tree and will not be captured.

Latest releases

v0.8.0 · 2026-08-09

Charlotte can now run as a self-hosted remote MCP server and connect to claude.ai as a custom connector - alongside the existing stdio transport. · Try it in one command · bash · docker run --cap-add SYS_ADMIN…

v0.6.1 · 2026-04-09

Fixed · Runtime tool group activation - Tools enabled via charlotte_tools were not callable by MCP clients. Each tool.enable() call triggered a separate sendToolListChanged() notification, flooding the client before…

v0.6.0 · 2026-04-03

Update docs and version for v0.6.0 release (#140) · // ticktockbent

04 · Who maintains Charlotte

charlotte is maintained by ticktockbent. It's the only MCP server we track from this author; the repo dates to Feb 2026.

05 · Facts

repository: github.com/ticktockbent/charlotte
category: web scraping - ranked #8 of 78 actively-maintained web scraping servers as of 2026-08-25.
release cadence: 1 release in the last 90 days (latest 2026-08-09)
registry: io.github.TickTockBent/charlotte (active, first published 2026-02-22)
packages: npm:@ticktockbent/charlotte

06 · Charlotte FAQ

What is Charlotte?

Your AI agent burns ~50,000 characters of accessibility tree just to look at the Hacker News front page. Charlotte does it in 364. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.

Is Charlotte still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-08-25, its last commit was 2026-08-21 and it shipped 1 release in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.

How do I install Charlotte?

Run `npx -y @ticktockbent/charlotte`. The README documents one environment variable (CHARLOTTE_NO_SANDBOX) to set first. CHARLOTTE_NO_SANDBOX is optional or environment-specific per the README. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Charlotte run locally?

Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via npx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.

07 · Alternatives to Charlotte

Alternatives to Charlotte

Maintained web scraping servers if Charlotte isn't the fit.

Pairs well with

Servers that cover what Charlotte doesn't - only shown when the pairing reason fits the companion.

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