apitap

ApiTap is an MCP server that lets AI agents browse websites by discovering and replaying internal APIs instead of rendering HTML in a browser. When an agent needs data, ApiTap captures a site's API surface, generates a reusable skill file, and enables direct API calls via fetch() for fast, cost-efficient responses. Tools include discover, capture, read, peek, replay, and more, with optional browser-driven capture for sites requiring authentication. The MCP workflow is designed to minimize token usage while providing structured JSON responses from real APIs.

To use the MCP server, start the ApiTap MCP service and connect your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) to the apitap MCP endpoint. You can then run commands through the MCP interface to capture API behavior from target sites, inspect captured endpoints for domains, and replay endpoints with parameter overrides. If a site requires login, ApiTap can launch a human-assisted browser session to obtain a session and then continue with API-driven replays for subsequent requests.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 20+ and npm
• Optional: a supported browser driver for capture (Playwright) if you plan to use capture/browse

Step-by-step installation:

1. Install the ApiTap core globally (this provides the MCP binary as apitap-mcp and related tools):

npm install -g @apitap/core

2. Verify installation:

apitap-mcp --version

3. Start the MCP server:

apitap-mcp

4. Optional: If you want human-assisted capture in a browser, install Chromium via Playwright:

npx playwright install chromium

5. Connect an MCP client and configure as described in the README (e.g., add an MCP config with the apitap server name and command).

Prerequisites recap:

• Node.js 20+ installed on the machine running ApiTap
• npm access to install global packages
• Network access to install dependencies and run the MCP server

Tips and notes:

• The MCP server name is apitap and the command to start it is apitap-mcp. Use this in your MCP config under mcpServers.
• ApiTap generates skill files under ~/.apitap/skills/ during capture. These files contain domain-specific endpoints and parameterized routes for fast replays.
• For capture and browse features that require a full browser, ensure you have Playwright Chromium installed. The read, peek, and discover tools do not require a browser.
• The optional environment variable setup is not strictly required for the MCP server to run, but may be needed for authentication workflows or advanced integrations. Consider documenting any needed env vars in your deployment environment if you enable those features.
• If you encounter replay failures, check the capture quality (whether endpoints were accurately discovered) and verify network permissions and CORS considerations on the target APIs.