Jina Reader MCP Server

@pipeworx/jina-reader

Turn any URL into clean, LLM-ready markdown, plus web search — via Jina AI Reader.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1856+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

Auth

A Jina API key is required. Jina retired its anonymous tier — both r.jina.ai and s.jina.ai now answer an unauthenticated request with 401 AuthenticationRequiredError. The pack shipped in June 2026 as keyless and that is no longer true of the upstream.

• Platform key: PLATFORM_JINA_KEY, injected by the gateway as _apiKey. Provisioned and live since 2026-09-01 (search verified live against the deployed gateway that day, fleet #719) — callers need no key of their own. It is a FREE key on a fixed token grant, not a monthly reset, so the expected end state is the balance running out rather than the key expiring.
• BYO: pass _apiKey on the call. Free keys at https://jina.ai/reader.

Jina's 401 bodies are distinct and worth reading before assuming a key expired:

A 402 is none of the above: the key is valid and its token balance is spent. The pack says so in those words, and the gateway books it as platform_quota_exhausted — a purchase, not a key to rotate and not a Jina outage. Before 2026-09-01 that status fell through to upstream_down, which would have read as the vendor being broken.

Data sources

• Reader: https://r.jina.ai/ — https://jina.ai/reader
• Search: https://s.jina.ai/

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jina-reader": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/jina-reader/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/jina-reader/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1856+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

Our jina-reader key is reserved for paid accounts, so an anonymous call to POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/read_url needs your own key passed as _apiKey alongside the arguments. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/read_url. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-jina-reader is a local stdio bridge to the Pipeworx gateway: your MCP client starts it with npx, and it forwards every call to the same https://gateway.pipeworx.io/jina-reader/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jina-reader": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-jina-reader"]
    }
  }
}

Without a key it calls anonymously, capped at 50 calls a day. A free account raises that to 200 a day: get a key at https://pipeworx.io/signup and add "env": { "PIPEWORX_API_KEY": "<your key>" } to the server entry. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a hosted connection sends it, so calls are metered and billed exactly as they are there.

It lists only this pack's tools by default. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to also list ask_pipeworx and the other gateway-wide tools.

Behind an HTTPS proxy: Node's built-in fetch does not read HTTPS_PROXY by default. Newer Node releases honour it when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is set; check your Node version's documentation.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Jina Reader data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT