Setup Guide
From zero to first MCP capture in 5 minutes
Connect your AI to your browser. Everything you need — install, authenticate, configure, capture.
The MCP connector needs the E2LLM MCP extension, which lets your AI read and act in your browser. Install it from your browser's store:
Chrome Web Store → · Microsoft Edge Add-ons → · Firefox Add-ons → — or download the Chrome build directly (.zip).
Installing the direct .zip? Unzip it, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, then click Load unpacked and select the folder. Full steps and other builds are in the setup wizard.
Not the same as the capture extension. E2LLM also ships a standalone capture-only extension under a separate store listing — that one captures pages for export and does not provide MCP tools. Make sure you install the E2LLM MCP extension linked above.
Using Edge? Exclude the target site from Edge's sleeping-tabs feature, or keep its tab focused while your AI is working. A sleeping tab can leave tab listing connected while page capture stays busy.
Tip: After installation, you'll see the E2LLM icon in your browser toolbar. Click it to open the extension popup.
Click the E2LLM extension icon and sign in with Google, Microsoft, GitHub, or email. Your account starts on the Free tier — all features included. See current limits.
The extension popup will show your account status and a green "Connected" indicator once authenticated.
Copy the MCP configuration from your dashboard and paste it into your AI tool's settings.
Claude Code:
// Add to Claude Code MCP settings:
"e2llm": {
"type": "url",
"url": "https://mcp.e2llm.com/mcp"
}
OpenAI Codex:
# Run in terminal:
codex mcp add e2llm --url https://mcp.e2llm.com/mcp
Cursor / VS Code — and other MCP-compatible clients:
// Add to MCP settings:
"e2llm": {
"url": "https://mcp.e2llm.com/mcp"
}
ChatGPT (web) — add E2LLM as a custom connector:
Needs a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Team, or Business) — custom MCP connectors aren't available on Free. First turn on developer mode: Settings → Security and login → Developer mode → toggle on. ChatGPT flags this "Elevated risk" — it lets you add unverified connectors that could modify or erase data — which is expected, and required to add a custom connector like E2LLM.
- In a chat, click the + in the top-right corner and choose add a connector.
- Fill in the connector screen — the same values every E2LLM account uses:
Name e2llm
Server address https://mcp.e2llm.com/mcp
- Enable the connector in the conversation — this is a per-chat toggle, not a global one. If ChatGPT says the connector isn't attached to the conversation, enable it there.
- The first use starts an OAuth sign-in — authorize with your E2LLM account and the connector is live.
Connector stopped responding after a while? A connector left idle can sit on an expired connector session — re-authenticate from the connector's settings to reconnect.
We test Claude Code and Codex on the command line, and Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, and Perplexity as connectors. Cursor, VS Code, Gemini, and other MCP-compatible clients use the same URL and should work — we just haven't individually tested each. Verification is point-in-time; these clients ship on their own cadence.
What your AI client's own plan needs. These are the AI vendors' requirements, not E2LLM plans — your E2LLM tier is separate. Claude offers custom connectors on every plan it lists — Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise — and Free includes one; on Team and Enterprise only an owner can add a connector for the organization, and members then connect to it. ChatGPT needs a paid plan and developer mode, as described in its section above. Perplexity's add panel may show no tools — connect anyway; they work at runtime.
Open any website in your browser. Then ask your AI:
"Capture the current page and tell me what you see."
Your AI will call sifr_capture, receive a structured SiFR snapshot of the page, and describe what's on screen — elements, buttons, forms, content. All in 2-5K tokens instead of 200-400K raw HTML.
That's it. Your AI can now see and act in your browser. Try: "Click the search button", "Fill in the email field", "Scroll down and read the footer."
Extension shows "Disconnected": Refresh the page (F5), then try again. If still disconnected, close and reopen Chrome/Firefox.
"No response from content script": The page's content script may have been unloaded. Refresh the target page and retry.
AI tool can't connect: Make sure the extension is signed in with the same account. Check that the MCP config URL is exactly https://mcp.e2llm.com/mcp.
Known limitation: Some custom date pickers, rich text editors (TipTap/ProseMirror), and heavily dynamic widgets may require multiple capture-act cycles. Your AI will adapt automatically.