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Implement Mechanism to Exclude Specific <div> Elements by ID or Class Name in Fetch MCP Server #841
Description
Description:
We propose enhancing the Fetch MCP Server by introducing a feature that allows users to exclude certain
Problem Statement:
Currently, when fetching content from webpages with extensive sidebars or navigation menus—such as a lengthy index on the left side—the server retrieves these sections in large chunks (e.g., 20,000 tokens at a time). This can lead to inefficiencies, as large language models (LLMs) may process these sizable, non-essential sections first and prematurely determine that the website is unsuitable for the query, thereby diverting to alternative approaches. This behavior hampers the effectiveness of data retrieval and processing, especially when the main content is overshadowed by voluminous ancillary sections.
Use Case:
Consider a webpage where the left sidebar contains an extensive index with numerous items, each enclosed within
Proposed Solution:
Introduce a configuration option within the Fetch MCP Server that enables users to specify a list of ids and/or class names corresponding to
1. Configuration File: Allow users to define the ids and class names to exclude within the server’s configuration file.
2. API Parameters: Introduce API parameters that accept arrays of ids and class names to exclude during a fetch request.
Benefits:
• Enhanced Data Relevance: By excluding non-essential
• Optimized Token Utilization: Reducing the amount of irrelevant content helps in staying within token limits of LLMs, thereby preventing premature termination of processing due to token overflows. 
• Improved Processing Efficiency: With less extraneous data to handle, the overall efficiency of data processing workflows is enhanced, leading to faster and more accurate outcomes.
Potential Challenges:
• Complexity in Implementation: Accurately identifying and excluding specified
• User Configuration Errors: Incorrectly specified ids or class names could lead to unintended exclusions, necessitating robust validation and clear documentation to guide users in configuring exclusions appropriately.
References:
The need to manage large content sections during data processing with LLMs has been discussed in various forums. For instance, strategies to handle large HTML documents for LLMs with limited token sizes have been explored, highlighting the importance of content segmentation to optimize processing efficiency. 
Conclusion:
Implementing a feature to exclude specific
Thank you for considering this feature request.
Activity
cliffhall commentedon Oct 19, 2026
Closing: out of scope for the reference servers.
Thank you for the suggestion, and apologies for the long wait for a response.
These servers are reference implementations: they exist to show how each part of MCP is used, not to be general-purpose products, so new features are taken selectively (
CONTRIBUTING.md). Per-site element exclusion by id or class is content-extraction tuning, not an MCP protocol feature, and does not fit the fetch reference server's purpose. This is not a judgment on the idea or on you; a server in the MCP Registry may well offer it, and anyone is welcome to build on these servers to do so. This is happening as part of the backlog triage in #4875.