LinkedIn MCP Server

Transport Modes:

• Default (stdio): Standard communication for local MCP servers
• Streamable HTTP: For web-based MCP server
• If no transport is specified, the server defaults to stdio
• An interactive terminal without explicit transport shows a chooser prompt

CLI Options:

• --login - Open browser to log in and save persistent profile
• --no-headless - Show browser window (useful for debugging scraping issues)
• --log-level {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR} - Set logging level (default: WARNING)
• --transport {stdio,streamable-http} - Optional: force transport mode (default: stdio)
• --host HOST - HTTP server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
• --port PORT - HTTP server port (default: 8000)
• --path PATH - HTTP server path (default: /mcp)
• --logout - Clear stored LinkedIn browser profile
• --timeout MS - Browser timeout for page operations in milliseconds (default: 5000)
• --user-data-dir PATH - Path to persistent browser profile directory (default: ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile)
• --chrome-path PATH - Path to Chrome/Chromium executable (for custom browser installations)

Basic Usage Examples:

# Run with debug logging
uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp@latest --log-level DEBUG

HTTP Mode Example (for web-based MCP clients):

uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp@latest --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080 --path /mcp

Runtime server logs are emitted by FastMCP/Uvicorn.

Tool calls are serialized within a single server process to protect the shared LinkedIn browser session. Concurrent client requests queue instead of running in parallel. Use --log-level DEBUG to see scraper lock wait/acquire/release logs.

Test with mcp inspector:

1. Install and run mcp inspector bunx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
2. Click pre-filled token url to open the inspector in your browser
3. Select Streamable HTTP as Transport Type
4. Set URL to http://localhost:8080/mcp
5. Connect
6. Test tools

Installation issues:

• Ensure you have uv installed: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
• Check uv version: uv --version (should be 0.4.0 or higher)
• On first run, uvx downloads all Python dependencies. On slow connections, uv's default 30s HTTP timeout may be too short. The recommended config above already sets UV_HTTP_TIMEOUT=300 (seconds) to avoid this.

Session issues:

• Browser profile is stored at ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/
• Managed browser downloads are cached at ~/.linkedin-mcp/patchright-browsers/
• Make sure you have only one active LinkedIn session at a time

Login issues:

• LinkedIn may require a login confirmation in the LinkedIn mobile app for --login
• You might get a captcha challenge if you logged in frequently. Run uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp@latest --login which opens a browser where you can solve it manually.

Timeout issues:

• If pages fail to load or elements aren't found, try increasing the timeout: --timeout 10000
• Users on slow connections may need higher values (e.g., 15000-30000ms)
• Can also set via environment variable: TIMEOUT=10000

Custom Chrome path:

• If Chrome is installed in a non-standard location, use --chrome-path /path/to/chrome
• Can also set via environment variable: CHROME_PATH=/path/to/chrome

First-time setup behavior:

• Claude Desktop starts the bundle immediately; browser setup continues in the background
• If the Patchright Chromium browser is still downloading, retry the tool after a short wait
• Managed browser downloads are shared under ~/.linkedin-mcp/patchright-browsers/

Login issues:

• Make sure you have only one active LinkedIn session at a time
• LinkedIn may require a login confirmation in the LinkedIn mobile app for --login
• You might get a captcha challenge if you logged in frequently. Run uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp@latest --login which opens a browser where you can solve captchas manually. See the uvx setup for prerequisites.

Timeout issues:

• If pages fail to load or elements aren't found, try increasing the timeout: --timeout 10000
• Users on slow connections may need higher values (e.g., 15000-30000ms)
• Can also set via environment variable: TIMEOUT=10000

Transport Modes:

• Default (stdio): Standard communication for local MCP servers
• Streamable HTTP: For a web-based MCP server
• If no transport is specified, the server defaults to stdio
• An interactive terminal without explicit transport shows a chooser prompt

CLI Options:

• --log-level {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR} - Set logging level (default: WARNING)
• --transport {stdio,streamable-http} - Optional: force transport mode (default: stdio)
• --host HOST - HTTP server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
• --port PORT - HTTP server port (default: 8000)
• --path PATH - HTTP server path (default: /mcp)
• --logout - Clear all stored LinkedIn auth state, including source and derived runtime profiles
• --timeout MS - Browser timeout for page operations in milliseconds (default: 5000)
• --user-data-dir PATH - Path to persistent browser profile directory (default: ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile)
• --chrome-path PATH - Path to Chrome/Chromium executable (rarely needed in Docker)

[!NOTE] --login and --no-headless are not available in Docker (no display server). Use the uvx setup to create profiles.

HTTP Mode Example (for web-based MCP clients):

docker run -it --rm \
  -v ~/.linkedin-mcp:/home/pwuser/.linkedin-mcp \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  stickerdaniel/linkedin-mcp-server:latest \
  --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 --path /mcp

Runtime server logs are emitted by FastMCP/Uvicorn.

Test with mcp inspector:

1. Install and run mcp inspector bunx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
2. Click pre-filled token url to open the inspector in your browser
3. Select Streamable HTTP as Transport Type
4. Set URL to http://localhost:8080/mcp
5. Connect
6. Test tools

Docker issues:

• Make sure Docker is installed
• Check if Docker is running: docker ps

Login issues:

• Make sure you have only one active LinkedIn session at a time
• LinkedIn may require a login confirmation in the LinkedIn mobile app for --login
• You might get a captcha challenge if you logged in frequently. Run uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp@latest --login which opens a browser where you can solve captchas manually. See the uvx setup for prerequisites.
• If Docker auth becomes stale after you re-login on the host, restart Docker once so it can fresh-bridge from the new source session generation.

Timeout issues:

• If pages fail to load or elements aren't found, try increasing the timeout: --timeout 10000
• Users on slow connections may need higher values (e.g., 15000-30000ms)
• Can also set via environment variable: TIMEOUT=10000

Custom Chrome path:

• If Chrome is installed in a non-standard location, use --chrome-path /path/to/chrome
• Can also set via environment variable: CHROME_PATH=/path/to/chrome

CLI Options:

• --login - Open browser to log in and save persistent profile
• --no-headless - Show browser window (useful for debugging scraping issues)
• --log-level {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR} - Set logging level (default: WARNING)
• --transport {stdio,streamable-http} - Optional: force transport mode (default: stdio)
• --host HOST - HTTP server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
• --port PORT - HTTP server port (default: 8000)
• --path PATH - HTTP server path (default: /mcp)
• --logout - Clear stored LinkedIn browser profile
• --timeout MS - Browser timeout for page operations in milliseconds (default: 5000)
• --status - Check if current session is valid and exit
• --user-data-dir PATH - Path to persistent browser profile directory (default: ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile)
• --slow-mo MS - Delay between browser actions in milliseconds (default: 0, useful for debugging)
• --user-agent STRING - Custom browser user agent
• --viewport WxH - Browser viewport size (default: 1280x720)
• --chrome-path PATH - Path to Chrome/Chromium executable (for custom browser installations)
• --help - Show help

Note: Most CLI options have environment variable equivalents. See .env.example for details.

HTTP Mode Example (for web-based MCP clients):

uv run -m linkedin_mcp_server --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000 --path /mcp

Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/linkedin-mcp-server", "run", "-m", "linkedin_mcp_server"]
    }
  }
}

stdio is used by default for this config.

Login issues:

• Make sure you have only one active LinkedIn session at a time
• LinkedIn may require a login confirmation in the LinkedIn mobile app for --login
• You might get a captcha challenge if you logged in frequently. The --login command opens a browser where you can solve it manually.

Scraping issues:

• Use --no-headless to see browser actions and debug scraping problems
• Add --log-level DEBUG to see more detailed logging

Session issues:

• Browser profile is stored at ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/
• Use --logout to clear the profile and start fresh

Python/Patchright issues:

• Check Python version: python --version (should be 3.12+)
• Reinstall Patchright: uv run patchright install chromium
• Reinstall dependencies: uv sync --reinstall

Timeout issues:

• If pages fail to load or elements aren't found, try increasing the timeout: --timeout 10000
• Users on slow connections may need higher values (e.g., 15000-30000ms)
• Can also set via environment variable: TIMEOUT=10000

Custom Chrome path:

• If Chrome is installed in a non-standard location, use --chrome-path /path/to/chrome
• Can also set via environment variable: CHROME_PATH=/path/to/chrome