Firecrawl MCP server in Windsurf give Cascade the open web.
Windsurf's Cascade agent picks up MCP servers from mcp_config.json under ~/.codeium/windsurf. One Firecrawl entry, one refresh, and your agent can scrape, search, and crawl.
Cascade — Windsurf's agent — is built for long autonomous runs, and that's where web tools earn their keep: mid-task, the agent can scrape a library's docs, search for an error message, or extract data from a page without you alt-tabbing to a browser. Firecrawl MCP Server (github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server, 6.5k stars) provides exactly those tools.
Windsurf stores MCP configuration in a single global file: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json — the .codeium path is a holdover from Windsurf's Codeium origins, and it trips up people who go looking for a ~/.windsurf directory.
What you need first
Node.js 18+ (Windsurf launches the server through npx) and a Firecrawl API key from firecrawl.dev, prefixed fc-. The firecrawl-mcp package itself is open source; the key meters your scraping against Firecrawl's hosted API.
Add Firecrawl to mcp_config.json
Two routes to the same file: Windsurf Settings > Cascade > MCP Servers > Add Server gives you a guided flow, or edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json directly. The format is the standard mcpServers shape:
{
"mcpServers": {
"firecrawl": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "firecrawl-mcp"],
"env": {
"FIRECRAWL_API_KEY": "fc-YOUR-API-KEY"
}
}
}
}Refresh Cascade and test
If you edited the file by hand, Cascade won't notice until you hit the refresh button in its MCP servers panel (the hammer icon area) or restart Windsurf. Once refreshed, the firecrawl server appears in the list with its tools — search, scrape, crawl, and extract.
Ask Cascade to "scrape https://example.com/changelog and summarize what changed this month." It should request a Firecrawl tool call and come back with real content. The server's published tool list lives on its Loomal listing at https://loomal.ai/marketplace/firecrawl-mcp-server if you want to compare.
Because Cascade runs long autonomous sequences, the server's built-in resilience matters more here than in chat-style clients: it retries rate-limited requests with exponential backoff automatically, and you can tune that behavior (or add credit-usage warnings) with extra env vars like FIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTS alongside the API key.
Troubleshooting in Windsurf
Server not in the panel: confirm you edited ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (not a stray ~/.windsurf file), validate the JSON, and hit refresh in Cascade's MCP panel — manual edits require it. A full Windsurf restart is the heavier fallback.
Server listed but errored: on macOS, Windsurf launched from the dock may not see your shell's PATH, so npx fails — start Windsurf from a terminal once to verify, then either fix your launchd environment or set command to the absolute npx path. On Windows, use `cmd /c npx -y firecrawl-mcp`. If tools execute but return auth failures, re-check the fc- key; and note that Windsurf may cap how many MCP tools Cascade can see at once, so if you run many servers, trim unused ones to keep Firecrawl's tools available.
FAQ
How do I install Firecrawl in Windsurf?
Add a firecrawl entry under mcpServers in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json — command npx, args ["-y", "firecrawl-mcp"], your fc- key in env — then refresh the MCP servers panel in Cascade or restart Windsurf.
Why is Windsurf's config under ~/.codeium?
Windsurf grew out of Codeium, and the config directory kept the original name: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. There is no ~/.windsurf config directory, which is the most common wrong turn when setting this up by hand.
I edited mcp_config.json but Cascade doesn't see the server — why?
Cascade doesn't watch the file. Click the refresh button in its MCP servers panel after any manual edit, or restart Windsurf entirely. If it's still missing, the JSON likely has a syntax error — one trailing comma invalidates the whole file.
Can I limit which Firecrawl tools Cascade uses?
You can manage tool exposure from Cascade's MCP panel and approve calls as they happen. It's worth being deliberate: scrape and search are cheap single requests, while a crawl can fan out across hundreds of pages and burn your Firecrawl quota in one autonomous run.
More MCP servers for Windsurf.
Browse scraping, search, and dev-tool servers with live tool lists.