MCP, Skills or SDK: Which NodeMaven Tool Should You Use?

AI agents and scrapers both need proxies. The hard part is wiring them in. You copy credentials, look up the geo-targeting format and find out about blocks only after the job runs.

NodeMaven now ships three free, open-source ways to fix that: an MCP server, a Claude Code skills plugin and SDKs for Python, Go and Rust. They overlap a little. They are not the same thing.

This guide shows what each tool does, where it runs and which one fits your job. You will also see how they work together.

The short answer: pick by job

• If you want your agent to grab a US proxy and test a site, use the MCP server.
• If you want Claude Code to write a Playwright scraper with the right login format, use the Skills plugin.
• If you run 50 workers with their own sticky sessions, use the SDK.
• If you need Google results as JSON, use Google Search Scraper.

What is the NodeMaven MCP server?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that connects AI assistants to outside tools. The NodeMaven MCP server gives your assistant tools for your NodeMaven proxy account.

Что это делает

The server has 15 tools in four groups:

• Proxies. Build a residential or mobile proxy string for a country, region, city or ISP. Add a sticky session. Pick HTTP or SOCKS5. Check the exit IP and response time.
• Site tests. Load one page through the proxy and report the status, response time, page size and whether it looks blocked, challenged or shows a CAPTCHA.
• Account and stats. See remaining traffic, subscription status, usage over time and the sites that used the most traffic.
• Sub-users and IP allow list. List sub-users and whitelisted IPs. With write access on, create, limit, reset or delete them.

Setup in three steps

1. Copy your API key from the NodeMaven dashboard.
2. Add the server to your MCP client config.
3. Ask your first question.

For Claude Desktop, Cursor and most other clients, the config looks like this:

The command needs uv. Without it, run pip install nodemaven-mcp and set the command to nodemaven-mcp.

Example prompts

• “Give me a US proxy and check it on this site.”
• “Build a sticky German mobile proxy string for curl.”
• “How much traffic do I have left?”
• “Which domains used the most traffic this week?”

Safe by default

An agent with account access needs limits. These are built in:

• Read-only by default. Tools that change the account run only when you set NODEMAVEN_MCP_ALLOW_WRITE=1.
• Your client asks first. Write tools are marked as changing and delete tools as destructive. Claude and Cursor can confirm with you before they run.
• Passwords stay out of chat. Proxy passwords show as a placeholder. The model does not see your account email.

Limits

The MCP server runs on your computer. It is not a hosted service. It also does not scrape. A site test checks whether the proxy gets in, and the page content never enters the chat. For data collection, use Google Search Scraper or the proxy setup skill.

Connect Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to your NodeMaven account

Explore the MCP server

What are NodeMaven Skills?

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file. It holds instructions and examples an agent reads when a task matches. At startup the agent reads only each skill’s name and description. The full instructions load when needed, so unused skills cost almost no tokens. Our guide to the лучшие навыки OpenCode covers the format in more detail.

NodeMaven packs six skills into one Claude Code plugin. The plugin also starts the MCP server, so you get both in one install.

The six skills

Why it matters: 12 of 12 vs 1 of 12

Generic models often guess proxy formats. They put targeting in the wrong place or mix up the dashboard login with the proxy login. In NodeMaven’s tests, Claude Code solved 12 of 12 NodeMaven tasks with the plugin. Without it, Claude Code solved 1 of 12.

Установить

Run these two commands inside Claude Code:

Claude Code asks for an optional API key when you enable the plugin. Skills then load on their own when a request matches. The source is on GitHub.

Limits

The plugin is built for Claude Code. In Cursor, Codex or other agents, use the MCP server or the SDK instead.

What is the NodeMaven SDK?

The SDK is a small library for your own code. It builds the proxy username the gateway expects and checks it before anything is sent. It is available for Питон, Иди и Rust.

The SDK does not bundle an HTTP client or a browser. It hands a proxy URL or config to the client you already use: requests, httpx, aiohttp, Playwright, Puppeteer, curl and others.

Quick start in Python

The same identity works for other clients with proxy.url(), proxy.httpx() or proxy.playwright().

Why the validation matters

The gateway answers an unknown parameter with 200 and drops it. A typo like contry=”us” would connect fine and quietly ignore your targeting. The SDK refuses it with a clear error instead.

It also explains confusing responses. A 407 error is often not about your password. A value the gateway will not accept on country, filter or ttl also returns 407. proxy.check() tells you what the answer really means.

Session pools for workers

For parallel jobs, give each worker its own sticky identity:

In Go, install it with go get github.com/nodemaven/nodemaven-go. The Go and Rust SDKs follow the same validation rules as Python.

When the SDK beats MCP

Every MCP call goes through the model. That is fine when a person waits for one answer. It is slow and costly for thousands of requests. Batch jobs, production scrapers and CI pipelines belong in code, and the SDK is the clean way to set the proxy there.

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MCP vs Skills vs SDK: side-by-side comparison

How the three tools work together

These tools are layers, not rivals. The MCP server is built on the Python SDK. The Skills plugin includes the MCP server and an SDK skill. Each layer reuses the one below it.

A typical project uses all three:

• Test with MCP. Ask your agent to load a target page through a US residential proxy. It reports whether the site blocks or challenges the request.
• Build with Skills. Ask Claude Code to write a Playwright scraper. The proxy setup skill gives it the right login format and sticky session logic.
• Run with the SDK. The scraper uses the SDK to give each worker its own session and to catch bad parameters before launch.
• Monitor with MCP. Ask how much traffic the run used and which domains used the most.

If your target is Google, skip the custom scraper. Google Search Scraper returns SERP data as JSON and can run as its own MCP server for AI agents.

Which tool fits your use case?

• AI agent that browses or checks sites. MCP server. The agent gets a geo-targeted IP and tests access first. See proxies for AI agents.
• Coding a scraper in Claude Code. Skills plugin. It prevents format errors before you run anything.
• Python scraper with many workers. SDK. Use session pools and pre-flight checks.
• Go or Rust service. SDK. Same validation rules, native packages.
• SEO rank tracking. Google Search Scraper.
• Team account with sub-users. MCP server with write access on, so you can manage limits by asking.
• Browser automation outside Claude Code. SDK plus our Руководство по прокси Playwright.

Распространенные ошибки, которых следует избегать

• Installing a lookalike. Community projects share the nodemaven-mcp name. Use the official repos under github.com/nodemaven.
• Expecting MCP to scrape. It checks access and manages proxies. It does not return page content.
• Hardcoding passwords. Keep proxy credentials in environment variables. The SDK reads them for you.
• Turning on write access without a reason. Leave it off unless you manage sub-users or the allow list.
• Mixing up the two logins. The dashboard API key and the proxy username and password are separate credentials.
• Expecting the plugin in other agents. It is for Claude Code. Use MCP or the SDK elsewhere.

Заключение

The choice depends on who does the work. If an AI should handle proxies for you, connect the MCP server. If Claude Code writes your code, add the Skills plugin. If you write and run the code yourself, install the SDK.

All three run on the same NodeMaven residential and mobile proxies, with 30M+ IPs and a 95% clean IP rate. Pick the tool that fits your job and give it clean IPs to work with.

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