LinkedIn MCP Server

Through this LinkedIn MCP server, AI assistants like Claude can connect to your LinkedIn. Access profiles and companies, search for jobs, or get job details.

Installation Methods

Usage Examples

Research the background of this candidate https://www.linkedin.com/in/stickerdaniel/

Get this company profile for partnership discussions https://www.linkedin.com/company/inframs/

Suggest improvements for my CV to target this job posting https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4252026496

What has Anthropic been posting about recently? https://www.linkedin.com/company/anthropicresearch/

Features & Tool Status

Tool responses keep readable sections text and may also include a compact references map keyed by section. Each reference includes a typed target, a relative LinkedIn path (or absolute external URL), and a short label/context when available.

When one section fails but the overall tool call still completes, responses may also include section_errors. Each entry contains structured diagnostics for that section, including the error type/message, a compact runtime summary, trace/log locations, matching-open-issue hints when available, and the path to a generated issue-ready markdown report with the full session details.

[!IMPORTANT]

Breaking change: LinkedIn recently made some changes to prevent scraping. The newest version uses Patchright with persistent browser profiles instead of Playwright with session files. Old session.json files and LINKEDIN_COOKIE env vars are no longer supported. Run --login again to create a new profile + cookie file that can be mounted in docker. 02/2026

🚀 uvx Setup (Recommended - Universal)

Prerequisites: Install uv and run uvx patchright install chromium to set up the browser.

Installation

Step 1: Create a session (first time only)

uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login

This opens a browser for you to log in manually (5 minute timeout for 2FA, captcha, etc.). The browser profile is saved to ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/.

Step 2: Client Configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["linkedin-scraper-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE]

Sessions may expire over time. If you encounter authentication issues, run uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login again

uvx Setup Help

🔧 Configuration

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:

# Create a session interactively
uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login

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

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

uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --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

❗ Troubleshooting

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)

Session issues:

• Browser profile is stored at ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/
• 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 --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

🐳 Docker Setup

Prerequisites: Make sure you have Docker installed and running.

Authentication

Docker runs headless (no browser window), so you need to create a browser profile locally first and mount it into the container.

Step 1: Create profile on the host (one-time setup)

# Installed package usage
uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login

# Local development from this repo
uv run -m linkedin_mcp_server --login

If you are debugging or verifying code changes in this repository, prefer uv run -m linkedin_mcp_server ... so the running process matches your workspace files. Use uvx when intentionally testing the packaged distribution.

This opens a browser window where you log in manually (5 minute timeout for 2FA, captcha, etc.). The browser profile is saved to ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/.

After login, the host writes:

• source profile: ~/.linkedin-mcp/profile/
• portable cookies: ~/.linkedin-mcp/cookies.json
• source session metadata: ~/.linkedin-mcp/source-state.json

Docker foreign runtimes derive a Linux runtime profile under:

• ~/.linkedin-mcp/runtime-profiles/linux-amd64-container/profile/
• ~/.linkedin-mcp/runtime-profiles/linux-amd64-container/storage-state.json
• ~/.linkedin-mcp/runtime-profiles/linux-amd64-container/runtime-state.json

By default, Docker now creates a fresh bridged Linux session on every startup using the minimal working auth cookie subset (li_at, JSESSIONID, bcookie, bscookie, lidc) and keeps that session alive for the server lifetime. This currently works more reliably than reusing a checkpointed derived runtime profile across restarts.

Runtime traces/logs are captured into an ephemeral run directory by default and are automatically preserved only when a scrape failure occurs. Set LINKEDIN_TRACE_MODE=always to keep every run or LINKEDIN_TRACE_MODE=off to disable trace persistence entirely.

If you want to experiment with persistent derived runtime reuse anyway, set LINKEDIN_EXPERIMENTAL_PERSIST_DERIVED_SESSION=1. In that mode, the first Docker run performs an internal checkpoint restart after /feed/ succeeds and later Docker runs try to reuse the committed Linux runtime profile directly.

Step 2: Configure Claude Desktop with Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "-v", "~/.linkedin-mcp:/home/pwuser/.linkedin-mcp",
        "stickerdaniel/linkedin-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE]

Docker now fresh-bridges by default on each startup. Persistent derived runtime reuse is still available behind LINKEDIN_EXPERIMENTAL_PERSIST_DERIVED_SESSION=1, but it remains experimental.

[!NOTE]

**Why can't I run --login in Docker?** Docker containers don't have a display server. Create a profile on your host using the uvx setup and mount it into Docker.

Docker Setup Help

🔧 Configuration

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

❗ Troubleshooting

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 --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

📦 Claude Desktop (DXT Extension)

Prerequisites: Claude Desktop and Docker installed & running

One-click installation for Claude Desktop users:

1. Download the DXT extension

2. Double-click to install into Claude Desktop

3. Create a session: uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login

[!NOTE]

Sessions may expire over time. If you encounter authentication issues, run uvx linkedin-scraper-mcp --login again.

DXT Extension Setup Help

❗ Troubleshooting

First-time setup timeout:

• Claude Desktop has a ~60 second connection timeout
• If the Docker image isn't cached, the pull may exceed this timeout
• Fix: Pre-pull the image before first use:

docker pull stickerdaniel/linkedin-mcp-server:2.3.0

• Then restart Claude Desktop

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 --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

🐍 Local Setup (Develop & Contribute)

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for architecture guidelines and checklists. Please open an issue first to discuss the feature or bug fix before submitting a PR.

Prerequisites: Git and uv installed

Installation

# 1. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/stickerdaniel/linkedin-mcp-server
cd linkedin-mcp-server

# 2. Install UV package manager (if not already installed)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# 3. Install dependencies
uv sync
uv sync --group dev

# 4. Install Patchright browser
uv run patchright install chromium

# 5. Install pre-commit hooks
uv run pre-commit install

# 6. Create a session (first time only)
uv run -m linkedin_mcp_server --login

# 7. Start the server
uv run -m linkedin_mcp_server

Local Setup Help

🔧 Configuration

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.

❗ Troubleshooting

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

Acknowledgements

Built with FastMCP and Patchright.

⚠️ Use in accordance with LinkedIn's Terms of Service. Web scraping may violate LinkedIn's terms. This tool is for personal use only.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.