Choose the right Expand surface for agents, CLI, SDKs, API, or Playground.
Use Expand from an agent, terminal, app, API workflow, or visual Playground. Each path gives you one useful next action and a canonical docs link.
The choice is never MCP versus CLI versus SDK. The product is Fetch. These are the surfaces that bring Fetch into the place where your work already happens, and they all return the same output: Main Markdown, State JSON when useful, citations, and snapshot handles.
Match the path to where you are right now. Inside an agent, take the agent path so it fetches the web automatically. Testing by hand, run one CLI command. Building a product, call the SDK or the API and hand the same result to your own users. Want to see the evidence behind a Fetch, open the Playground.
Coding agents, harnesses, and MCP clients that should use Fetch automatically.
The cards above route you out. This table is the side-by-side check before you commit.
| Path | Best for | Setup | Auth | Canonical docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agents | Coding agents and MCP clients | Skill, MCP, or hook | CLI login or API key | /docs/agent-quickstarts |
| CLI | Terminal fetches and scripts | Publish pending; see CLI docs | CLI login or EXPAND_API_KEY | /docs/reference/cli-commands |
| SDKs | TypeScript and Python apps | Package install | EXPAND_API_KEY | /docs/reference/typescript-sdk |
| API | Custom backends and other languages | HTTP client | x-expand-api-key | /api-reference |
| Playground | Visual inspection and Replay | Dashboard |
MCP is one agent integration path, not a separate product. Use Agent Quickstarts for setup and MCP Tools & Resources for exact tool and resource names, such as fetch_search for Highlights.
Hooks, skills, and MCP combine. Hooks improve a client's native web-fetch behavior, skills teach the agent when to reach for Expand, and MCP exposes Fetch as callable tools. The agent pages give the recommended default for each client, so you do not have to assemble it yourself.
Point an agent or IDE tool at these routes when you want it to bootstrap from the docs instead of scraping the site:
Major AI crawlers do not fetch llms.txt on their own. These routes pay off when you explicitly hand the link to an agent, so it loads accurate, current instructions in one step.
| Signed-in account |
| /docs/fetch/playground-and-replay |