How do I install Browser Control?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Browser Control need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Browser Control use?

Browser Control runs locally over stdio.

When was Browser Control last checked?

Last checked 2026-10-28. MCP server to control and debug Chrome and Firefox at runtime (CDP, WebDriver BiDi, Firefox RDP): breakpoints, stepping, navigation, DOM, console and network. BETA.

MCP-сервер Browser Control

browser-control-mcp

Browser Control MCP lets an AI agent control and debug real browsers at runtime: breakpoints, pause on load, call frames, evaluation in a paused frame, stepping and script search on Chrome (CDP) and Firefox (WebDriver BiDi + Firefox RDP), plus navigation, DOM, input, screenshots, console and network capture.

It is the successor of chrome-debug-mcp (it starts from a copy of its code) and complements Playwright MCP or chrome-devtools-mcp with runtime JavaScript debugging on both browsers.

Status: BETA (0.3.4-beta.4). This version contains known bugs and differences between Chrome and Firefox (see Limitations and TODO) and parts that have not been verified (see Untested). Tool replies may change in incompatible ways before 1.0. Please report problems in the issues.

Supported browsers

Browser	Protocol	Validated with
Chrome / Chromium	Chrome DevTools Protocol	Google Chrome 155.0.8059.39 (Linux)
Firefox	WebDriver BiDi, plus the Firefox Remote Debugging Protocol (RDP) for the JavaScript debugger	Firefox 157.0.1 (Linux, snap)

The default browser is Chrome. Every instance runs one browser for its whole life: start the server with --browser firefox, or pass "browser": "firefox" to open_instance. If Chrome is not installed but Firefox is, the launch error says so and tells the agent to ask you before switching.

Feature matrix

✓ supported, ✗ not available (the tool answers a capability error naming the tool, the browser and the reason; nothing is sent to the browser), partial: see the note.

Tool	Chrome	Firefox	Notes
`open_instance`	✓	partial	`features`, `copy_cookies` and `source_profile` are Chrome only
`close_instance`	✓	✓
`list_instances`	✓	✓	each instance reports its `browser` and `capabilities`
`restart_browser`	✓	✓	was `restart_chrome`; refused on a Chrome already running on the port (attached, not launched by the server)
`stop_browser`	✓	✓	was `stop_chrome`; on an attached Chrome or Firefox it only disconnects (Firefox: ends the session), the browser keeps running and the reply says so
`open_tab`	✓	✓
`close_tab`	✓	✓
`list_tabs`	✓	✓
`switch_tab`	✓	✓
`navigate`	✓	✓
`reload`	✓	✓
`scroll`	✓	✓	reports the window positions before and after
`inspect_dom`	✓	✓	at most 100 000 characters without `query` (cut in the page)
`capture_screenshot`	✓	✓	`full_page` at most 16 384 px per side (a text note says when cut)
`click_element`	✓	✓	scrolls the element into view; fails without clicking when it is hidden or covered
`fill_input`	✓	✓	picks options; fails without typing on elements that cannot take the text; Chrome inserts the text, Firefox types keys

The JavaScript debugger tools on Firefox need its debugger (RDP) port: on by default for a launched Firefox, --firefox-rdp-port for an attached one. The same port gives Firefox's WebSocket frames and the console messages BiDi does not report (script errors with their file and line, cookie and security warnings, CSS warnings, platform messages), in the same shapes as Chrome. Each tab's debugger watches them: the session's first tabs are attached when the session starts and open_tab attaches its tab before loading the URL; a tab the page opened is attached by the first get_console_logs or get_network_logs on it. Firefox itself says which RDP tab shows a BiDi tab (its Remote Agent maps the BiDi context to the tab's browserId), so tabs on the same URL, several windows and error pages are told apart, and a tab is never activated or brought to the front to attach it. Frames are captured from the moment a tab is attached.

📦 Installation

Every method installs the same pre-compiled binaries published on each GitHub Release; a Rust toolchain is only needed for the Cargo and source routes. The npm package is a small wrapper whose postinstall fetches the pre-compiled binary for your platform from GitHub Releases: no compiling, no Rust toolchain. Install Chrome and/or Firefox yourself: the server launches them, it does not ship them (except the Docker image).

⚠️ Always use the scoped npm name @raultov/browser-control-mcp. The unscoped browser-control-mcp on npm is a different, unrelated project.

Prefer zero effort? The one-prompt route below lets your AI agent do all of it. Otherwise, methods are grouped by platform and ordered by popularity.

🤖 One-Prompt Install (any platform)

Paste this prompt into any AI coding agent's chat (Claude Code, opencode, Cursor, Codex CLI, Copilot, ...) and let it install the server and register it with every MCP-capable client it detects on your machine:

Install and set up the browser-control-mcp MCP server on this machine. Do not launch Chrome or Firefox yourself: the server launches and manages them.

1. Install the server binary with the first method that works on this OS:
   - Homebrew available (macOS/Linux): brew install raultov/tap/browser-control-mcp
   - Node.js >= 14 available (any OS): npm install -g @raultov/browser-control-mcp
   - macOS/Linux fallback: curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp/releases/latest/download/browser-control-mcp-installer.sh | sh
   - Windows fallback: download and run the .msi from https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp/releases/latest
   Verify with: browser-control-mcp --version (add the install dir to PATH if it is not found).

2. Register the MCP server with every AI client you detect on this machine:
   - Claude Code: claude mcp add --scope user browser-control-mcp browser-control-mcp
   - opencode: merge into ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json —
     "mcp": { "browser-control-mcp": { "type": "local", "command": ["browser-control-mcp"] } }
   - Codex CLI: append to ~/.codex/config.toml —
     [mcp_servers.browser-control-mcp]
     command = "browser-control-mcp"
   - Any other MCP-capable client (Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, ...): add it with its own MCP settings, command "browser-control-mcp" with no arguments.

3. Report what you installed and which clients you configured, and remind me to restart each client so the MCP server loads. Do not enable --user-profile or --allow-cookie-import unless I ask for them.

macOS

1. Homebrew, the natural option on macOS:

brew install raultov/tap/browser-control-mcp

The formula fetches the pre-compiled binary (Apple Silicon and Intel) from GitHub Releases, and brew upgrade keeps you current.

2. npm / npx, the MCP-client convention (requires Node.js >= 14):

npm install -g @raultov/browser-control-mcp   # installs the `browser-control-mcp` command
npx -y @raultov/browser-control-mcp           # ...or just run it once, nothing to install

3. Shell installer, a one-liner that installs to ~/.cargo/bin:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp/releases/latest/download/browser-control-mcp-installer.sh | sh

4. Cargo, if you already have Rust:

cargo install browser-control-mcp     # compiles from crates.io
cargo binstall browser-control-mcp    # with cargo-binstall: fetches the pre-compiled binary, no compile

5. Manual download: the aarch64-apple-darwin or x86_64-apple-darwin .tar.xz archive from the Releases page.

Linux

1. npm / npx (requires Node.js >= 14):

npm install -g @raultov/browser-control-mcp   # installs the `browser-control-mcp` command
npx -y @raultov/browser-control-mcp           # ...or just run it once, nothing to install

2. Shell installer, a one-liner that installs to ~/.cargo/bin:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp/releases/latest/download/browser-control-mcp-installer.sh | sh

The Linux binaries require glibc >= 2.35 (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 36+).

3. Homebrew (Linuxbrew), if you already use Homebrew on Linux:

brew install raultov/tap/browser-control-mcp

4. Cargo, if you already have Rust:

cargo install browser-control-mcp     # compiles from crates.io
cargo binstall browser-control-mcp    # with cargo-binstall: fetches the pre-compiled binary, no compile

5. Manual download: the x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu or aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu .tar.xz archive from the Releases page.

Windows

1. npm / npx (requires Node.js >= 14):

npm install -g @raultov/browser-control-mcp   # installs the `browser-control-mcp` command
npx -y @raultov/browser-control-mcp           # ...or just run it once, nothing to install

2. MSI installer, the native Windows experience: download browser-control-mcp-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi from the Releases page and double-click it.

3. PowerShell installer, a one-liner:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp/releases/latest/download/browser-control-mcp-installer.ps1 | iex"

4. Cargo, if you already have Rust:

cargo install browser-control-mcp     # compiles from crates.io
cargo binstall browser-control-mcp    # with cargo-binstall: fetches the pre-compiled binary, no compile

5. Manual download: the x86_64-pc-windows-msvc .zip archive from the Releases page.

Docker (amd64)

docker build -t browser-control-mcp .
docker run -i --rm browser-control-mcp --headless   # Chrome and Firefox inside

From source

git clone https://github.com/raultov/browser-control-mcp && cd browser-control-mcp
make install   # release build copied to ~/.cargo/bin (or cargo install --path . --locked)

Browser discovery

CHROME_PATH, then google-chrome, chromium and the usual install paths; --firefox-path, then FIREFOX_PATH, then firefox and the usual install paths.

MCP client configuration

Universal JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browser-control-mcp": { "command": "browser-control-mcp", "args": [] },
    "browser-control-firefox": {
      "command": "browser-control-mcp",
      "args": ["--browser", "firefox"]
    },
    "browser-control-docker": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "browser-control-mcp", "--headless"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add browser-control-mcp browser-control-mcp
claude mcp add browser-control-firefox -- browser-control-mcp --browser firefox
claude mcp add browser-control-mcp -- npx -y @raultov/browser-control-mcp

Usage concepts

Instances. A default instance always exists and uses the --browser flag. open_instance with a label starts another one (its id is the label), with browser to pick Chrome or Firefox. Browsers are launched lazily, on the first tool that needs them, with an ephemeral profile.
Tabs. open_tab, list_tabs, switch_tab, close_tab. Every tool takes instance_id and tab_id; without them it targets the default instance and its active tab. An argument a tool does not have fails the call before anything runs (a tabId typo answers "did you mean tab_id?"), so a typo never falls back to the active tab.
Same replies on both browsers. navigate and reload answer once the page fired load (at most 30 s, else with a note): a first line (Navigated to <final URL>. / Page reloaded.), then {"url": "<final URL, after redirects>", "tab_id": "tab-N", "browser": {...}}, where browser holds the protocol's ids (CDP frameId/loaderId, BiDi navigation), plus "status", the document's HTTP status, for http(s) pages (an error status, 400 and up, also adds a note; an error page with an empty body is reported the same way on both browsers). A URL the browser downloads fails with Navigation failed: the URL is a download.... open_tab answers {tab_id, target_id, url, label} with the final URL. A network error (unknown host, refused connection...) fails with Navigation failed: <browser's code> (<url>), e.g. net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED on Chrome and NS_ERROR_UNKNOWN_HOST on Firefox; from open_tab the error names the tab, which stays open. evaluate_js answers {"value", "type", "subtype"?, "description"?}: type is JavaScript's typeof, subtype refines objects (array, null, node, date, map...), value is the JSON form and is null when there is none (functions, DOM nodes, symbols, NaN, bigints, maps...), description then says what it was (Chrome describes functions by their source, Firefox only as ). A thrown exception or a rejected promise fails with what was thrown and its 1-based line and column, e.g. . A over 100 000 characters is not returned whole: a string keeps its first 100 000, an object or array is measured in the page and only described; the reply then carries .

CLI flags

Flag	Default	Chrome	Firefox
`--browser <chrome\|firefox>`	`chrome`	browser of the default instance	browser of the default instance
`--local`	off	navigation limited to local addresses	same
`--headless`	off	headless Chrome (also the default of `open_instance`'s `headless`)	headless Firefox (same)
`--window-size <W>x<H>`	`1920x1080`	window of launched Chrome (`--window-size`)	window of launched Firefox (`--width`/`--height`)
`--host <HOST>`	`127.0.0.1`	debugging host	debugging host
`--port <PORT>`	`9222`	debugging port of the default instance	ignored (use `--firefox-port`)
`--max-instances <N>`	`8`	instance cap	shared with Chrome
`--enable-automation`	off	shows the automation infobar	ignored; `list_instances` shows a warning
`--user-profile`	off	your default profile (no `--user-data-dir`)	only with `--firefox-port` (attach to your running Firefox)
`--allow-cookie-import`	off	exposes `copy_cookies`	capability error
`--enable-webmcp`	off	WebMCP switches and `webmcp_*` tools	capability error
`--proxy-server <URL>`	none	proxy for every instance; exposes `enable_proxy_auth`	`http://` and `socks5://` proxies

Credentials written in a proxy URL (http://user:pass@host:port) never reach the browser's command line; enable_proxy_auth uses those of --proxy-server when neither its arguments nor --proxy-username/--proxy-password give them.

--proxy and --webmcp are aliases. To attach to your own Firefox, start it with --remote-debugging-port <port> (and --start-debugger-server ws:<rdp> plus devtools.debugger.remote-enabled and devtools.chrome.enabled for the debugger), then pass --browser firefox --firefox-port <port> --firefox-rdp-port <rdp>.

Architecture

 MCP client (agent)
     │  JSON-RPC over stdio (tools/list, tools/call)
     ▼
 browser-control-mcp ── tool table: flag gate → capability check → per-browser handler
     │                                   │
     │ Chrome instance                   │ Firefox instance
     ▼                                   ▼
 cdp-browser-lite / cdp-lite         bidi-browser-lite / bidi-lite
 (launch, ports, profiles,           (launch, prefs, one BiDi session,
  CDP over WebSocket)                 RDP client for the debugger)
     │  CDP commands/events              │  BiDi commands/events   │  RDP packets
     ▼                                   ▼                         ▼
   Chrome                              Firefox ◄───────────────────┘

A tool call resolves the instance (instance_id, default default) and the tab (tab_id, default active), checks the instance can serve it, then runs the implementation for that instance's browser. Events are pumped into per-tab state: on Chrome, one listener per CDP domain and tab; on Firefox, one subscription per session, routed by browsing context id.

Debugging JavaScript

Chrome and Firefox take the same calls:

navigate to the page (or open_tab + switch_tab).
search_scripts with a needle to find the script URL and line.
set_breakpoint with url and line_number (0-based).
Trigger the code (click_element, evaluate_js with a setTimeout, a reload...). The page pauses.
evaluate_on_call_frame reads locals of the paused frame; step_over moves one statement; resume continues.
remove_breakpoint with the id set_breakpoint returned.

Both browsers answer the same replies, with 0-based lines everywhere:

Tool	Reply
`set_breakpoint`	`{"breakpoint_id": "bp-N", "url", "line_number", "column_number", "resolved"}`: where the browser bound it; `resolved` is false until a script with that URL loads
`remove_breakpoint`	`{"removed": "bp-N"}`; an unknown id fails listing the tab's ids
`step_over`, `resume`	`{"paused", "location": {"url", "line_number", "column_number"} \| null}`: where the thread stopped next (`step_over` waits up to 2 s; `resume` reports a pause only if one follows within 250 ms)
`evaluate_on_call_frame`	the `evaluate_js` shape; an exception fails with `Evaluation threw: <what was thrown>`

Breakpoint ids are per tab and MCP-level (bp-1, bp-2...), like tab ids.

While a tab has no breakpoint (and, on Chrome, no pending pause_on_load), the page's own debugger; statements do not pause it: the debugger is always attached, and anti-debugging pages loop on debugger; to freeze every tool. The first breakpoint turns them back on.

Chrome also offers pause_on_load (pause on the first statement of the next load). Firefox notes: breakpoints by URL only; without column_number the breakpoint binds to the first breakable column of the line, in whichever of the page's scripts with that URL has one (inline <script> blocks share the page's URL), and needs the script loaded; the debugger needs the RDP port.

Migration from chrome-debug-mcp

chrome-debug-mcp 1.5.6	browser-control-mcp
binary / crate `chrome-debug-mcp`	`browser-control-mcp`
npm `@raultov/chrome-debug-mcp`	`@raultov/browser-control-mcp`
tool `restart_chrome`	`restart_browser`
tool `stop_chrome`	`stop_browser`
replies printed as Rust `Debug` (`WsResponse { .. }`)	prefix + pretty JSON of the reply
`get_network_logs` returned credential headers	`<redacted>` unless `include_sensitive_headers: true`
`enable_proxy_auth` answered every auth challenge	answers proxy (407) challenges only

All command-line flags are kept; --browser, --firefox-path, --firefox-port, --firefox-rdp-port and --no-firefox-debugger are new. In client configurations replace the command chrome-debug-mcp with browser-control-mcp (or the npm package name). The old tool names answer an error that names the new ones.

Migration from 0.1.x to 0.2.0

0.2.0 makes the replies the same on Chrome and Firefox; these changes are incompatible:

Tool	0.1.x	0.2.0
`navigate`, `reload`	Chrome: raw `Page.navigate` reply (`frameId`, `loaderId`, `errorText`) without waiting, `{}` on reload; Firefox: `{navigation, url}`	`{url, tab_id, browser, status?, notes?}` after `load`; `url` is the final URL; protocol ids under `browser`; `status` is the document's HTTP status
`navigate`, `open_tab` to an unreachable host	Chrome: success (`errorText` inside, or a `chrome-error://` tab)	error `Navigation failed: <code> (<url>)`; `open_tab` names the tab, which stays open
`evaluate_js`	Chrome: `{"result": {type, value, ...}}`; Firefox: the bare value	`{value, type, subtype?, description?}`
`set_breakpoint`	Chrome: CDP id (`1:3:0:http://…`) and `locations`; Firefox: `{breakpointId, url, lineNumber, columnNumber}`	`{breakpoint_id: "bp-N", url, line_number, column_number, resolved}`
`remove_breakpoint`	Chrome: CDP id, reply `{}`	`bp-N` id, reply `{removed}`
`step_over`, `resume`	Chrome: text only; Firefox `step_over`: `{paused, location: {line (1-based), column}}`	`{paused, location: {url, line_number, column_number} \| null}`, 0-based
`evaluate_on_call_frame`	Chrome: raw `RemoteObject` (exceptions as success); Firefox: bare value	the `evaluate_js` shape; exceptions are errors (`Evaluation threw: ...`)
`get_console_logs`	a JSON array; `clear` emptied the whole buffer	`{messages, total, truncated, notes?}`, at most `limit` (200) messages; removes the returned ones; the buffer is cleared on cross-site navigation

Limitations and TODO

TODO Default window size from the screen size: launched browsers use --window-size (default 1920x1080 on both); reading the screen size needs native APIs per OS, left out of the server.
TODO pause_on_load on Firefox: neither a preload debugger; statement nor an RDP interrupt pauses a reloading page (spike verdict).
TODO rust-mcp-sdk 2.0: the server stays on 1.1.0 (MCP protocol 2025-11-25). 2.0 moves to the stateless MCP protocol (2026-07-28), which today's MCP clients probably do not speak yet; upgrade once the clients do.
get_performance_metrics and profile_page_performance are partial on Firefox: it has no Performance or Tracing domain, so they read what the Web Performance APIs give and say what is missing (JS heap, layout and style counts, long tasks, total blocking time).
Firefox WebSocket frames and page errors need the Firefox debugger port (WebDriver BiDi has no WebSocket frame events); binary frames are reported as Firefox gives them, not base64 as on Chrome.
webmcp_list_tools, webmcp_invoke_tool, webmcp_get_invocation and webmcp_list_invocations are Chrome only (a Chrome testing feature).
send_cdp_command is Chrome only; send_bidi_command and send_rdp_request are Firefox only.
Cookie import (--allow-cookie-import) and launch presets (features) are Chrome only.
Firefox breakpoints are set by URL only.
--local checks the URLs the server navigates to and the known navigation methods of the raw tools; JavaScript running in the page can still navigate anywhere.
Firefox: after a lost connection a launched Firefox gets a new session on the next tool call; an attached Firefox keeps its orphan session, so restart that Firefox.
Firefox debugger: tabs are mapped to the debugger through Firefox's Remote Agent (verified on Firefox 157 only); a Firefox without it answers the debugger tools with an error instead of guessing a tab.
get_network_logs with response bodies has no total size limit (each Firefox body is capped at 2 MB): use url_filter on busy pages.
The Docker image is amd64 only.

Untested

Proxy authentication on Firefox against a real proxy.
macOS and Windows with real browsers (CI builds and unit-tests them; the E2E smoke ran on Linux only).
Firefox ESR.
The Docker image on arm64.
The Windows clippy cross-check (make clippy-windows) on a machine with mingw.

Security notes

--allow-cookie-import copies your real Chrome cookies into an isolated profile; the agent must ask you before using copy_cookies.
The proxy password is never logged and is given only to proxy (407) challenges, never to a site's own authentication.
The Firefox debugger port needs devtools.chrome.enabled: any local process that reaches that port gets chrome (privileged) access to the browser. Use --no-firefox-debugger when you do not need the debugger.
Credential headers (Authorization, Cookie, Set-Cookie, and any header whose name contains token, secret, api-key, password, session or csrf) and request bodies are redacted in get_network_logs unless include_sensitive_headers: true. URLs and response bodies are returned as they are.
Logs carry tool names, ids, protocol method names and sizes, never payloads, cookies or URLs with queries.

Development

make check        # fmt, clippy -D warnings, tests, docs, duplication, packaging, version
make e2e          # E2E smoke against real Chrome and Firefox, headless (E2E_VISIBLE=1 shows them; Linux, macOS)
make check-all    # both

make check is hermetic: it never starts a browser or touches the network. make e2e runs tests/run_all_e2e.sh: the launched-mode smoke for both browsers, then the attach mode against browsers started by tests/chrome.sh and tests/firefox.sh. See AGENTS.md for the conventions.

Releasing

For the maintainer: bump the version in Cargo.toml and package.json, close the [Unreleased] section of CHANGELOG.md, run make check-all, tag vX.Y.Z and push the tag (the release workflow builds the installers and publishes npm and Homebrew; it needs the NPM_TOKEN and HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN secrets), then cargo publish by hand.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.

Browser Control

Добавить этот сервер

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Browser Control?

Does Browser Control need an API key?

What transport does Browser Control use?

When was Browser Control last checked?

Documentation

browser-control-mcp

Supported browsers

Feature matrix

📦 Installation

🤖 One-Prompt Install (any platform)

macOS

Linux

Windows

Docker (amd64)

From source

Browser discovery

MCP client configuration

Usage concepts

CLI flags

Architecture

Debugging JavaScript

Migration from chrome-debug-mcp

Migration from 0.1.x to 0.2.0

Limitations and TODO

Untested

Security notes

Development

Releasing

License