Highest HN score of any tool in the web-browsing category. Real users describing production workflows — Storybook auditing, API reverse-engineering, SVG editing. Only 6 months old but already at 30K stars — fastest growth rate in the entire category.
Chrome DevTools MCP
activeGoogle Chrome team's official MCP server for Chrome DevTools. Gives coding agents deep debugging, performance profiling, and Core Web Vitals analysis through 26 tools across 6 categories.
Where it wins
Official Google Chrome team backing — institutional credibility
26 tools across 6 categories including unique Core Web Vitals, CPU/network emulation, accessibility audits
Can connect to active browser sessions — debug authenticated pages without separate sign-in
Weekly releases up to v0.20.0 — rapid iteration cadence
Where to be skeptical
Chrome-only — no Firefox/Safari/cross-browser support
Debugging-focused niche — less suitable for end-to-end UI testing flows
18K token tool schema — slightly heavier than Playwright MCP's 13.7K
Editorial verdict
Lane 2 leader for Chrome debugging workflows. Fastest star growth in category. 599 HN pts (Mar 15) is the highest single thread. Google Chrome team official. Deep debugging (heap snapshots, Lighthouse, performance profiling) that no competitor matches.
Videos
Reviews, tutorials, and comparisons from the community.
Chrome DevTools MCP Server Solves a BIG Problem
Announcing Chrome DevTools MCP! 🚀 Connect your AI coding agent to Chrome's powerful debugger free
Chrome DevTools MCP: Automated Test, Debug and Performance Analysis with AI
Related
Playwright MCP
93Microsoft's official MCP server for Playwright. Uses accessibility snapshots instead of screenshots for structured browser control. Auto-configured in GitHub Copilot's Coding Agent.
Stagehand
90AI-native browser automation SDK by Browserbase with natural language selectors and act/extract/observe primitives.
Skyvern
90Vision-LLM browser automation for enterprise workflows. Combines computer vision with LLM reasoning to handle websites never seen before. YC S23 backed with CAPTCHA solving, 2FA, and proxy networks.
Vercel Agent Browser
88Token-efficient browser automation CLI for AI agents. Rust core with sub-50ms boot. Claims 93% context reduction vs Playwright MCP through ref-based element selection on accessibility snapshots.
Public evidence
423K npm/wk confirms real adoption. 3 releases in 7 days shows rapid iteration. New v0.20.0 standalone CLI mode addresses the token-bloat concern.
CyberAgent automated error detection across 236 Storybook stories using Chrome DevTools MCP. Published on official Chrome developer blog — strongest possible usage evidence.
Concludes 'Chrome DevTools MCP is sufficient for regular development — use Playwright MCP only when cross-browser support is necessary.' Positions Chrome DevTools MCP as the default for Chrome-centric workflows.
30,073 stars (more than Playwright MCP at 29,221). Official Google Chrome team project under ChromeDevTools org. Apache-2.0 license. Standalone CLI mode in v0.20.0, v0.20.1 shipped 2026-03-17. Weekly releases. Direct official backing guarantees CDP protocol alignment.
Cross-lane recommendation winner for coding agents wanting browser access. 598 HN pts is highest single-thread score in the category this month. Confirmed Lane 2 #1 over Playwright MCP on engagement and over Vercel agent-browser on breadth.
Raw GitHub source
GitHub README peek
Constrained peek so you can sanity-check the source material without leaving the site.
Chrome DevTools for agents
Chrome DevTools for agents (chrome-devtools-mcp) lets your coding agent (such as Antigravity, Claude, Cursor or Copilot)
control and inspect a live Chrome browser. It acts as a Model-Context-Protocol
(MCP) server, giving your AI coding assistant access to the full power of
Chrome DevTools for reliable automation, in-depth debugging, and performance analysis.
A CLI is also provided for use without MCP.
[Tool reference][tool-reference] | Changelog | [Contributing][contributing] | [Troubleshooting][troubleshooting] | [Design Principles][design-principles]
Key features
- Get performance insights: Uses Chrome DevTools to record traces and extract actionable performance insights.
- Advanced browser debugging: Analyze network requests, take screenshots and check browser console messages (with source-mapped stack traces).
- Reliable automation. Uses puppeteer to automate actions in Chrome and automatically wait for action results.
Disclaimers
chrome-devtools-mcp exposes content of the browser instance to the MCP clients
allowing them to inspect, debug, and modify any data in the browser or DevTools.
Avoid sharing sensitive or personal information that you don't want to share with
MCP clients.
chrome-devtools-mcp officially supports Google Chrome and Chrome for Testing only.
Other Chromium-based browsers may work, but this is not guaranteed, and you may encounter unexpected behavior. Use at your own discretion.
We are committed to providing fixes and support for the latest version of Extended Stable Chrome.
Performance tools may send trace URLs to the Google CrUX API to fetch real-user
experience data. This helps provide a holistic performance picture by
presenting field data alongside lab data. This data is collected by the Chrome
User Experience Report (CrUX). To disable
this, run with the --no-performance-crux flag.
Usage statistics
Google collects usage statistics (such as tool invocation success rates, latency, and environment information) to improve the reliability and performance of Chrome DevTools MCP.
Data collection is enabled by default. You can opt-out by passing the --no-usage-statistics flag when starting the server:
"args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest", "--no-usage-statistics"]
Google handles this data in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.
Google's collection of usage statistics for Chrome DevTools MCP is independent from the Chrome browser's usage statistics. Opting out of Chrome metrics does not automatically opt you out of this tool, and vice-versa.
Collection is disabled if CHROME_DEVTOOLS_MCP_NO_USAGE_STATISTICS or CI env variables are set.
Update checks
By default, the server periodically checks the npm registry for updates and logs a notification when a newer version is available.
You can disable these update checks by setting the CHROME_DEVTOOLS_MCP_NO_UPDATE_CHECKS environment variable.
Requirements
- Node.js LTS version.
- Chrome current stable version or newer.
- npm
Getting started
Add the following config to your MCP client:
{
"mcpServers": {
"chrome-devtools": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
[!NOTE] Using
chrome-devtools-mcp@latestensures that your MCP client will always use the latest version of the Chrome DevTools MCP server.
If you are interested in doing only basic browser tasks, use the --slim mode:
{
"mcpServers": {
"chrome-devtools": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest", "--slim", "--headless"]
}
}
}
See [Slim tool reference][slim-tool-reference].
MCP Client configuration
For setup instructions specific to your editor or agent (e.g. Antigravity, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code), please see our Client Configurations Guide.
Your first prompt
Enter the following prompt in your MCP Client to check if everything is working:
Check the performance of https://developers.chrome.com
Your MCP client should open the browser and record a performance trace.
[!NOTE] The MCP server will start the browser automatically once the MCP client uses a tool that requires a running browser instance. Connecting to the Chrome DevTools MCP server on its own will not automatically start the browser.
Tools
If you run into any issues, checkout our [troubleshooting guide][troubleshooting]. See the full [Tool Reference][tool-reference] for a complete list of all supported MCP capabilities.
Configuration
Find the complete list of server parameters (e.g., --headless, --isolated, --slim) and how to configure WebSocket connections in the Configuration Guide.
Advanced Usage
For advanced features such as handling concurrent sessions, persistent user data directories, connecting to a running Chrome instance instead of starting a new one, or debugging on Android, see our Advanced Usage Guide.
Integrating as a browser subagent
If you are developing agentic tooling and want to provide an integrated browser subagent as part of your product, we recommend building on top of Chrome DevTools for agents.
For a reference implementation, see the Gemini CLI browser agent documentation.