ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp

A Model Context Protocol server that lets coding agents control and inspect a live Chrome browser through Chrome DevTools and Puppeteer.

What it is

chrome-devtools-mcp gives an AI coding agent — such as Antigravity, Claude, Cursor, or Copilot — access to a running Chrome instance for automation, debugging, and performance analysis. It acts as an MCP server that exposes DevTools capabilities: recording performance traces, inspecting network requests, reading console messages with source-mapped stack traces, taking screenshots, and capturing heap snapshots. It is aimed at developers whose agents need to verify real browser behavior rather than only generate code. A CLI is also provided for use without MCP.

Key features

Performance insights by recording DevTools traces and extracting actionable findings, optionally augmented with CrUX field data.
Browser debugging: network request analysis, console messages with source-mapped stack traces, and screenshots.
Puppeteer-based automation that waits automatically for action results.
A large tool set grouped into input automation, navigation, emulation, performance, network, debugging, memory (heap snapshots), extensions, and WebMCP; a --slim mode exposes just three tools for basic tasks.
Extensive connection and configuration flags: --headless, --isolated, --browser-url/--ws-endpoint, URL allow/block patterns, and screenshot format and size overrides.
Ships as an agent plugin bundling the MCP server together with skills.

Tech stack

TypeScript, ESM output; Node engines ^20.19.0 || ^22.12.0 || >=23.
puppeteer 25.3.0, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk 1.29.0, lighthouse 13.4.0, yargs, and chrome-devtools-frontend.
Built with tsc plus a rollup bundle step; tested with the Node test runner; linted and formatted with ESLint (including a rule enforcing zod schemas) and Prettier.
Apache-2.0 licensed, authored by Google, published to npm as chrome-devtools-mcp at version 1.6.0.

When to reach for it

Your agent needs to test, debug, or measure a real web page rather than reason about code in the abstract.
You want performance profiling, network inspection, or console/error analysis driven from an MCP client.
You want reliable browser automation (clicks, form fills, navigation) that waits for results.
You want a CLI to script Chrome DevTools actions without wiring up MCP.

When not to reach for it

You need a non-Chromium browser; the project officially supports only Google Chrome and Chrome for Testing.
You are handling sensitive data; the server exposes browser content to the MCP client, and both usage statistics and performance trace URLs (to the CrUX API) are sent by default unless disabled.
You want a lightweight headless HTTP scraper without launching a real browser.
You are on an unsupported Node version outside the declared engine range.

Maturity signal

The project was created in September 2025, is at version 1.6.0, is Apache-2.0 licensed and authored by Google, and shows heavy recent activity (last push mid-2026). It is young in absolute terms, but the backing of the Chrome DevTools team, a release-please automated release pipeline, generated tool and CLI docs, and a broad tool surface point to a well-resourced, actively maintained project rather than a hobby effort. Treat it as new but actively supported by its vendor.

Alternatives

Playwright MCP — use it instead when you need cross-browser automation across Firefox and WebKit, not just Chrome.
Puppeteer (the library) — use it instead when you are scripting browser automation directly rather than driving it through an agent or MCP.
Selenium / WebDriver — use it instead when you need language-agnostic, standards-based browser automation.

Notes

Usage statistics collection is enabled by default and is independent of Chrome's own metrics; it is disabled automatically when CI or the tool's opt-out environment variable is set.
The tool count is unusually large for an MCP server, with a dedicated 12-tool memory group for heap-snapshot analysis and experimental WebMCP tools that require a very recent Chrome build with a feature flag.
The package periodically checks npm for updates and logs a notice unless the update-check environment variable is set.

Wiki: ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp