Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

Posted by namukang 4/7/2025

Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code(browsermcp.io)

616 points | 217 commentspage 3

pavelfeldman 4/8/2025|

I mean no disrespect, but this looks like an outdated clone of https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp

https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/blob/main/src/to... https://github.com/BrowserMCP/mcp/blob/main/src/tools/tool.t...

namukang 4/8/2025||

Hey Pavel, this is Namu, the creator of Browser MCP.

You’re right, this is an adaptation of Playwright MCP to automate the user’s local browser as mentioned in the GitHub README and here:

- https://github.com/BrowserMCP/mcp/blob/3e6824de6f36eba7d2d3b...

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43613905

Thanks for all your work to Playwright and Playwright MCP. I’m a big fan!

(For those not familiar, Pavel is the largest contributor to both Playwright and Playwright MCP: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/graphs/contributors, https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/graphs/contribut...)

pavelfeldman 4/8/2025||

Hi Namu, all good! Feel free to send us the patches and work upstream, would be happy to see you on board!

marifjeren 4/8/2025||

From the Browser MCP README.md:

> Credits: Browser MCP was adapted from the Playwright MCP server

icelancer 4/7/2025||

I just run into a bunch of errors on my Windows machine + Chrome when connected over remote-ssh. Extension installed, tab enabled, npx updated/installed, etc.

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [info] rmcp: Starting new stdio process with command: npx @browsermcp/mcp@latest

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [error] rmcp: Client error for command spawn npx ENOENT

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [error] rmcp: Error in MCP: spawn npx ENOENT

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [info] rmcp: Client closed for command

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [error] rmcp: Error in MCP: Client closed

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [info] rmcp: Handling ListOfferings action

2025-04-07 10:57:11.606 [error] rmcp: No server info found

---

EDIT: Ended up fixing it by patching index.js. killProcessOnPort() was the problem. Can hit me up if you have questions, I cannot figure out how to put readable code in HN after all these years with the fake markdown syntax they use.

deathanatos 4/7/2025||

> I cannot figure out how to put readable code in HN after all these years with the fake markdown syntax they use.

Not that HN supports much in the way of markup, but code blocks are actually the same as Markdown: indent (by 2 spaces or more, in HN's syntax; Markdown calls for 4 or more, so they're compatible).

  print("Hello, world.")

namukang 4/7/2025||

Thanks for the report and the update! I'd love to hear about what you changed — how can I get in touch? I didn't see anything in your HN profile. Feel free to email me at admin@browsermcp.io

sdotdev 4/7/2025||

Still slightly confused on what MCPs are but looking at this it does look useful

aryehof 4/8/2025||

A plugin protocol that allows “applications” to interact with LLMs.

darepublic 4/8/2025||

wouldn't it be for LLMs to interact with applications?

aryehof 4/9/2025||

Well they do work two ways. Extend an application to access an LLM, and allow an LLM to get context from an application.

For LLMs to interact with applications (without a two way protocol) is achievable just with tools/functions.

esafak 4/8/2025||

A protocol (the P in MCP) for LLMs to use tools.

BrandiATMuhkuh 4/7/2025||

This is really well done! Very cool.

I wonder if it's possible to add such plugins to election apps (e.g.: Slack). It would be such a nice experience if I could just connect my AI of choice to a local app.

decayiscreation 4/7/2025||

Good idea! I'm sure this is possible since it looks like playwright can control electron apps. https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-electronapplication

chrisweekly 4/7/2025||

election -> Electron

wifipunk 4/7/2025||

Setting this up for claude desktop and cursor was alright. Works well out of the box with little setup, and I like that it attached to my active browser tab. Keep up the good work.

qwertox 4/7/2025||

MCP seems to be JavaScript's trojan horse into AI.

ketzo 4/7/2025||

"Trojan horse"? 95% of people currently access AI via web or mobile app; those are pretty JS-dominated, no?

otherayden 4/7/2025||

I literally started working on the same exact idea last night haha. Great work OP. I'm curious, how are you feeding the web data to the LLM? Are you just passing the entire page contents to it and then having it interact with the page based on CSS selectors/xpath? Also, what are your thoughts on letting it do its own scripting to automate certain tasks?

metadat 4/8/2025||

Bot Detection Evasion is becoming an increasingly relevant topic. Even for non-abusive automation, it's now a necessary consideration.

Interesting research and reading via the HN search portal: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=bot+detection

behnamoh 4/7/2025||

What I don't like about LLMs is that people keep re-inventing the wheel over and over. For example, we've been able to control browsers using GPT for about 2 years now:

- https://github.com/mayt/BrowserGPT

- https://github.com/TaxyAI/browser-extension

- https://github.com/browser-use/browser-use

- https://github.com/Skyvern-AI/skyvern

- https://github.com/m1guelpf/browser-agent

- https://github.com/richardyc/Chrome-GPT

- https://github.com/handrew/browserpilot

- https://github.com/ishan0102/vimGPT

- https://github.com/Jiayi-Pan/GPT-V-on-Web

ajcp 4/7/2025||

I think this is noteworthy in that it is using what is increasingly becoming the dominant API protocol for LLM.

Just because the wheel exists doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to make it better by applying new knowledge and technologies to it.

dumansizsercan 4/8/2025|||

Competitors don’t just challenge you, they push you to deliver your best work.

darepublic 4/8/2025|||

none of these have stuck right. And none of them work well enough that all web dev agencies no longer have to worry about e2e testing. (or do some of them? Maybe the market is simply that inefficient).

dvngnt_ 4/8/2025||

I don't see this being a solution for full e2e regression testing. Having to run inference for each command/test seems expensive. I do think there's room for self-healing tests after failure.

darepublic 4/9/2025||

If this works well enough couldn't you save the selectors and only use inference running the test for the first time and when the UI has changed. Cheaper than dev?

dvngnt_ 4/10/2025||

that would be a good feature. though there are already playback and record tools to do just that. I really only see this for low-code users who want to automate a novel task.

dimgl 4/8/2025|||

This is a bit disingenuous, no? None of these have actually taken off.

betasleep 4/7/2025||

[dead]

webprofusion 4/8/2025|

Or just use Playwright MCP: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp

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