SkillFoxx

Playwriter MCP

An MCP and CLI that let an agent control your real Chrome, with its own logins and extensions, through Playwright

  • 4,079 ★ on the repository
  • Last commit
  • MIT
MCP serverOfficial

Broad access

Why this level

  • Gives the agent access to your browser with real logins and sessions on every site
  • Can perform arbitrary actions on websites on your behalf
All reasons and checks

remorses/playwriterAuthor:Tommaso De Rossi

Install

In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI

npx skillfoxx add mcp/playwriter

Detects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.

Other ways to install

Access and checks

How we review

Broad accessThe tool can change data, run commands or handle secrets.

  • Gives the agent access to your browser with real logins and sessions on every site
  • Can perform arbitrary actions on websites on your behalf

This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.

What it does

Playwriter connects to your already-running Chrome via an extension instead of spawning a fresh headless browser, so an agent gets your cookies, logins and extensions right away instead of a clean profile that bot detectors flag instantly. The extension is enabled on a specific tab, then the agent runs Playwright snippets through the playwriter -s <id> -e '...' CLI command or the execute MCP tool. Each session is isolated, and tabs can be grouped per agent with named tab groups to keep track of who is working where. There is also a direct Chrome DevTools Protocol mode that skips the extension.

Who it is for. For anyone who needs an agent to work in the browser under your current logins, instead of signing in again in a clean headless profile.

Good fit when

  • You need an agent to work on a site where you are already logged in, without re-authenticating
  • Automation in a clean headless browser keeps getting blocked by bot detection
  • You need several isolated agent browser sessions running in parallel in one Chrome

Not a fit when

  • You need a fully isolated clean browser with none of your personal data
  • You do not want to install a browser extension or open Chrome's debug port

Example request

Open the supplier's account page in my browser and pull the list of recent orders

MCP

Transport
stdio
Authentication
not required

Environment variables

PLAYWRITER_AUTO_ENABLE
Auto-creates a tab on connect, enabled by default
PLAYWRITER_DIRECT
Direct connection to Chrome DevTools Protocol without the extension

Limitations

Needs the extension enabled on the relevant tab, or explicitly enabling direct CDP mode with Chrome's debug port. Screen recording is unavailable in direct mode without the extension.

How to disable. Remove the Playwriter extension from Chrome, remove playwriter from your MCP client config, and run npm uninstall -g playwriter.

FAQ

How is this better than a regular headless-browser MCP?

Playwriter connects to your already-open Chrome with real logins and extensions, so it needs no re-authentication and is flagged less by bot detection.

Can I skip the extension?

Yes, there is a direct Chrome DevTools Protocol mode via the PLAYWRITER_DIRECT variable, but screen recording is unavailable then.

Discussion

No questions or reviews yet.

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README in short

The README highlights the main difference from other browser MCPs: Playwriter does not spawn a fresh, logged-out Chrome, it connects to your current browser through one extension with the full Playwright API. Install: the extension from the Chrome Web Store, the CLI via npm i -g playwriter, the skill via npx skills add. It documents sessions with isolated state, named tab groups for several parallel agents, and a direct CDP mode with no extension. MIT licensed.

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