use-browser

name	use-browser
description	Browser automation using Chrome DevTools MCP and the agent-browser CLI. Use when the user needs to navigate websites, fill forms, take screenshots, scrape data, or test web applications.
allowed-tools	Bash(agent-browser:*)

Browser Use

Two complementary approaches:

• Chrome DevTools MCP — tools prefixed mcp__chrome-devtools__* against a running Chrome instance (when available)
• agent-browser CLI — standalone headless browser for CI, cloud, recording, and environments without local Chrome

When to Use

• Navigate sites, fill forms, take screenshots, scrape or inspect pages
• Record demos, compare pages, run Lighthouse / performance traces
• QA scanning and product research that need a real browser

Tool Selection

Prefer Chrome DevTools MCP when	Prefer agent-browser CLI when
Live inspection of the user’s Chrome session / auth	Video recording (record start/stop)
Snapshots, screenshots, JS eval, console/network debug	Session/profile persistence (--session, --profile)
Form interaction + device emulation	Headless-only / cloud (Browserbase, Browserless, …)
Lighthouse and performance traces	PDF export, annotated screenshots, snapshot/screenshot diffs

No universal best tool — pick by Chrome availability, recording needs, and environment constraints.

Connection Setup

MCP → running Chrome

Preferred (autoConnect): open Chrome → chrome://inspect#remote-debugging → enable remote debugging. MCP connects with no extra config.

Manual: start Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222, then point the MCP server at --browser-url=http://127.0.0.1:9222.

# macOS
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 &
# Linux: google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 &
# Windows: "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --remote-debugging-port=9222

Standalone (agent-browser only)

agent-browser open <url>
agent-browser open <url> --ignore-https-errors   # self-signed certs
agent-browser open <url> --idle-timeout 5m

Isolated headless browser; also supports Brave auto-discovery alongside Chrome/Chromium.

Core loops

Chrome DevTools MCP

1. Ensure Chrome + MCP connected (above)
2. navigate_page / new_page → wait_for as needed
3. take_snapshot (or screenshot) before acting
4. click / fill / fill_form / keys using selectors from the snapshot
5. Re-snapshot after navigation or large DOM changes
6. For tool names and flags → load references/chrome-devtools-mcp.md

agent-browser CLI

1. agent-browser open <url>
2. agent-browser snapshot -i → use @eN refs from the tree
3. Interact (click, fill, …) with those refs
4. Re-snapshot after navigation or significant DOM changes
5. For full flag/subcommand catalog → load references/agent-browser-cli.md
   (if mismatch with install, prefer agent-browser --help)

Load for depth

Need	Open
Full MCP tool tables + server flags	references/chrome-devtools-mcp.md
Full agent-browser CLI catalog	references/agent-browser-cli.md
Worked examples (form, record, standalone)	references/workflows.md

Related Skills

• qa — app scanning and visual inspection
• product — competitor research and screenshot comparison

External docs

• Agent Browser — Changelog
• Chrome DevTools MCP — npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest --autoConnect