chrome-profile-bridge

name	chrome-profile-bridge
description	Enhanced browser automation with Chrome profile targeting. Use this skill BEFORE playwright-cli when the user needs to work with a specific Chrome profile (e.g., "open my tax site", "check my bank account", "use my work profile"). This skill handles profile selection, then hands off to playwright-cli for actual browser control.
allowed-tools	Bash(pw:*), Bash(playwright-cli:*)

Chrome Profile Bridge

Enhancement layer on top of playwright-cli that adds Chrome profile targeting.

When to Use This Skill

Use this when the user mentions:

• A specific Chrome profile ("use my work profile", "open in Jack's browser")
• An authenticated site that requires existing login state (tax, banking, email)
• Any task where the correct Chrome profile matters

For tasks that don't need a specific profile, use playwright-cli directly.

Architecture

This skill (profile targeting) → playwright-cli (browser control) → Chrome Extension → Real Chrome

Why This Exists

Approach	Problem
MCP	Loads ~25 tool definitions per session (~114K tokens). 4x heavier than Skill mode.
Claude in Chrome	Blocks financial/banking sites. Requires Anthropic login. Ecosystem lock-in.
Direct CDP	Chrome 136+ blocks remote debugging on default user data dir.
This Skill	Works inside Chrome (no restrictions), preserves all login state, zero site blocking.

Prerequisites

1. @playwright/cli — npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest
2. Playwright MCP Bridge Chrome extension — Install from Chrome Web Store
3. Token — Copy from the extension's status page, set as PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_EXTENSION_TOKEN env var
4. pw wrapper — Copy scripts/pw to somewhere in your $PATH (e.g., ~/.local/bin/pw)

Usage

List available Chrome profiles

pw list-profiles

Open browser with a target profile

# Default profile
pw open --extension

# Specific profile
pw open --extension --pw-profile="Profile 1"

Control the browser (all playwright-cli commands work)

playwright-cli goto https://example.com
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli click e15
playwright-cli fill e7 "some text"
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=result.png
playwright-cli close

Tool Selection Note

Browser automation involves multiple sub-problems (finding URLs, reading pages, filling forms, checking state). Each has a best-fit tool. See the Tool Selection Strategy section in the playwright-cli skill for detailed guidance. Key takeaway: don't path-depend on one approach — match each step to the right tool.

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Browser Hygiene

When using Chrome profiles, cleanup is especially important — leftover tabs persist across sessions since profiles are real user data.

• Close all task-related tabs before finishing. Profile tabs survive after playwright-cli close. Audit with tab-list and close each one.
• Extension bridge sessions are isolated. Each pw open --extension creates a new browser window. tab-list and tab-close only affect tabs in THAT window. Tabs from a previous session (killed or disconnected) become orphaned — only closable manually in Chrome. Always close all opened tabs before playwright-cli close. There is no way to retroactively clean up another session's tabs.
• Clean temp files after each task: rm -rf .playwright-cli/*
• See the Browser Hygiene section in playwright-cli skill for full details.

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Troubleshooting

• ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT: Extension not installed in target profile. Install from Chrome Web Store.
• Extension timeout: Chrome opened wrong profile. Use --pw-profile="Default" explicitly.
• Token mismatch: Verify env var matches the token shown in the extension's status page (chrome-extension://mmlmfjhmonkocbjadbfplnigmagldckm/status.html).
• Extension ID confusion: The Web Store version is mmlmfjhmonkocbjadbfplnigmagldckm. The dev/sideloaded version jakfalbnbhgkpmoaakfflhflbfpkailf is NOT compatible with @playwright/cli.