Playwriter

Let your agents control your own Chrome, via CLI or MCP. Your logins, extensions, cookies — already there.

Other browser MCPs spawn a fresh Chrome — no logins, no extensions, instantly flagged by bot detectors, double the memory. Playwriter connects to your running browser instead. One Chrome extension, full Playwright API, everything you're already logged into.

Installation

1. Install Extension from Chrome Web Store

2. Click extension icon on a tab → turns green when connected

3. Install the CLI and start automating the browser:

   npm i -g playwriter
   playwriter -s 1 -e 'state.page = await context.newPage(); await state.page.goto("https://example.com")'
   

4. Install the skill so your agent knows how to use Playwriter:

   npx -y skills add https://playwriter.dev
   

Quick Start

playwriter browser start  # starts Chrome for Testing/Chromium with bundled Playwriter extension
playwriter session new  # creates stateful sandbox, outputs session id (e.g. 1)
playwriter -s 1 -e 'state.page = await context.newPage(); await state.page.goto("https://example.com")'
playwriter -s 1 -e 'console.log(await snapshot({ page: state.page }))'
playwriter -s 1 -e 'await state.page.locator("aria-ref=e5").click()'

Tip: Always use single quotes for -e to prevent bash from interpreting $, backticks, and \ in your JS code. Use double quotes for strings inside the JS.

CLI Usage

Each session has isolated state. Browser tabs are shared across sessions.

# Browser management
playwriter browser start             # auto-finds Chrome for Testing or Chromium, with recording flags enabled
playwriter browser start /path/to/browser-binary

# Session management
playwriter session new              # creates stateful sandbox, outputs id (e.g. 1)
playwriter session new --tab-group agent1 --tab-group-color blue
playwriter session update 1 --tab-group research
playwriter session list             # show sessions + state keys + group
playwriter session reset <id>       # fix connection issues

# Execute (always use -s)
playwriter -s 1 -e 'state.page = await context.newPage(); await state.page.goto("https://example.com")'
playwriter -s 1 -e 'await state.page.click("button")'
playwriter -s 1 -e 'console.log(await state.page.title())'

There is no default page. Create your own tab and store it in state. To use a tab the user already opened, find it by URL:

playwriter -s 1 -e 'state.page = context.pages().findLast((p) => p.url().includes("github.com"))'

Tab groups

Local extension sessions use a Chrome tab group named playwriter by default. Remote-control sessions put the tabs they open into remote. Use the shortest clear single-word name with no spaces, such as docs, shop, test, or scrape.

# Park a long scrape in its own group. The user can Move group to new window
# (or another screen). New tabs from this session follow that group.
playwriter session new --tab-group scrape --tab-group-color grey

# Split concurrent agents so many open tabs stay readable
playwriter session new --tab-group agent1 --tab-group-color blue
playwriter session new --tab-group agent2 --tab-group-color pink

# Name a group the user can collapse when they don't care about it
playwriter session new --tab-group done --tab-group-color grey