Browser Tool (Chrome DevTools MCP)

Peekaboo exposes a native browser tool that brokers Chrome DevTools MCP. Use it for Chrome page content:

• DOM/accessibility snapshots
• page-level click/fill/type/navigation
• console and network inspection
• page screenshots
• performance traces

Use Peekaboo native tools for macOS UI, browser chrome, menus, dialogs, permissions, window management, and non-browser apps.

#Permission flow

Chrome DevTools MCP --auto-connect attaches to an already-running Chrome profile. It requires:

1. Chrome 144 or newer.
2. Chrome running locally.
3. Remote debugging enabled at chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging.
4. User approval in Chrome's remote debugging permission prompt.

Peekaboo does not approve that prompt automatically. The browser tool reports instructions when it is disconnected or when connection fails.

#Privacy defaults

Peekaboo starts Chrome DevTools MCP with:

npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest \
  --auto-connect \
  --channel=<stable|beta|dev|canary> \
  --no-usage-statistics \
  --no-performance-crux

For deterministic local tests or custom Chrome endpoints:

• PEEKABOO_BROWSER_MCP_ISOLATED=1 lets Chrome DevTools MCP launch a temporary Chrome profile.
• PEEKABOO_BROWSER_MCP_HEADLESS=1 makes that launched browser headless.
• PEEKABOO_BROWSER_MCP_BROWSER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:9222 connects to an explicit debuggable Chrome endpoint instead of auto-connect.

The tool can expose page content, cookies/session-backed data visible to the page, console messages, network requests, screenshots, and traces to the active agent/MCP client. Do not enable it for browser profiles containing sensitive data unless that exposure is acceptable.

#Persistence

Browser MCP state is owned by BrowserMCPService.

• In a local MCP process, the browser tool uses the BrowserMCPService from MCPToolContext.
• In daemon-backed mode, RemotePeekabooServices forwards browser status/connect/execute calls over the Bridge socket.
• The daemon owns the chrome-devtools-mcp child process, selected page state, and snapshot UID state.
• This lets separate peekaboo mcp serve stdio sessions reuse the same browser connection.

Use peekaboo daemon status to see browser connection state, tool count, and detected Chrome channels.

#Actions

Common actions:

• status
• connect
• disconnect
• list_pages
• select_page
• new_page
• navigate
• wait_for
• snapshot
• click
• fill
• type
• press_key
• console
• network
• screenshot
• performance_trace

Advanced escape hatch:

• call with mcp_tool and mcp_args_json forwards a raw Chrome DevTools MCP call.

#Examples

{ "action": "status" }

{ "action": "connect", "channel": "stable" }

{ "action": "snapshot" }

{ "action": "fill", "uid": "1_7", "value": "[email protected]", "include_snapshot": true }

{ "action": "network", "page_size": 20, "resource_types": ["xhr", "fetch"] }

{ "action": "performance_trace", "trace_action": "start", "reload": true, "auto_stop": true }