MCP Web Browser Server: Secure Headless Automation via Flexible APIs

MCP Web Browser Server

An advanced web browsing server for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) powered by Playwright, enabling headless browser interactions through a flexible, secure API.

🌐 Features

• Headless Web Browsing : Navigate to any website with SSL certificate validation bypass
• Full Page Content Extraction : Retrieve complete HTML content, including dynamically loaded JavaScript
• Multi-Tab Support : Create, manage, and switch between multiple browser tabs
• Advanced Web Interaction Tools :
  • Extract text content
  • Click page elements
  • Input text into form fields
  • Capture screenshots
  • Extract page links with filtering capabilities
  • Scroll pages in any direction
  • Execute JavaScript on pages
  • Refresh pages
  • Wait for navigation to complete
• Resource Management : Automatic cleanup of unused resources after inactivity
• Enhanced Page Information : Get detailed metadata about the current page

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• MCP SDK
• Playwright

Installation

# Install MCP and Playwright
pip install mcp playwright

# Install browser dependencies
playwright install

Configuration for Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "web-browser": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/your/server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

💡 Usage Examples

Basic Web Navigation

# Browse to a website
page_content = browse_to("https://example.com")

# Extract page text
text_content = extract_text_content()

# Extract text from a specific element
title_text = extract_text_content("h1.title")

Web Interaction

# Navigate to a page
browse_to("https://example.com/login")

# Input text into a form
input_text("#username", "your_username")
input_text("#password", "your_password")

# Click a login button
click_element("#login-button")

Screenshot Capture

# Capture full page screenshot
full_page_screenshot = get_page_screenshots(full_page=True)

# Capture specific element screenshot
element_screenshot = get_page_screenshots(selector="#main-content")

Link Extraction

# Get all links on the page
page_links = get_page_links()

# Get links matching a pattern
filtered_links = get_page_links(filter_pattern="contact")

Multi-Tab Browsing

# Create a new tab
tab_id = create_new_tab("https://example.com")

# Create another tab
another_tab_id = create_new_tab("https://example.org")

# List all open tabs
tabs = list_tabs()

# Switch between tabs
switch_tab(tab_id)

# Close a tab
close_tab(another_tab_id)

Advanced Interactions

# Scroll the page
scroll_page(direction="down", amount="page")

# Execute JavaScript on the page
result = execute_javascript("return document.title")

# Get detailed page information
page_info = get_page_info()

# Refresh the current page
refresh_page()

# Wait for navigation to complete
wait_for_navigation(timeout_ms=5000)

🛡️ Security Features

• SSL certificate validation bypass
• Secure browser context management
• Custom user-agent configuration
• Error handling and comprehensive logging
• Configurable timeout settings
• CSP bypass control
• Protection against cookie stealing

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• SSL Certificate Errors : Automatically bypassed
• Slow Page Load : Adjust timeout in browse_to() method
• Element Not Found : Verify selectors carefully
• Browser Resource Usage : Auto-cleanup after inactivity period

Logging

All significant events are logged with detailed information for easy debugging.

📋 Tool Parameters

browse_to(url: str, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• url: Website to navigate to
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

extract_text_content(selector: Optional[str] = None, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• selector: Optional CSS selector to extract specific content
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

click_element(selector: str, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• selector: CSS selector of the element to click
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

get_page_screenshots(full_page: bool = False, selector: Optional[str] = None, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• full_page: Capture entire page screenshot
• selector: Optional element to screenshot
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

get_page_links(filter_pattern: Optional[str] = None, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• filter_pattern: Optional text pattern to filter links
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

input_text(selector: str, text: str, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• selector: CSS selector of input element
• text: Text to input
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

create_new_tab(url: Optional[str] = None, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• url: Optional URL to navigate to in the new tab
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

switch_tab(tab_id: str, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• tab_id: ID of the tab to switch to
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

list_tabs(context: Optional[Any] = None)

• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

close_tab(tab_id: Optional[str] = None, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• tab_id: Optional ID of the tab to close (defaults to current tab)
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

refresh_page(context: Optional[Any] = None)

• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

get_page_info(context: Optional[Any] = None)

• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

scroll_page(direction: str = "down", amount: str = "page", context: Optional[Any] = None)

• direction: Direction to scroll ('up', 'down', 'left', 'right')
• amount: Amount to scroll ('page', 'half', or a number)
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

wait_for_navigation(timeout_ms: int = 10000, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• timeout_ms: Maximum time to wait in milliseconds
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

execute_javascript(script: str, context: Optional[Any] = None)

• script: JavaScript code to execute
• context: Optional context object (currently unused)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/random-robbie/mcp-web-browser.git

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use `venv\Scripts\activate`

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .[dev]

📄 License

MIT License

🔗 Related Projects

• Model Context Protocol
• Playwright
• Claude Desktop

💬 Support

For issues and questions, please open an issue on GitHub.