Chrome DevTools MCP

Chrome DevTools

Maintained by the Google Chrome team — connects to your already-open Chrome via the DevTools Protocol for performance profiling, network trace, JS console, CPU/memory analysis. Where Playwright drives a clean browser, DevTools MCP analyses your existing browsing session.

No tokenAdvanced setup

Why client-side

DevTools needs CDP socket access to your own Chrome instance (the one you're using, with login state and open tabs). Hub hosting can't reach across machines. Local install only.

Prerequisites

Node.js ≥ 18
Chrome (stable; Canary not required)
MCP-capable client

Install

Launch Chrome with remote debug port

Close all existing Chrome windows first (important — Chrome must restart in debug mode).

macOS

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Linux

google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Windows (PowerShell)

& "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --remote-debugging-port=9222

Claude Desktop (macOS)

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chrome-devtools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Full install doc (GitHub)

First run

Try this prompt

List my currently open Chrome tabs

Common tools

list_tabs() — list open tabs
take_snapshot(tabId) — current DOM snapshot
evaluate(tabId, code) — run JS in the page console
start_trace(tabId) / stop_trace() — performance profiling
get_network_logs(tabId) — capture network requests

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Connection refused	Make sure Chrome was launched with --remote-debugging-port=9222. Close all Chrome windows first.
Connecting to wrong Chrome	If Chrome is already running on macOS, new launches attach to the existing process (without debug port). Fully quit first.
Can't see my logged-in tabs	Use the same user data dir: --user-data-dir=$HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default

Security notes

Important: --remote-debugging-port=9222 only binds to localhost (127.0.0.1) by default. Never change it to --remote-debugging-address=0.0.0.0 — that would let anyone on the network control your browser.