Provides browser automation capabilities on Linux systems without a display by running Playwright in a client-server manner, allowing for headed browser operations in display-less environments.
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides browser automation capabilities using Playwright. This server enables LLMs to interact with web pages through structured accessibility snapshots, bypassing the need for screenshots or visually-tuned models.
You can install the Playwright MCP server using the VS Code CLI:
After installation, the Playwright MCP server will be available for use with your GitHub Copilot agent in VS Code.
The Playwright MCP server supports the following command-line options:
--browser <browser>: Browser or chrome channel to use. Possible values:chrome, firefox, webkit, msedgechrome-beta, chrome-canary, chrome-devmsedge-beta, msedge-canary, msedge-devchrome--caps <caps>: Comma-separated list of capabilities to enable, possible values: tabs, pdf, history, wait, files, install. Default is all.--cdp-endpoint <endpoint>: CDP endpoint to connect to--executable-path <path>: Path to the browser executable--headless: Run browser in headless mode (headed by default)--device: Emulate mobile device--user-data-dir <path>: Path to the user data directory--port <port>: Port to listen on for SSE transport--host <host>: Host to bind server to. Default is localhost. Use 0.0.0.0 to bind to all interfaces.--allowed-origins <origins>: Semicolon-separated list of origins to allow the browser to request. Default is to allow all. Origins matching both --allowed-origins and --blocked-origins will be blocked.--blocked-origins <origins>: Semicolon-separated list of origins to block the browser to request. Origins matching both --allowed-origins and --blocked-origins will be blocked.--vision: Run server that uses screenshots (Aria snapshots are used by default)--output-dir: Directory for output files--config <path>: Path to the configuration filePlaywright MCP will launch the browser with the new profile, located at
All the logged in information will be stored in that profile, you can delete it between sessions if you'd like to clear the offline state.
The Playwright MCP server can be configured using a JSON configuration file. Here's the complete configuration format:
You can specify the configuration file using the --config command line option:
When running headed browser on system w/o display or from worker processes of the IDEs,
run the MCP server from environment with the DISPLAY and pass the --port flag to enable SSE transport.
And then in MCP client config, set the url to the SSE endpoint:
NOTE: The Docker implementation only supports headless chromium at the moment.
You can build the Docker image yourself.
The tools are available in two modes:
To use Vision Mode, add the --vision flag when starting the server:
Vision Mode works best with the computer use models that are able to interact with elements using X Y coordinate space, based on the provided screenshot.
element (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementref (string): Exact target element reference from the page snapshotstartElement (string): Human-readable source element description used to obtain the permission to interact with the elementstartRef (string): Exact source element reference from the page snapshotendElement (string): Human-readable target element description used to obtain the permission to interact with the elementendRef (string): Exact target element reference from the page snapshotelement (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementref (string): Exact target element reference from the page snapshotelement (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementref (string): Exact target element reference from the page snapshottext (string): Text to type into the elementsubmit (boolean, optional): Whether to submit entered text (press Enter after)slowly (boolean, optional): Whether to type one character at a time. Useful for triggering key handlers in the page. By default entire text is filled in at once.element (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementref (string): Exact target element reference from the page snapshotvalues (array): Array of values to select in the dropdown. This can be a single value or multiple values.raw (boolean, optional): Whether to return without compression (in PNG format). Default is false, which returns a JPEG image.element (string, optional): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to screenshot the element. If not provided, the screenshot will be taken of viewport. If element is provided, ref must be provided too.ref (string, optional): Exact target element reference from the page snapshot. If not provided, the screenshot will be taken of viewport. If ref is provided, element must be provided too.element (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementx (number): X coordinatey (number): Y coordinateelement (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementx (number): X coordinatey (number): Y coordinateelement (string): Human-readable element description used to obtain permission to interact with the elementstartX (number): Start X coordinatestartY (number): Start Y coordinateendX (number): End X coordinateendY (number): End Y coordinatetext (string): Text to type into the elementsubmit (boolean, optional): Whether to submit entered text (press Enter after)url (string, optional): The URL to navigate to in the new tab. If not provided, the new tab will be blank.index (number): The index of the tab to selectindex (number, optional): The index of the tab to close. Closes current tab if not provided.url (string): The URL to navigate tokey (string): Name of the key to press or a character to generate, such as ArrowLeft or apaths (array): The absolute paths to the files to upload. Can be a single file or multiple files.time (number): The time to wait in secondswidth (number): Width of the browser windowheight (number): Height of the browser windowaccept (boolean): Whether to accept the dialog.promptText (string, optional): The text of the prompt in case of a prompt dialog.name (string): The name of the testdescription (string): The description of the teststeps (array): The steps of the testYou must be authenticated.
hybrid server
The server is able to function both locally and remotely, depending on the configuration or use case.
A Model Context Protocol server that enables LLMs to interact with web pages through structured accessibility snapshots without requiring vision models or screenshots.