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High-frequency, logged-in, repetitive browser work — captured once, replayed forever at zero LLM tokens.

Every other browser agent re-runs a live LLM — and re-burns tokens — on every execution. Taprun's AI agent inspects the page once and emits a deterministic .plan.json program; every replay after that is pure data dispatch — same result every call, $0 in tokens, no agent in the loop. It runs in your real Chrome, so cookies and login sessions stay on your machine by architecture. tap verify catches breakage before your data goes stale.

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf, and any MCP host. Forge a tap from any URL on demand — no catalog needed.

Capture: AI inspects the site → compiles a .plan.json program     (one-time cost)
Run:     The program executes instantly, same result every time   ($0, zero AI)
Verify:  tap verify checks the snapshot equivalence predicate     (catches drift)
Repair:  re-run capture against the same site/name; the next      (only when needed)
         verify rebaselines after human review

How Taprun Compares

Taprun

AI Browser Agents

Traditional Scrapers

AI cost per run

$0 (compile once)

Tokens every run

Free

Accuracy

Deterministic

Varies per run

Deterministic

Silent failure detection

Per-tap CEL snapshot_equivalent predicate + 4-arm verdict

None

None

Breakage diagnostics

tap verify — exact diff of what changed

None

Manual spot checks

Detection risk

Low (real browser sessions)

High

High

Runtimes

2 (Chrome extension + Playwright)

1

1

Code inspectable

.plan.json — bare JSON, 18-op closed vocabulary, git diff

Black box / ephemeral

Fragile scripts

MCP native

Yes (authoring layer only — execution is zero tokens)

No

No

Related MCP server: Puppeteer MCP Server

Get Started

1. Attach to your agent — one command

npx -y @taprun/cli embed claude-code   # or: cursor | vscode | claude-desktop

That's the whole install: the binary self-copies to ~/.tap/bin, your agent's MCP config is written, and the browser bridge is registered. Re-check anytime with tap embed --verify.

  • Logged-in sites (Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, …): add the Chrome extension when prompted — one click, and the in-flight call resumes automatically once it lands.

  • No extension / CI: append --no-extension (Playwright runtime, isolated profile).

  • Claude Desktop: download tap.mcpb and double-click.

brew install LeonTing1010/tap/taprun            # Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
curl -fsSL https://taprun.dev/install.sh | sh   # permanent binary
npx -y @taprun/cli --version                    # zero-install (any Node host)

Manual MCP config, if you'd rather write it yourself:

{ "mcpServers": { "tap": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@taprun/cli", "mcp", "stdio"] } } }

Platform

Download

macOS (Apple Silicon)

tap-macos-arm64

macOS (Intel)

tap-macos-x64

Linux

tap-linux-x64

Windows

tap-windows-x64.exe

2. Prove it works (~2 minutes, no login)

Run the first entry of the claims ledger — the exact verification its nightly CI runs:

mkdir -p ~/.tap/plans/github
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeonTing1010/tap-skills/main/claims/2026-07-11-github-trending-has-no-api/plan.json \
  -o ~/.tap/plans/github/trending-no-api.plan.json
tap github/trending-no-api

"state": "committed" plus today's trending repos at zero tokens = your install works and the claim holds.

3. Forge your own

tap capture https://news.ycombinator.com hn/front --intent "front-page stories with points"
tap hn/front        # replay forever, $0

Or just ask your AI agent:

You:   What's trending on GitHub today?
Agent: Here are today's top repos — React compiler hit 734 stars...

You:   Capture a tap for Douban top 250 movies
Agent: Done. Run `tap douban/top250` anytime — $0 per run.

Optional: Drive the binary from your own code (TypeScript / Python)

Skip MCP — call the tap binary from your own loop:

tap capture <url> hackernews/top --intent "front-page top stories"
tap hackernews/top --args '{}'    # JSON-on-stdout, exit 0 on success
tap verify hackernews/top         # 3-arm verdict (live / drifted / unreachable)

The CLI emits ToolResult<T> envelopes as JSON — same shape the MCP surface returns — so any language with a subprocess library can drive it. See tap --help for the full verb list.

Have an existing Playwright / Puppeteer / Stagehand script?

Don't rewrite. Convert with one of the open-source adapters — drop your existing source in, get a Tap-compatible .plan.json plan out:

# Existing Playwright script (47M weekly npm downloads — most likely the one you have)
npm install @taprun/from-playwright @taprun/spec
node -e "import('@taprun/from-playwright').then(m => console.log(m.playwrightToTap(require('fs').readFileSync('tests/login.spec.ts','utf8'), {site:'example', name:'login'})))"

# Or scaffold a new starter from scratch
npx create-tap-script github/trending https://github.com/trending

Adapter

Source format

Coverage

@taprun/from-playwright

.ts/.js Playwright tests

8 page.* APIs (goto/click/fill/type/press/waitForSelector/waitForTimeout/screenshot)

@taprun/from-puppeteer

.ts/.js Puppeteer scripts

7 page.* APIs + page.keyboard.press

@taprun/from-stagehand

.ts/.js Stagehand scripts

Hybrid: deterministic page.* mapped to plan ops; NL act/extract/observe flagged for honest verify verdicts

create-tap-script

(none — scaffolder)

Generates a starter .plan.json envelope from <site>/<name> <url>

The format itself is documented at @taprun/spec — the public protocol surface package: TypeScript types for the v2 Plan (18-op closed union + discriminated read/write Plan union) + JSON Schema 2020-12 with $id resolvable at taprun.dev/spec/plan-v1/schema.json, bidirectionally drift-guarded against the TS types. Third-party tooling (IDE $schema autocomplete, ajv-equivalent validators in Python/Ruby/Go, governance layers, alternative runtimes, MCP hosts with plan-aware permission scoping) builds against this package without depending on the proprietary Tap engine. Plan-v1 reference: taprun.dev/spec/plan-v1. Source for all five packages: packages/ (see packages/README.md for the workspace overview).

What Can You Do?

Read — Extract data from any website

tap reddit/hot                   # Reddit front page
tap bilibili/trending            # Bilibili trending
tap arxiv/search --keyword "LLM" # arXiv papers

Write — Operate any website

tap xiaohongshu/publish --title "My Note" --images photo.jpg
tap zhihu/publish --title "My Article" --content "..."

Watch — Monitor changes

tap verify github/trending        # spot drift; schedule via cron / launchd

Compose — Chain like Unix pipes

tap github/trending | tap filter --field stars --gt 500 | tap table

Forge — Create new automations with AI

tap capture https://news.ycombinator.com hackernews/hot --intent "top stories"   # API detected — compiled without AI
tap capture https://example.com mysite/home --intent "..."                       # BYOK Claude / GPT for the long tail

Bring your own model — works with Claude, OpenAI, DeepSeek, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint including local Ollama / LM Studio for fully offline forge:

tap config set ai.baseUrl http://localhost:11434/v1
tap config set ai.key ollama
tap config set ai.model llama3.1
tap capture https://arxiv.org/list/cs.AI/recent arxiv/recent --intent "recent papers"  # 0 bytes leave your machine

How It Works

                        ┌─ Chrome extension  (your real browser sessions)
You → AI → Taprun ──────┤
     capture            └─ Playwright        (headless, server, CI/CD)
  1. You describe what you want (URL × natural-language intent)

  2. AI compiles it into a .plan.json program — bare JSON, 18-op closed vocabulary, version-controlled

  3. Taprun runs the program on either runtime — forever, at $0

Every successful compilation makes the next one faster. Need a tap for a new site? Your agent forges one on demand with capture — no catalog required.

Verified Claims

tap-skills is no longer a skills catalog — it's a claims ledger: dated, falsifiable claims about the live web, each vendoring its own deterministic plan, re-verified nightly by CI at zero LLM tokens. A claim that drifts flips to 🟡 publicly, the same night.

Verify the first claim yourself (~2 minutes, no login, no browser):

mkdir -p ~/.tap/plans/github
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeonTing1010/tap-skills/main/claims/2026-07-11-github-trending-has-no-api/plan.json \
  -o ~/.tap/plans/github/trending-no-api.plan.json
npx -y @taprun/cli github/trending-no-api

You get the exact verification the nightly CI gets — deterministic replay, same result. The 140-skill v1 catalog is preserved untouched on the v1-archive branch; pre-built catalogs only rot, so plans are forged on demand with capture instead.

tap verify <site>/<name>   # Snapshot equivalence — catches silent failures before your data goes stale
tap list                   # See everything available
tap show <site>/<name>     # Print the saved tap's plan as JSON

Local-first by architecture

Zero-token replay is the headline; local-first is the guarantee underneath it. Taprun runs in your browser — the Chrome extension reuses your live login sessions, so cookies, auth tokens, and credentials never leave your machine. A structural choice, not a marketing claim:

Concern

Cloud-first browser SDKs

Taprun (local-first)

Where do logged-in cookies live?

On the cloud vendor's servers

Only in your local browser

What does the AI see?

The full session + your data

Only the page DOM during forge time

Compliance with noindex / robots.txt / TOS

Vendor signs ToS for you

Your account, your terms

Internal / intranet sites

Need VPN tunneling

Just open the page

Decommission risk

Vendor goes down → your scrapers stop

Local code keeps running

Layer

Protection

Sandbox

Programs run with zero permissions — no file, network, or system access

Static Analysis

CI blocks dangerous patterns before they reach users

Local-only

Your data, sessions, and API keys never leave your machine — architecturally

See SECURITY.md for the full threat model.

Contributing

The easiest way to contribute: forge a new tap. One .plan.json file is all it takes.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Roadmap

  • Community skills catalog — retired 2026-07 in favor of the claims ledger (v1 catalog archived)

  • 2 runtimes — Chrome extension + Playwright (headless / CI)

  • Unix pipes — tap A | tap B

  • Watch mode — monitor changes over time

  • Verify — tap verify snapshot-equivalence check with a 4-arm drift verdict (equivalent / drifted / first_snapshot / unreachable)

  • Single-command MCP server — tap mcp stdio (or tap mcp http) for any MCP host

  • Android runtime

  • iOS runtime

  • Concurrency control — deterministic coordination for M agents operating shared accounts in parallel

Support

Privacy

Tap is local-first by architecture. It drives your own browser on your own machine — credentials, cookies, and page data never leave it. The engine ships no telemetry and makes no outbound network calls except the ones your own saved taps explicitly direct (op:fetch). Saved taps, secrets, and traces live under ~/.tap/ on your machine only.

Full policy: taprun.dev/privacy.

License

Chrome Extension & docs: MIT. Claims ledger: MIT.

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