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browser-control-mcp

Browser Control MCP is an MCP server that works with a Firefox browser extension to let AI assistants access and manage the user's browser. It supports opening or closing tabs, getting the list of open tabs, creating tab groups with names and colors, rearranging tabs, reading and searching browsing history, and reading web page text content and links, finding and highlighting text in tabs, and capturing screenshots of the visible area of tabs (the last three require explicit user consent). The project emphasizes security and does not support web page modification, page interaction, or arbitrary script execution; reading web page content requires user consent per domain, screenshots require user authorization per tab, and the extension does not request broad host permissions. The server and extension use local-only connections and a shared secret, with no remote data collection or tracking, and provide extension-side tool call audit logs and tool enable/disable configuration. Browser Control MCP is still experimental, and authorization and monitoring of tool calls should be done with caution when using it.

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About this tool

Browser Control MCP is an MCP server that, together with a Firefox browser extension, enables AI assistants to control the user's browser. Its goal is to provide safer browser control capabilities within the user's personal browser, with a stronger focus on security than web automation-type MCP servers.

Main capabilities: This MCP server supports the following tools:

  • Open or close tabs
  • Get the list of open tabs
  • Create tab groups with names and colors
  • Rearrange open tabs
  • Read and search browser history
  • Read the text content and links of web pages (requires user consent)
  • Find and highlight text in browser tabs (requires user consent)
  • Capture screenshots of the visible area of tabs (requires user consent for each tab)

Example usage scenarios:

  • "Close all work-unrelated tabs in the browser."
  • "Group all development-related tabs in the browser into a new group named 'Development'."
  • "Rearrange the tabs in the browser in a reasonable order."
  • "Close all tabs in the browser that have not been visited in the past 24 hours."
  • Browser history search: "Help me find an article about the Milford Track in New Zealand in my browser history."
  • "Open all articles about AI that I visited last week, up to 10, avoiding duplicates."
  • Browsing and research: "Open hackernews in my browser, then open the top story, read it, and then read the comments. Do the comments agree with the report?"
  • "In my browser, use Google Scholar to search for papers about L-theanine from the past 3 years. Open the 3 most cited papers. Read and summarize them for me."
  • "Use Google Search in my browser to find florists. Open the 10 most relevant results. Show me a table of each florist's location and business hours."

Comparison with web automation MCP servers: The combination of this MCP server and the Firefox extension is designed to be safer than web automation MCP servers and can be used more safely in the user's personal browser. It does not support web page modification, page interaction, or arbitrary script execution. Reading web page content requires the user to explicitly consent in the browser for each domain. This is enforced at the extension's manifest level. Screenshots require the user to authorize each tab by clicking the extension toolbar button. The extension relies on the activeTab permission, so authorization is granted by Firefox itself is enforced and becomes invalid when tabs are navigated or closed. The extension never requests broad host permissions for screenshots. It uses local-only connections and a shared secret between the MCP server and the extension. No remote data collection or tracking. It provides an audit log of tool calls on the extension side, as well as tool enable/disable configuration. The extension contains no runtime third-party dependencies.

Important note: Browser Control MCP is still experimental. Use at your own risk. Exercise caution as you would with any other MCP server, carefully authorizing and monitoring tool calls.

Installation: Option 1: Install the Firefox and Claude Desktop extensions The Firefox extension/add-on is available on addons.mozilla.org. You can also download and open the latest prebuilt version from this GitHub repository: browser-control-mcp-1.5.0.xpi. Follow the instructions on the "Manage Extensions" page that opens automatically after installation to complete the installation. The add-on's "Manage Extensions" page will contain a link to the Claude Desktop DXT file. You can also download it here: mcp-server-v1.5.2.dxt. After downloading the file, open it or drag it into the Claude Desktop settings window. Make sure to enable the DXT extension after installation. This only applies to the latest version of Claude Desktop. If you want to install the MCP server locally, see the MCP configuration below.

Option 2: Build from code To build from code, clone this repository, then run the following commands in the main repository directory to build the MCP server and browser extension. To install the extension as a temporary add-on in Firefox:

  1. Enter about:debugging in the Firefox address bar
  2. Click "This Firefox"
  3. Click "Load Temporary Add-on..."
  4. Select the manifest.json file under the firefox-extension folder of this project The extension's preferences page will open. Copy the secret to the clipboard. It will be used to configure the MCP server. Alternatively, to install a permanent add-on, you can install Browser Control MCP from addons.mozilla.org, then configure the MCP server as detailed below.server. If you do not want to run the extension on your personal Firefox browser, another option is to download a separate Firefox instance (for example Firefox Developer Edition, available from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/ ). After installing the browser extension, add the following configuration to your mcpServers configuration (for example, Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json): Replace /path/to/repo with the correct path. Set EXTENSION_SECRET to the value shown on the extension's preferences page in Firefox (accessible via about:addons). You can also set the EXTENSION_PORT environment variable to specify the port used for communication between the MCP server and the extension (default is 8089). It may take a few seconds for the MCP server to connect to the extension. Alternatively, you can use a Docker-based configuration. To do so, build the mcp-server Docker image: And use the following mcpServers configuration:

The MCP server works with the browser extension to enable AI agents to control the user's browser.

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