pi-chrome-dev-tools

Lazy-launch browser control for pi agents. Uses your system Chrome with a persistent profile — logins, cookies, and extensions carry across sessions. Stealth-patched to avoid bot detection out of the box.

Why chrome-dev-tools?

| | chrome-dev-tools | pi-browser-harness | Playwright MCP | |---|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Zero setup — no remote debugging, no flags | ✅ | ❌ manual Chrome config | ❌ | | Instant startup — browser launches on first tool call | ✅ | ❌ connects at pi start | ❌ | | Persistent login — cookies survive across sessions | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | Bot detection avoidance — stealth patches built in | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | System Chrome — no Chromium download | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ 150MB+ download | | AX tree + click coordinates | ✅ | ✅ | partial | | Pi-native — no MCP overhead | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |

Quick Start

pi install npm:pi-chrome-dev-tools

That's it. No Chrome flags, no remote debugging setup. The first chrome_navigate call launches Chrome automatically.

Requirements

• pi (latest)
• Node.js ≥ 22
• Google Chrome installed

Tools

Page Inspection

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | chrome_snapshot | DEFAULT — accessibility tree with @(x,y) click coordinates | | chrome_execute_js | Evaluate JS in page context — surgical DOM reads | | chrome_page_info | URL, title, viewport size, scroll position | | chrome_screenshot | Capture PNG (visual verification only) |

Navigation

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | chrome_navigate | Navigate to a URL (launches Chrome on first call) | | chrome_go_back / chrome_go_forward | History navigation | | chrome_reload | Reload current page | | chrome_wait / chrome_wait_for_load | Wait N seconds or for page load |

Interaction

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | chrome_click | Click at viewport coordinates from chrome_snapshot | | chrome_type | Type text into focused element | | chrome_press_key | Press a key (Enter, Tab, Escape, arrows, etc.) | | chrome_scroll | Scroll the page |

Tabs

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | chrome_list_tabs | List open tabs with URLs | | chrome_switch_tab | Switch to tab by index | | chrome_new_tab | Open a new tab | | chrome_close_tab | Close a tab |

Lifecycle

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | chrome_close | Close browser (relaunches on next tool call) |

Patterns

Page inspection (default workflow)

chrome_snapshot()           → AX tree with @(x,y) per interactive element
chrome_execute_js(expr)     → surgical reads for specific values
chrome_screenshot()         → ONLY for visual verification

Form filling

chrome_snapshot()                        # find the input @(x,y)
chrome_click({ x, y })                   # focus it
chrome_type({ text: "hello" })           # type
chrome_press_key({ key: "Tab" })         # next field

Data extraction

chrome_execute_js({ expression: "document.querySelector('.price').innerText" })

Multi-tab research

chrome_new_tab({ url: "https://..." })
chrome_list_tabs()
chrome_switch_tab({ index: 0 })

How it works

• Playwright drives a dedicated Chrome instance via CDP
• Persistent profile at ~/.chrome-dev-tools/profile preserves logins
• System Chrome via channel: "chrome" — no Chromium download
• Stealth via @mr_ozio/playwright-stealth — patches navigator.webdriver, plugin arrays, permissions API, and more
• Lazy launch — Chrome only starts when a tool is first called
• Auto-cleanup — browser closes when the pi session ends

License

MIT