AUTOMATIONSWITCH
OfficialDev Tools

Playwright

by Anthropic

Browser interaction layer for navigating pages, clicking elements, filling forms, and taking screenshots. Runs headless Chromium with configurable viewport and user agent.

5,400·11 tools·Released JUN 2025·MIT
npx @anthropic/mcp-playwright
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INSTALL THIS SERVER

{ "mcpServers": { "playwright": { "command": "npx", "args": ["@anthropic/mcp-playwright"] } } }
PrereqClaude Desktop v1.4+ . Chromium downloads on first run (~200MB)
{ "mcpServers": { "playwright": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@anthropic/mcp-playwright"] } } }

11 TOOLS AVAILABLE

navigate
Navigate to a URL
Read
screenshot
Take a screenshot of the current page
Read
click
Click an element by selector
Write
fill
Fill a form field with text
Write
evaluate
Run JavaScript in the browser context
Admin
get_text
Extract text content from an element
Read
wait_for_selector
Wait for an element to appear
Read
select_option
Select an option from a dropdown
Write
hover
Hover over an element
Write
go_back
Navigate back in browser history
Read

OUR ASSESSMENT

Strengths
  • Official Anthropic reference implementation
  • Headless Chromium with configurable viewport
  • Multi-step navigation with state persistence
  • Screenshot capture for visual verification
Weaknesses
  • Chromium download required on first run (~200MB)
  • Heavy for simple URL fetching (use Firecrawl for read-only scraping)
Security Notes

Runs a local headless browser. Sandboxed by default. Use a dedicated browser profile to isolate agent sessions from your personal browsing data.

Best For

Agents that need to interact with web pages, fill forms, or capture screenshots

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Language
typescript
Transport
stdio
Clients
Claude DesktopClaude CodeCursorVS Code
License
MIT
npm
@anthropic/mcp-playwright
Last Release
v0.3.0APR 12, 2026
First Released
JUN 1, 2025

ADOPTION METRICS

// GitHub Stars
5,400
300 this week (+5.9%)

// Reading thisHigh star count benefits from the Anthropic quickstarts repo visibility. The server itself is actively maintained.

// Weekly Downloads
32,600
3,200 this week

// Reading thisBrowser automation is a core agent workflow. Downloads spike when new Playwright versions ship with improved headless mode.

// Popularity Rank
#4
Globally · #2 in Dev Tools

// Reading this#2 in Dev Tools (behind GitHub). Globally #4 reflects the universal demand for browser automation.

SOURCES & VERIFICATION

We don't take any single directory's word for it. Before scoring, we cross-reference 3 public MCP sources, install the server ourselves against the clients we cover, and record when we last re-verified.

01
Discovered
Official MCP Registry
First indexed APR 24, 2026
02
Cross-referenced
3 directories
Official MCP Registry, PulseMCP, Smithery
03
Verified against
Claude Desktop + Cursor
Installed and tested across clients
04
Last re-checked
APR 22, 2026
Weekly re-verification
// How other directories see it

The same server, 3 different lenses. We reconcile these signals into our editorial score, which is why our number sometimes diverges from a directory-aggregate star count.

SourceTheir ratingTheir star countTheir downloadsLast synced
AutomationSwitch This page4editorial5,40032.6K / wkAPR 22, 2026
Official MCP Registry— unrated2,400unavailableAPR 12, 2026
PulseMCP4.4 community2,38028.3K / wkAPR 21, 2026
Smithery4.5 installs2,40031.7K installsAPR 20, 2026

// Counts are directory-reported; we don't adjust them. Discrepancies usually come from different snapshot times or star-caching.

// Get in touch

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