Pagerunner — The Browser Layer That Learns MCP server

Pagerunner

A Chrome browser automation MCP server. Connect Claude (or any MCP client) to a real Chrome session — using your existing profiles with their cookies, saved passwords, and history.

[!WARNING]

Pagerunner is early-stage software (v0.x). APIs and configuration formats may change between releases.

Contents

• How it works
• Setup
• Using with your project
• Tools
• Site Intelligence
• Session Checkpoints
• macOS Menu Bar App
• Anonymization (PII protection)
• Stealth mode
• Daemon (multiple Claude Code sessions / persistent state)
• Snapshots
• Example session

How it works

Pagerunner launches Chrome with your existing user profile via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) and exposes it as an MCP server over stdin/stdout. Claude can then navigate, click, type, screenshot, and run JavaScript in the live browser.

Setup

1. Install

# Option A — Homebrew (easiest on macOS/Linux):
brew tap enreign/pagerunner
brew install pagerunner

# Option B — Cargo (if you have Rust):
cargo install pagerunner
# Note: if you get "requires rustc 1.91+" despite having a newer Rust installed,
# Homebrew's Rust may be shadowing rustup's. Fix: export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

# Option C — Pre-built binary (no dependencies):

# macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon):
curl -L https://github.com/Enreign/pagerunner/releases/latest/download/pagerunner-macos-arm64 \
  -o pagerunner && chmod +x pagerunner

# macOS x86_64 (Intel):
curl -L https://github.com/Enreign/pagerunner/releases/latest/download/pagerunner-macos-x86_64 \
  -o pagerunner && chmod +x pagerunner

# Linux x86_64:
curl -L https://github.com/Enreign/pagerunner/releases/latest/download/pagerunner-linux-x86_64 \
  -o pagerunner && chmod +x pagerunner

# macOS: if Gatekeeper blocks the binary on first run:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine pagerunner

# Option B — install via cargo (requires Rust):
cargo install --git https://github.com/Enreign/pagerunner --locked

# Option C — build locally:
cargo build --release

2. Auto-detect Chrome profiles

pagerunner init

This reads Chrome's profile list and writes ~/.pagerunner/config.toml automatically. Run pagerunner status to verify.

Alternatively, write ~/.pagerunner/config.toml by hand — see pagerunner example-config for the format.

3. Register as MCP server

# If installed (Options A or B — binary is in PATH):
claude mcp add pagerunner "$(which pagerunner)" mcp

# If built locally (Option C):
claude mcp add pagerunner "$(pwd)/target/release/pagerunner" mcp

For Claude Desktop, add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claudedesktopconfig.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pagerunner": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/pagerunner",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Note: The mcp subcommand is required — registering just the binary path without mcp will not work.

Note: Chrome locks profile directories. Close any Chrome window using a profile before opening a Pagerunner session on it.

4. Set up in your project (optional)

In any project directory with a CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md:

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.