dev-browser Skill: Let Claude Drive Chrome with Scripts

npm install -g dev-browser

dev-browser lets coding agents control Chrome with short JavaScript scripts. The browser stays open between calls, so Claude can navigate once, inspect the page, act and verify without starting over every time. Scripts use the real Puppeteer Page API plus a few agent-focused helpers, and compact accessibility-tree snapshots give Claude readable output with stable element references.

Who it is for

Developers who want Claude to test and debug web apps in a real browser, and people who find step-by-step browser MCP tools slow or token-hungry for multi-step flows like sign-up, checkout or form validation.

Install

npm install -g dev-browser
dev-browser install    # only needed if dev-browser cannot find Chrome

Then install the bundled skill for Claude Code:

dev-browser install-skill --claude  # ~/.claude/skills/dev-browser/SKILL.md

Or simply tell Claude to run dev-browser --help; the built-in guide covers the API and the look, act, verify workflow.

Example usage

A headless run:

dev-browser --headless <<'EOF'
const page = await browser.getPage("main");
await page.goto("https://example.com");
console.log(await page.title());
EOF

Prompts that work well:

Open localhost:3000, sign up with a test account, and confirm the welcome email banner shows
Check every link in the footer and report broken ones
Reproduce the checkout bug and capture the console errors

Pros

• Persistent, named tabs keep state across scripts.
• Fewer round trips than step-by-step browser tools.
• Single release binary bundles Bun and Puppeteer; Node is not needed after install.

Cons and caveats

• No Windows support yet.
• Launched browsers close after 30 idle minutes by default; adjust with --idle-timeout.
• Allowing dev-browser without prompts in settings means Claude can browse freely; scope that permission to trusted projects.

Related: Playwright MCP, Chrome DevTools MCP, webapp-testing.