Browserless MCP Server

The Browserless MCP server gives AI assistants full browser automation capabilities through the Model Context Protocol. Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client to the hosted server and start scraping, searching, mapping, crawling, running Lighthouse audits, exporting, downloading, and running custom browser code — no infrastructure required.

Prerequisites

• A Browserless account - either an API token from your account dashboard, or OAuth sign-in
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, etc.)

Hosted Server

Browserless provides a hosted MCP server ready to use:

https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp

No installation or environment variables required. See Authentication for how to connect.

Authentication

The hosted server supports three authentication methods:

Method	Best for
OAuth (Browserless account login)	Clients that support OAuth — no token needed
Authorization header	Clients that support custom headers
token query parameter	URL-only clients (e.g. Claude.ai custom connectors)

When multiple methods are present, they are evaluated in this order: Authorization header (plain API key) → token query parameter → OAuth JWT.

OAuth

For clients that support OAuth (for example Claude Desktop or Cursor), the hosted server can authenticate you through your Browserless account - no API token required. When you connect, your client will open a browser window to sign in. After authenticating, the server resolves your account automatically.

OAuth is enabled on the hosted server at https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp with no extra configuration needed.

API Token

Pass your API token as a Bearer header or query parameter:

• Header (recommended): Authorization: Bearer your-token-here
• Query parameter: ?token=your-token-here

Client Setup

Claude.ai

Claude.ai supports MCP servers via custom connectors. Since the connector form only accepts a URL, pass your token as a query parameter:

1. Go to Settings > Connectors in Claude.ai.
2. Click Add custom connector.
3. Enter a name (e.g., Browserless) and the following URL:

https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp?token=your-token-here

4. Click Add.

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browserless": {
      "url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browserless": {
      "url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to your VS Code settings (settings.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "browserless": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer your-token-here"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to your Windsurf MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browserless": {
      "url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace your-token-here with your Browserless API token from the account dashboard.

tip

Clients that support OAuth can connect without a token - the server will prompt you to sign in with your Browserless account.

Regional Endpoints

By default, the hosted MCP server connects to the US West (San Francisco) Browserless region. To use a different region, pass the endpoint as a header or query parameter:

Region	Endpoint
US West — San Francisco (default)	https://production-sfo.browserless.io
Europe — London	https://production-lon.browserless.io
Europe — Amsterdam	https://production-ams.browserless.io

Using the x-browserless-api-url header (for clients that support headers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browserless": {
      "url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token-here",
        "x-browserless-api-url": "https://production-sfo.browserless.io"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using the browserlessUrl query parameter (for URL-only clients like Claude.ai):

https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp?token=your-token-here&browserlessUrl=https://production-sfo.browserless.io

Tools

The MCP server exposes eight tools to your AI assistant:

browserless_smartscraper

Scrapes any webpage using cascading strategies — HTTP fetch, proxy, headless browser, and CAPTCHA solving — automatically selecting the best approach.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	—	The URL to scrape (http or https)
formats	string[]	No	["markdown"]	Output formats: markdown, html, screenshot, pdf, links
timeout	number	No	30000	Request timeout in milliseconds

Output formats:

• markdown — Page content converted to clean Markdown (default)
• html — Raw HTML of the page
• screenshot — Full-page screenshot as a PNG image
• pdf — PDF rendering of the page
• links — All links found on the page

browserless_function

Executes custom Puppeteer JavaScript code on the Browserless cloud. Your function receives a Puppeteer page object and optional context data, and returns { data, type } to control the response payload and Content-Type.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
code	string	Yes	JavaScript (ESM) code to execute. The default export receives { page, context } and should return { data, type }
context	object	No	Optional context object passed to the function
timeout	number	No	Request timeout in milliseconds

browserless_download

Runs custom Puppeteer code and returns the file that Chrome downloads during execution. Useful for downloading CSVs, PDFs, images, or any file from a website.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
code	string	Yes	JavaScript (ESM) code that triggers a file download in the browser
context	object	No	Optional context object passed to the function
timeout	number	No	Request timeout in milliseconds

browserless_export

Exports a webpage by URL in its native format (HTML, PDF, image, etc.). Set includeResources to bundle all page assets into a ZIP archive for offline use.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
url	string	Yes	The URL to export (http or https)
gotoOptions	object	No	Puppeteer Page.goto() options (waitUntil, timeout, referer)
bestAttempt	boolean	No	When true, proceed even if awaited events fail or timeout
includeResources	boolean	No	Bundle all linked resources (CSS, JS, images) into a ZIP file
waitForTimeout	number	No	Milliseconds to wait after page load before exporting
timeout	number	No	Request timeout in milliseconds

browserless_search

Searches the web using Browserless and optionally scrapes each result. Performs web searches via SearXNG and can return results from web, news, or images. Optionally scrape each result URL to get markdown, HTML, links, or screenshots.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	Yes	—	The search query string
limit	number	No	10	Maximum number of results to return (capped by plan limits)
lang	string	No	"en"	Language code for search results
country	string	No	—	Country code for geo-targeted results
location	string	No	—	Location string for geo-targeted results
tbs	string	No	—	Time-based filter: day, week, month, year
sources	string[]	No	["web"]	Search sources: web, news, images
categories	string[]	No	—	Filter by categories: github, research, pdf
scrapeOptions	object	No	—	Options for scraping each search result (see below)
timeout	number	No	30000	Request timeout in milliseconds

Scrape options (optional sub-object on scrapeOptions):

Parameter	Type	Description
formats	string[]	Output formats for scraped content: markdown, html, links, screenshot
onlyMainContent	boolean	Extract only the main content using Readability
includeTags	string[]	Only include content from these HTML tags
excludeTags	string[]	Exclude content from these HTML tags

browserless_map

Discovers and maps all URLs on a website using Browserless. Crawls a site via sitemaps and link extraction to find all pages. Returns a list of URLs with optional titles and descriptions. Use the search parameter to order results by relevance to a query.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	—	The base URL to start mapping from (http or https)
search	string	No	—	Search query to order results by relevance
limit	number	No	100	Maximum number of links to return (max: 5000)
sitemap	string	No	"include"	Sitemap handling: include, skip, only
includeSubdomains	boolean	No	true	Include URLs from subdomains
ignoreQueryParameters	boolean	No	true	Exclude URLs with query parameters
timeout	number	No	30000	Request timeout in milliseconds

browserless_performance

Runs a Lighthouse performance audit on any URL via the Browserless /performance API. Returns scores and detailed metrics for accessibility, best practices, performance, PWA, and SEO. Optionally filter by category or supply performance budgets.

note

Audits can take 30 s–120 s depending on the site.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	—	The URL to audit (http or https)
categories	string[]	No	all	Lighthouse categories: accessibility, best-practices, performance, pwa, seo
budgets	object[]	No	—	Lighthouse performance budgets array
timeout	number	No	—	Request timeout in milliseconds

browserless_crawl

Crawls a website starting from a seed URL and scrapes every discovered page using the Browserless /crawl API. Follows links up to a configurable depth and supports sitemap discovery, path filtering, subdomain handling, and custom scrape options. Returns scraped content (markdown, HTML, or raw text) for each page along with metadata.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	—	The URL to crawl (http or https)
limit	number	No	100	Maximum pages to crawl (max: 10 000)
maxDepth	number	No	5	Maximum link-follow depth from the root URL
maxRetries	number	No	1	Retry attempts per failed page
allowExternalLinks	boolean	No	false	Follow links to external domains
allowSubdomains	boolean	No	false	Follow links to subdomains
sitemap	string	No	"auto"	Sitemap handling: auto, force, skip
includePaths	string[]	No	—	Regex patterns for URL paths to include
excludePaths	string[]	No	—	Regex patterns for URL paths to exclude
delay	number	No	200	Delay between requests in milliseconds
scrapeOptions	object	No	—	Per-page scrape settings (see below)
waitForCompletion	boolean	No	true	Wait for crawl to finish; if false, returns immediately with a crawl ID
pollInterval	number	No	5000	Polling interval in ms when waiting for completion
maxWaitTime	number	No	300000	Maximum wait time in ms (default 5 minutes)
timeout	number	No	30000	HTTP request timeout in milliseconds

Scrape options (optional sub-object on scrapeOptions):

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
formats	string[]	["markdown"]	Output formats: markdown, html, rawText
onlyMainContent	boolean	true	Extract only the main content using Readability
includeTags	string[]	—	HTML tag selectors to include
excludeTags	string[]	—	HTML tag selectors to exclude
waitFor	number	0	Time in ms to wait after page load before scraping
headers	object	—	Custom HTTP headers to send with each request
timeout	number	—	Navigation timeout in milliseconds

Example Usage

Ask your AI assistant:

Scrape https://example.com and summarize the content.

Take a screenshot and extract all links from https://example.com.

Download the CSV export from https://example.com/report.

Export https://example.com as a full offline ZIP with all assets.

Search for "headless browser automation" and summarize the top 5 results.

Map all the pages on https://example.com and list them.

Run a Lighthouse audit on https://example.com and show me the scores.

Crawl https://example.com up to 3 levels deep and summarize each page.

Resources

The MCP server also exposes these resources that your AI assistant can read:

Resource	Description
browserless://api-docs	Smart Scraper API documentation and parameter reference
browserless://status	Live status of the Browserless API connection

Prompt Templates

Built-in prompt templates help your AI assistant use the tools effectively:

Prompt	Description
scrape-url	Scrape a webpage and summarize its content
extract-content	Extract specific information from a webpage using custom instructions

Further Reading

• Browserless Account Dashboard - Get your API token
• REST APIs — Direct REST API access
• BrowserQL — GraphQL-based browser automation
• MCP Overview — Compare Browserless MCP servers
• AI Integrations — Other AI platform integrations