Browserless MCP in Kiro
Kiro connects to the hosted Browserless MCP server with OAuth or an API token header, configured in mcp.json at the user or workspace level. Once it's connected, Kiro can scrape, search, crawl, and drive a cloud browser with the Browserless MCP tools.
- A Browserless API token from your account dashboard, or a Browserless account for OAuth sign-in
- Kiro IDE or CLI installed
Connect to the hosted server
The hosted server runs at https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp, so there's nothing to install.
Add to ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json for every workspace, or .kiro/settings/mcp.json for one workspace:
{
"mcpServers": {
"browserless": {
"url": "https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Kiro reloads servers when you save the file. To sign in with OAuth instead, drop the headers block and Kiro opens a browser window to your Browserless account.
To use a region other than US West, add an x-browserless-api-url header, or a browserlessUrl query parameter on the server URL for clients that only take a URL. See regional endpoints.
Run the server locally
To run the MCP server process on your machine instead, use the @browserless.io/mcp npm package over stdio. You need Node.js 24 or newer. Browser work still runs on Browserless, so this is mainly for pinning a server version (add it to the package name, for example @browserless.io/mcp@1.41.0) or pointing at a self-hosted instance with BROWSERLESS_API_URL. Both setups use the server name browserless, so replace the hosted entry with this one rather than adding both.
Add to ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"browserless": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@browserless.io/mcp"],
"env": {
"BROWSERLESS_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Check the connection
In the Kiro CLI, start a chat and run /mcp. In the IDE, open the MCP servers tab in the Kiro panel and check browserless is connected.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
Kiro shows a security warning for an environment variable in mcp.json
Kiro only expands environment variables listed in its Mcp Approved Env Vars setting. Add BROWSERLESS_TOKEN there, or put the token in the file directly.
I have a user and a workspace mcp.json. Which one wins?
Kiro merges both, and the workspace file wins for any server defined in each. Define browserless in one place to avoid confusion.
The server connects but every tool call returns 401 Unauthorized
The token is missing or wrong. Copy it again from your account dashboard and check the header reads Bearer followed by the token, with no quotes or trailing whitespace inside the value. If you used an environment variable, confirm it's set in the environment the client was launched from. GUI apps started from the dock or Start menu don't see variables exported in your shell profile.
The connection fails with an SSE error like Non-200 status code (400)
The hosted server speaks Streamable HTTP only and doesn't support the legacy SSE transport. Check the client entry is using its HTTP transport (see the config above), not an SSE one.