Browserbase MCP server
Cloud-hosted browser automation with Stagehand, so agents drive headless browsers without local infra.
Browserbase MCP is the official server from Browserbase that lets an agent control a real browser running in Browserbase's cloud. Built on Stagehand, it leans on natural-language intent: instead of scripting selectors, the agent describes the action it wants and the server figures out how to perform it, observe the page, and extract structured data. Because the browser lives in the cloud, no Chromium binary or sandbox is needed on the machine running the agent, which is what makes it attractive for serverless and CI environments.
It runs over stdio via npx and authenticates with a Browserbase API key and project ID, with an LLM key supplied for Stagehand's reasoning. The tool surface is intentionally small and high level, six tools covering session lifecycle, navigation, acting, observing, and extraction. It is the chosen second browser-automation server in this directory because the legacy @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer package is deprecated and unmaintained.
Quick install
Copy-paste configs are provided for all 8 supported clients. Pick your client below.
Add to ~/.claude.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"browserbase": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"@browserbasehq/mcp"
],
"env": {
"BROWSERBASE_API_KEY": "<BROWSERBASE_API_KEY>",
"BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID": "<BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID>",
"GEMINI_API_KEY": "<GEMINI_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}claude mcp add browserbase -- npx @browserbasehq/mcpAvailable tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| start | Creates or reuses a Browserbase cloud session for the agent to drive. |
| end | Closes the current Browserbase session. |
| navigate | Navigates the cloud browser to a URL. |
| act | Performs a natural-language action on the page via Stagehand. |
| observe | Observes the actionable elements on the page and returns candidate actions. |
| extract | Extracts structured data from the current page given an instruction. |
Required configuration
- BROWSERBASE_API_KEYRequired
Browserbase API key.
- BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_IDRequired
Browserbase project ID.
- GEMINI_API_KEYRequired
LLM key used by Stagehand's default model.
What you can do with it
Browser automation without local infra
Run web tasks from a serverless function or CI runner where installing and sandboxing a browser is impractical, because the browser runs in Browserbase's cloud.
Intent-driven scraping
Describe the data you want in plain language and let Stagehand observe and extract it, instead of hand-writing brittle selectors.
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The server is open source, but Browserbase's cloud browser sessions are a paid product with a free tier; you also supply an LLM key for Stagehand.
- Does it support remote/OAuth?
- Browserbase offers a hosted Streamable HTTP endpoint in addition to the local stdio package; authentication is via API key and project ID rather than OAuth.