| FMRS | 34 / 100 · D | 78 / 100 · B |
| Reliability | 4 / 20 | 13 / 20 |
|---|
| Security and permissions | 5 / 20 | 12 / 20 |
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| Maintenance | 10 / 20 | 18 / 20 |
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| Documentation | 8 / 20 | 18 / 20 |
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| Setup experience | 7 / 20 | 17 / 20 |
| Best for | - Developers who need agents to automate real workflows in logged-in sessions (e.g., personal email, social media, CRM)
- Users who prefer local browser automation with data privacy
- Those who need to run multiple AI agents in parallel and monitor their activity
| - Scenarios where an AI assistant needs to actually drive a browser to complete a task
- Web automation testing and end-to-end verification
|
| Not for | - CI/CD testing in stateless, login-free environments (use Playwright or browser-use instead)
- Users who prefer cloud browser services over local execution
- Those who don't need browser automation or only need simple web scraping
| - Simple static-text scraping (a lightweight scraper is a better fit)
- Environments sensitive to browser resource usage that can't run a full browser engine
|
| Required permissions | - Read and import browser logins (from Chrome)
- Access user browser sessions for agent automation
- Store session recordings, screenshots, and history locally under ~/.browserclaw/
- Send anonymous product usage events (agent connect/disconnect, version, OS) – never URLs, page content, prompts, tool results, or screenshots
| - Requires installing and running a browser engine (Chromium/Firefox/WebKit) locally or on a server
- browser_navigate can visit any URL; browser_evaluate can run arbitrary JavaScript in the page context
|
| Risks and side effects | - Agents use your real login sessions and may perform unintended actions (e.g., sending emails, posting content) – approve with caution
- Malicious prompts could lead to sensitive data exposure or unauthorized actions
- Although data is stored locally, inherent risks of browser automation (e.g., mis-clicks, form errors) remain
- Open-source version is AGPL-3.0 licensed, which may not suit all commercial use cases
| - browser_evaluate executing arbitrary scripts carries risk if a malicious page is visited — restrict to trusted sites or an isolated environment
- Long-running browser instances consume significant memory and CPU
|
| Supported clients | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, OpenCode, Antigravity | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains IDEs, Zed, Cline, Amp, Kiro, LM Studio, Antigravity, Goose |
| Tools | 0 | 10 |