Ecosystem

The se-cli ecosystem — three packages that work together for CLI, MCP, and VS Code workflows.

Overview

The se-cli ecosystem follows the Playwright multi-repo pattern. Three independent repositories each serve a different entry point — the core CLI, an MCP server wrapper, and a VS Code extension. All three share the same daemon architecture and WebDriver instance.

se-mcp

What is se-mcp?

se-mcp is a thin MCP (Model Context Protocol) server wrapper around se-cli. It exposes 50+ browser automation tools to MCP-aware AI clients like VS Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Claude Code via stdio JSON-RPC 2.0.

• Package: @browsers-cli/se-mcp on npm
• Repository: https://github.com/se-cli/se-mcp

Installation

npx @browsers-cli/se-mcp

No global install needed — npx downloads and runs the latest version automatically.

Configuration

Add se-mcp to your MCP client configuration. The server name is se-cli.

VS Code (settings.json):

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "se-cli": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@browsers-cli/se-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "se-cli": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@browsers-cli/se-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "se-cli": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@browsers-cli/se-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tool Catalog

se-mcp exposes 50+ MCP tools covering the full browser automation lifecycle. All tools are prefixed with browser_.

Tool	Description
browser_open	Start a browser session (Chrome, Edge, or Firefox)
browser_close	Close a browser session and stop the daemon
browser_navigate	Navigate to a URL
browser_click	Click an element by ref or CSS selector
browser_fill	Fill an input field with text
browser_snapshot	Take an accessibility (aria) snapshot with element refs
browser_screenshot	Take a screenshot of the page or element
browser_eval	Execute JavaScript in the page
browser_run_code	Execute arbitrary Selenium snippets (v0.9)
browser_generate_locator	Recommended locator for a ref, with match counts (v0.9)
browser_tab_list	List all open tabs
browser_cookie_list	List all cookies
browser_state_save	Save browser state to JSON
browser_expect	Assert conditions (visible, hidden, text, value, etc.)
browser_route	Mock a network route
browser_console	Get buffered console messages and JS errors

se-extension-vscode

What is se-extension-vscode?

A Visual Studio Code extension for se-cli. It provides a sidebar browser panel that renders aria snapshots and screenshots, a status bar reflecting daemon state, one-click commands for common browser actions, and automatic registration of the se-cli MCP server for Copilot agents.

• Publisher: se-cli on VS Code Marketplace
• Repository: https://github.com/se-cli/se-extension-vscode

Installation

Search "se-cli" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).

Or install from the command line:

code --install-extension se-cli.se-extension-vscode

Features

• MCP server integration — se-cli is registered as a Model Context Protocol server via contributes.mcpServers, exposing 40+ browser automation tools to VS Code agents.
• Browser panel — a webview in the activity bar showing the last aria snapshot as a tree, the last screenshot, quick action buttons (Open, Close, Navigate, Snapshot, Screenshot, Click, Fill), and a command history.
• Status bar — live daemon status (running browser / stopped). Click to open a quick pick of all commands.
• Auto-snapshot — optionally take an aria snapshot after every navigation or interaction so the panel always reflects the current page.
• Works with or without a global install — uses a configured se-cli binary, a global install on PATH, or falls back to npx @browsers-cli/se-cli.

Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Description
se-cli.browser	chrome | edge | firefox	chrome	Browser to launch when starting a session.
se-cli.headless	boolean	false	Run the browser in headless mode. Disable to show the browser window.
se-cli.session	string	default	Named session for browser isolation / parallel sessions.
se-cli.autoSnapshot	boolean	true	Auto-take an aria snapshot after navigation/interaction.
se-cli.cliPath	string	""	Path to the se-cli binary. Empty = auto-detect, then npx fallback.

Commands

Command	Description
se-cli.openBrowser	Pick a browser and start a daemon session.
se-cli.closeBrowser	Stop the daemon and close the browser.
se-cli.navigate	Run goto <url>.
se-cli.snapshot	Run snapshot and render the tree in the panel.
se-cli.screenshot	Run screenshot and display the image in the panel.
se-cli.click	Click by ref (e1) or CSS selector.
se-cli.fill	Fill an input by ref/selector with text.
se-cli.runCommand	Quick pick of all available commands.

Architecture

All three packages share the same se-cli daemon, which holds the WebDriver instance. The CLI sends one JSON line per command over a Unix socket (or Windows named pipe). se-mcp wraps the MCP server from se-cli, translating JSON-RPC 2.0 calls into CLI args. The VS Code extension spawns the CLI directly for its commands and registers the MCP server for Copilot agent integration.

┌─────────────┐   shell    ┌──────────┐   JSON    ┌──────────┐   WebDriver  ┌────────┐
│  AI Agent   │───────────►│  se-cli  │─────────►│  Daemon  │─────────────►│Browser │
│  (shell)    │            │  CLI     │  socket   │          │              │        │
└─────────────┘            └────┬─────┘           └──────────┘              └────────┘
                                │
                                │ require()
                                ▼
┌─────────────┐  JSON-RPC  ┌──────────┐
│  VS Code    │◄──────────►│  se-mcp  │
│  Copilot    │  stdio     │  wrapper │
└─────────────┘            └──────────┘
                                │
                                │ spawns
┌─────────────┐  spawns     ┌──────────┐
│  VS Code    │────────────►│  se-cli  │
│  Extension  │             │  CLI     │
│  Panel      │             └──────────┘
└─────────────┘

Which package should I use?

Use case	Package
Shell scripts, terminal automation	se-cli
Claude Code, any shell-based AI agent	se-cli
Claude Desktop, Cursor (MCP clients)	se-mcp
VS Code with Copilot agents	se-extension-vscode
VS Code with browser panel UI	se-extension-vscode
Programmatic MCP server in Node.js	se-mcp
All of the above	se-cli + se-mcp + se-extension-vscode