FAQ

Answers to the questions people ask most often about browserlane.

Why not Playwright or Puppeteer?

For many teams, Playwright is the right answer. It is mature, has a large ecosystem, and is the better choice if you want a full testing framework today.

browserlane is a different shape: one Rust binary that exposes both a CLI and an MCP server, with no Node or Python stack to set up. It drives Chrome over WebDriver BiDi and can be wired into a coding agent with one command. If you have a stable Playwright setup, there is no reason to throw it away. Reach for browserlane when you want a small single binary that humans and agents can both talk to.

How is this different from Playwright MCP servers?

The difference is the shape and the protocol. browserlane is one binary with both the human CLI and the MCP server running on the same engine:

bl go https://example.com
bl screenshot -o page.png

or point your agent at:

bl mcp

Most agent-facing browser tools — including Playwright-based MCP servers — drive Chrome over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), Chrome's vendor-specific side-channel. browserlane instead speaks WebDriver BiDi, the bidirectional, W3C-standard protocol the browser vendors are converging toward. Playwright-based servers inherit Playwright's maturity and ecosystem; browserlane is smaller, younger, and focused on a Rust-native CLI plus MCP over the standard protocol.

Does it only support Chrome?

Yes — Chrome only, for now. browserlane drives Chrome for Testing over WebDriver BiDi. We would rather be clear about that than make the scope sound broader than it is.

Why Rust?

Mainly distribution. A single static binary is a great shape for a developer tool — and for an MCP server that an agent needs to launch locally — because there is no language runtime to ship alongside it. Rust also fits the long-running daemon path well: predictable performance, memory safety, and clean cross-platform builds.

Is it production-ready?

How do I install it?

One line, on macOS or Linux:

curl -fsSL https://browserlane.com/install.sh | sh

On Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://browserlane.com/install.ps1 | iex

The installer detects your platform, verifies the download's checksum, installs the bl binary, and puts it on your PATH. You can also grab a signed, notarized archive from the latest release and put bl on your PATH yourself. See Install for details.

How do I update?

Re-run the installer — it always fetches the latest release:

curl -fsSL https://browserlane.com/install.sh | sh

It overwrites the existing bl in place. Check what you are on with bl --version.

Does it run headless?

Yes. The browser is visible by default so you can watch automation happen. Pass the global --headless flag on any command to hide the window:

bl --headless go https://example.com
bl --headless screenshot -o page.png

Which agents can I wire up?

Run bl add-mcp --list to see every supported client. Today that is Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, and the OpenAI Codex CLI:

bl add-mcp claude          # Claude Code
bl add-mcp cursor          # Cursor
bl add-mcp --list          # show every supported client

bl add-mcp registers the server by absolute path, so it works regardless of PATH. Add --stdout to print the config snippet instead of writing it. See Wire up an agent for the full walkthrough.

How do I make repeated commands faster?

Start the daemon. bl daemon start keeps Chrome warm across CLI invocations, so each command starts in well under a second instead of relaunching the browser:

bl daemon start
bl go https://example.com
bl title
bl daemon stop

See bl daemon for the subcommands.