agentyc 0.2.12

Deterministic MCP-first browser automation runtime for coding agents

agentyc

Deterministic, MCP-first browser automation for coding agents.
No API key needed. No LLM fallback. Just CDP, stdio MCP, and 50 tools.

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What Is It

agentyc ships a public stdio MCP server for browser automation. It speaks CDP directly — no Playwright, no Puppeteer, no LLM fallback. Every tool is deterministic, every response is compact, and the default path works with zero API keys.

For coding agents that need to read a page, click a button, fill a form, or extract a table — agentyc is the browser backend.

uv tool install agentyc
agentyc                          # Starts the MCP server — that's it

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How It Compares

	agentyc	browser-use	Playwright MCP
Protocol	stdio MCP (native)	Python script + custom loop	MCP wrapper over library
LLM required	No	Yes (planner)	No
Extraction	Deterministic routes (7 families)	LLM-based	Raw page access
State snapshots	Token-aware, compact, since_hash polling	Full DOM dump	Full DOM or accessibility tree
Element targeting	Stable refs (e123) survive re-renders	XPath/CSS selectors	Playwright locators
Browser backend	CDP direct (no Playwright)	Playwright	Playwright
Extraction API key	Not needed	N/A	Not needed
Auto-close default	No (session stays alive)	Varies	Varies
Context isolation	Per-server BrowserContext for shared browser	N/A	N/A
Dependencies	~20 core (lean)	~40+ (heavy)	Playwright + SDK
Install size	Small (Python package)	Very large	Moderate
Tool count	50	~15-20 actions	~20 tools
Console/Network capture	CDP-native built-in	Limited	Limited
Deterministic extraction	Tables, lists, forms, links, images, key-value	None (LLM only)	None
Headless by default	No (visible), flag for headless	Configurable	Configurable

agentyc is not a testing framework or an autonomous agent loop. It is a browser MCP: launch it, give your agent 50 tools, let it inspect and interact — deterministically, compactly, without an LLM in the critical path.

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Quick Start

# 1. Install
uv tool install agentyc

# 2. Run the MCP server
agentyc

# 3. Configure your agent
agentyc init     # writes agentyc-skill.md — point Claude Code/Cursor at it

Add to opencode.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "agentyc": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uv", "run", "agentyc", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

From source:

uv venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync --dev

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Bootstrap Your Agent

agentyc init                      # writes agentyc-skill.md
agentyc init --output .agent.md   # custom path
agentyc init --print              # stdout
agentyc init --force              # overwrite

The skills guide covers: read→ref→act loop, since_hash polling, dynamic-text waits, error recovery, long-page search, multi-tab handoff, extraction routes, auth persistence, parallel agents, JS evaluation, and common pitfalls.

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MCP Surface: 50 Tools

Navigation & State (12 tools)

Tool	What it does
browser_navigate	Navigate to a URL, optionally in a new tab
browser_go_back	History back
browser_go_forward	History forward
browser_refresh	Reload current page
browser_wait	Wait N seconds (bounded)
browser_wait_for_network_idle	Wait until AJAX/XHR settles
browser_wait_for_stable_dom	Wait until DOM mutations settle via MutationObserver
browser_get_state	Primary primitive — structured DOM with stable refs, screenshots, 4 modes
browser_get_html	Raw HTML (full or CSS-selected)
browser_screenshot	Viewport or full-page PNG
browser_save_as_pdf	Save current page as PDF via CDP Page.printToPDF
browser_set_viewport	Set browser viewport width, height, and scale

Interaction (13 tools)

Tool	What it does
browser_click	Click by ref, index, or viewport coordinates
browser_right_click	Context menu
browser_double_click	Double-click (text selection, file open)
browser_hover	Trigger hover states and menus
browser_drag_to	Drag source to target (kanban, sliders, drop zones)
browser_type	Clear and type into a field
browser_press_key	Send keys / shortcuts (Enter, Tab, Meta+r)
browser_scroll	Scroll page or element
browser_scroll_to_text	Bring text into viewport
browser_select_option	Pick a <select> option by label
browser_get_dropdown_options	Inspect all options in a combobox
browser_upload_file	Upload a file to a file input
browser_handle_dialog	Accept/dismiss JS dialogs (alert, confirm, prompt)

Inspection & Extraction (7 tools)

Tool	What it does
browser_extract_content	Deterministic extraction — tables, lists, forms, links, images, key-value
browser_find_elements	CSS selector search
browser_search_page	Ctrl+F for text or regex
browser_wait_for_element	Poll until text/appears or disappears
browser_get_focused_element	Current keyboard focus
browser_get_attribute	Get attribute from element by ref/index (href, src, value, disabled)
browser_evaluate	Execute JavaScript in page context

Tabs & Session State (9 tools)

Tool	What it does
browser_new_tab	Create tab + switch focus — parallel agent primitive
browser_list_tabs	List open tabs, grouped by owning agent/runtime by default
browser_switch_tab	Switch by 4-char tab_id
browser_close_tab	Close by tab_id
browser_get_cookies	Read cookies for current domain
browser_set_cookies	Inject cookies (auth persistence)
browser_clear_cookies	Delete one or all cookies
browser_save_state	Persist cookies + storage to disk
browser_load_state	Restore from disk

Observability & Lifecycle (9 tools)

Tool	What it does
browser_get_console_logs	CDP-native console capture (log/warn/error)
browser_get_network_log	CDP-native network log with optional headers
browser_get_downloads	List downloaded files from the session
browser_clear_logs	Clear console and/or network log buffers
browser_start_trace	Start CDP performance trace
browser_stop_trace	Stop trace and return collected events as JSON
browser_list_sessions	List tracked sessions
browser_close_session	Close one session
browser_close_all	Close all sessions

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State & Element Targeting

browser_get_state is the primary inspection primitive.

Mode	Behavior
auto	Full state on small pages, compact ranked on dense pages
full	Complete interactive-element payload
min	Compact ranked subset (30 elements, viewport-proximity scored)
focus	Single-element payload

• Stable refs: Elements get e123 refs derived from backend node IDs — survive re-renders.
• since_hash: Poll unchanged pages with changed=false — zero element payload sent.
• In min mode: elements within 2× viewport height get a proximity score boost.
• Unchanged responses: still return url, title, state_hash, current_tab_id, scroll position.
• Shared-browser tabs: tabs stays flat for compatibility, and tab_groups groups tabs by owning agent/runtime by default.
• Screenshots: delivered as MCP image content, not embedded base64.

Best practice: Start with mode="min", use since_hash for follow-up reads, escalate to mode="full" only when compact payload omitted something you need.

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Deterministic Extraction

browser_extract_content is deterministic-only — no LLM fallback, no API key required.

Supported route families:

Route	Extracts
Links	<a> elements
Link collections	Nav menus, pagination, result lists
Images	<img> + alt text
Tables	<table> rows and cells
Lists	<ul> / <ol> items
Form fields	Inputs, selects, textareas
Key-value	Definition lists, property panels

• output_schema works when the query matches a deterministic route.
• Unrecognized queries return an explicit error with examples — no silent degradation.
• Responses include <extraction_metadata> with route and truncation info.

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Shared Browser & Parallel Agents

# Start a browser for sharing
agentyc browser --port 9222 --detach
# → ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/...

# Attach MCP servers to it
agentyc mcp --cdp-url ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/...

Parallel automation flow:

1. Primary agent starts a shared browser with agentyc browser --detach
2. Each subagent spawns agentyc mcp --cdp-url <url> — gets its own BrowserContext (cookies/storage isolated)
3. Each subagent calls browser_new_tab — dedicated tab, focus switched
4. Subagents operate independently — refs, network logs, console logs scoped to their tab
5. Primary coordinates and collects results

When multiple runtimes share one browser, Agentyc surfaces a grouped tab view by default so developers can quickly see which agent owns how many tabs.

Collaboration flags:

• --runtime-label — human-readable ownership label
• --runtime-role — primary / assistant
• --shared-browser-mode — tab (default) or window
• --shared-browser-focus-policy — preserve or activate
• --shared-browser-window-bounds — JSON bounds for window mode

Chrome does not offer reliable per-tab color ownership. Separate windows are the most dependable operator model.

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Perceived Speed

agentyc helps separate browser work from agent thinking time:

• MCP progress notifications — emit notifications/progress for long browser phases when the caller provides a progressToken.
• Tool timing — every result includes _meta.agentyc/browser_duration_ms and agentyc/tool_phase.
• Since-hash polling — unchanged pages return in <1 ms without resending element payloads.
• Compact mode — mode="min" surfaces the 30 most actionable elements with proximity scoring.
• Agent narration — agents should narrate intent briefly before a likely pause: "Waiting for validation to finish."

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Benchmarks

Measured by the release-gate benchmark suite (scripts/benchmark_mcp_runtime.py):

Metric	Threshold	Current
Python import time	≤ 2500 ms	~800 ms
Cold-start session init	≤ 35000 ms	~7000 ms
auto payload reduction	≥ 8.0%	~8.3%
auto element recall	≥ 0.99	1.0
min element recall	≥ 0.99	1.0
Deterministic extraction recall	≥ 0.99	1.0
Structured extraction recall	≥ 0.99	1.0
Action success rate	≥ 1.0	1.0
Collaboration check pass rate	≥ 1.0	1.0

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Python Surface

from agentyc import AgentycServer, BrowserSession, BrowserProfile, Tools

server = AgentycServer(session_timeout_minutes=20)
await server.run()

The primary public story is MCP-first. Direct Python imports are available for embedding or lower-level control.

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Configuration

CLI flag	Default	Description
--session-timeout-minutes	0 (never)	Auto-close idle sessions
--cdp-url	—	Attach to existing browser
--runtime-label	—	Ownership label for shared browser
--runtime-role	—	Collaboration role
--shared-browser-mode	tab	tab or window
--shared-browser-focus-policy	preserve	preserve or activate

Environment variables: AGENTYC_HEADLESS, AGENTYC_ALLOWED_DOMAINS, AGENTYC_ACTION_TIMEOUT_S, AGENTYC_PROXY_*, AGENTYC_LOGGING_LEVEL.

Browser defaults: headless=false, downloads_path=~/Downloads/agentyc-mcp, user_data_dir=~/.config/agentyc/profiles/default.

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Development

source .venv/bin/activate
./scripts/lint.sh     # ruff
./scripts/test.sh     # pytest + pytest-asyncio
uv run pyright        # static types
uv build              # package

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Docs

• Overview
• Features
• Architecture
• API Reference
• Configuration
• Tech Stack
• Release Gate

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.