🧭 TabPilot

Drive the real Chrome you are already logged into — on macOS, Windows, and Headless Ubuntu 24/7.

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Most browser MCP servers launch a fresh, blank browser instance. That works for scraping static pages, but fails completely on tasks that matter:

• 🚫 Cloudflare & Bot Shields immediately flag fresh automation browsers.
• 🚫 Corporate SSO, Okta, & 2FA make authenticating from scratch painful or impossible.
• 🚫 Read-only tab viewers can only look at DOM text, not click or fill forms.

TabPilot bridges this gap. It attaches directly to your existing, logged-in Google Chrome. Your AI agents (Claude, Cursor, Antigravity, Cline) can read pages with up to 99% token savings, click elements with authentic mouse events (isTrusted: true), defeat React state caching traps, solve multi-row survey grids, and capture background screenshots without stealing window focus.

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  YOUR WORKSPACE                     TABPILOT MCP ENGINE           REAL BROWSER    │
│                                                                                   │
│  ┌──────────────────────┐          ┌──────────────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐ │
│  │ AI Agents            │          │ TabPilot MCP Server  │      │ Real Chrome  │ │
│  │ - Claude Desktop     │  stdio / │ - Token Budget Slicer│ CDP  │ - Active SSO │ │
│  │ - Cursor IDE         │ ───────> │ - Native Form Setters│────> │ - Cookies    │ │
│  │ - Antigravity/Gemini │   SSH    │ - Matrix Grid Driver │<──── │ - 2FA Saved  │ │
│  │ - Cline / Windsurf   │          │ - Dual CDP/AppleScr. │      │ - Real Finger│ │
│  └──────────────────────┘          └──────────────────────┘      └──────────────┘ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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⚡ Quick Start

1. Test your environment in one command

Run tabpilot doctor via uvx (no installation required):

uvx --from git+https://github.com/hunglp97/tabpilot-mcp tabpilot doctor

2. Configure your MCP Client

Add to claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tabpilot": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/hunglp97/tabpilot-mcp", "tabpilot-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

3. Launch Chrome with Remote Debugging

Quit Chrome completely, then start it pointing to your persistent automation profile:

# macOS
"/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome" \
  --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir="$HOME/tabpilot-chrome"

# Linux
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir="$HOME/tabpilot-chrome"

# Windows
taskkill /F /IM chrome.exe
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" ^
  --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir="%USERPROFILE%\tabpilot-chrome"

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💰 How TabPilot Saves 90%+ Tokens

Naive browser automation dumps document.body.innerText or raw HTML, wasting 15,000–45,000 tokens on navigation bars, cookies banners, and tracking scripts.

TabPilot provides Progressive Token Slicing:

Raw Page Dump (eval_js body)  ██████████████████████████████████████ 18,000+ tokens
read_tab() (Link-Density)     ███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ~1,200 tokens (93% saved)
read_tab(selector)            █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ~350 tokens (98% saved)
query_dom(selector)           ▏                                      ~18 tokens (99.9% saved)

Method	Tokens	Savings	Best For
query_dom(selector)	~15–30	99.9%	Checking button states (disabled), inputs, badges, or alerts
read_tab(selector)	~300–600	98.0%	Reading isolated articles, ticket cards, or form sections
read_tab() (Link-Density)	~1,200–1,800	93.0%	Full-page reads with nav, ads, headers, and footers stripped
❌ Naive eval_js innerText	15,000–35,000	0%	Context budget incinerator

💡 Enforced Character Budget: Reads default to --max-chars 20000. If truncated, TabPilot alerts the model with exact cut sizes, prompting it to narrow down with selector instead of hallucinating.

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🥊 Driving Forms That Fight Back

Modern Single-Page Applications (React, Vue, Svelte) defeat standard automation scripts. TabPilot solves the 3 most infamous SPA traps:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TRAP 1: React Synthetic Cache                                                     │
│ Standard `.value = 'x'` is ignored by React's internal tracker.                   │
│ ✅ TabPilot calls native property setters + fires both `input` and `change`.      │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TRAP 2: Multi-Row Survey Grid Batching                                            │
│ Clicking 25 matrix rows in one JS tick causes React to commit only the last row.  │
│ ✅ `fill_matrix` clicks row-by-row across microtasks with delays, then confirms.  │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TRAP 3: Virtual Portals (React-Select, Headless UI)                               │
│ No `<select>` exists; options render only after clicking the trigger.             │
│ ✅ `select_option_ui` clicks trigger, awaits portal mount, and selects option.    │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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⚖️ Comparison

Capability	Read-Only Tab Readers	Headless Bots (Puppeteer/Playwright)	🧭 TabPilot
Uses Existing Sessions & Cookies	✅	❌ Fresh empty profile	✅ Real Chrome (No re-login)
Bypasses Cloudflare & Bot Shields	✅ Human	❌ Bot fingerprint	✅ Human browser fingerprint
Form Driving & Clicking	❌ Read-only	✅	✅ Full Bidirectional Driving
React Synthetic Event Fix	❌	⚠️ Often missed	✅ Native prototype setters
Survey Matrix Handler	❌	❌ Batched drops	✅ fill_matrix task scheduling
Token-Optimized Extraction	⚠️ Basic text	❌ Raw DOM / costly vision	✅ query_dom (18 tokens)
Background Tab Screenshots	❌ Must be active	✅	✅ Off-screen CDP captures
Headless Ubuntu 24/7 Daemon	❌ macOS only	⚠️ Complex Docker	✅ Native systemd stack
External Dependencies	Minimal	❌ Heavy Node/Playwright binaries	✅ Zero dependencies beyond MCP

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🐧 24/7 Headless Ubuntu Server Stack

TabPilot is engineered to run permanently on cloud VPS servers (AWS, Hetzner, DigitalOcean) with zero exposed ports:

[ Laptop / Client ] ──( Encrypted SSH Pipe )──> [ Remote Ubuntu Server ]
                                                        │
                                                        ▼
                                             [ TabPilot MCP Server ]
                                                        │ (CDP 127.0.0.1:9222)
                                                        ▼
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Managed Systemd User Stack (Restart=always, Linger Enabled)                       │
│   tabpilot-xvfb.service   ──>   tabpilot-wm.service   ──>   tabpilot-chrome.service
│   (Virtual Framebuffer)         (Openbox Window Mgr)        (Real Chrome + SSO)   │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. One-Command Setup: bash deploy/ubuntu/install.sh configures Xvfb, Openbox, Chrome, and systemd services with Restart=always.
2. Font Protection (Anti-Tofu): Headless servers often render Vietnamese and CJK characters as empty square boxes. install.sh installs Noto and Liberation fonts; doctor validates text rendering.
3. Cgroup Memory Caps: Prevent Chrome from exhausting host RAM:

   tabpilot install-stack --memory-high 4G
   

4. Zero Remote Attack Surface: Chrome CDP stays locked to 127.0.0.1. Remote MCP connections run securely through SSH pipes (ssh you@server "tabpilot serve").

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🧰 Tools & Resources Reference

TabPilot exposes 17 tools and 2 live resources:

🔍 Reading & DOM Inspection

• query_dom(selector, attrs, limit, visible_only): Atomic element inspection (~18 tokens). Checks disabled, checked, values.
• read_tab(selector, mode, max_chars, url_pattern): Link-density markdown extraction with token caps.
• list_tabs(url_pattern): Lists open tabs with IDs, titles, and URLs (regex filterable).
• eval_js(expression, timeout_ms): Runs arbitrary JS in tab context; automatically awaits Promises in CDP.

🧭 Navigation & Tabs

• open_tab(url, activate, wait_for_load): Opens a URL in a new tab, awaiting page completion.
• close_tab(url_pattern, tab_id): Closes tab and polls until process confirms destruction.
• navigate(url, wait_for_load): Points tab to a new URL and awaits document load.
• activate_tab(url_pattern, tab_id): Brings target tab to foreground focus.

🖱️ Interaction & Complex Forms

• click(selector, text, nth): Scrolls element into view and emits trusted mouse event (isTrusted: true).
• fill(selector, value, clear, press_enter): Sets form inputs via native prototype setters to trigger React/Vue.
• select_option(selector, values, by): Selects options in native <select> or Select2 dropdowns.
• select_option_ui(control_selector, option_text): Clicks trigger, waits for popup portal, and selects item.
• wait_for(selector, state, text, timeout_ms): Polls until condition holds (visible, hidden, text, enabled).

📋 Matrix Surveys & Evidence

• scan_matrix(selector): Discovers multi-row grid questions and flags unanswered rows.
• fill_matrix(column_index, rows, delay_ms): Answers matrix rows sequentially with task delays.
• screenshot(full_page, selector, label): Offscreen capture of any tab (local path or inline base64).
• browser_status(): Reports active backend, capabilities, CDP endpoint, and open tab count.

📦 Live MCP Resources

• tab://active — Markdown stream of the currently focused tab.
• tab://{tab_id} — Markdown stream of any specific tab by ID.

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🛠️ CLI Reference

tabpilot doctor                # Run diagnostic suite (Chrome, CDP, fonts, permissions)
tabpilot tabs                  # List open browser tabs in terminal
tabpilot serve                 # Start MCP server on stdio

# Linux Managed Stack Commands
tabpilot install-stack         # Install systemd user services
tabpilot up / tabpilot down    # Start or stop the headless stack
tabpilot status                # Check systemd stack status
tabpilot logs chrome -f        # Follow live Chrome logs

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🧪 Testing

git clone https://github.com/hunglp97/tabpilot-mcp.git
cd tabpilot-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Unit tests (Zero browser needed)
pytest -v

# Live integration tests (against Chrome on port 9222)
pytest -v -m live

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📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Built with ❤️ for AI Engineers, QA Automators, and Power Users who demand real browser agency.
Star ⭐ TabPilot on GitHub if it saved your agents from bot shields and token burn!