Hronaut Browser MCP

Hronaut

Give your coding agent its own browser. Keep yours.

Hronaut is a visible desktop browser for coding agents, with a separate workspace for each project. Your everyday Chrome stays out of it, and you can pause and take over at any time. It is for developers and agencies who let Codex, Claude Code, Cursor or another coding agent check signed-in web apps.

[Download](https://hronaut.dev/download) · [Setup guide](https://hronaut.dev/setup) · [Pricing](https://hronaut.dev/#pricing)

For Windows, macOS and Linux. 10-day free trial, no card. Then $4/month or $24/year per named user.

• Your everyday Chrome stays out of it. Agents work in Hronaut, not in the Chrome with your email and bank. They can use what you sign into in Hronaut.
• One workspace per project or client. Each keeps its own cookies and sign-ins, and stays open after the chat ends.
• Watch it, pause it, take over. Do the login or 2FA yourself, then hand the tab back.

Website · Browser MCP decision guide · Releases · Issues · Detailed reference

Start in three steps

1. Download the latest Hronaut for Windows, macOS, or Linux and start it.
2. On Hronaut Home, choose your coding agent and copy its generated setup, or use the generic setup guide. The in-app setup always reflects the current local endpoint and authentication choice.
3. Ask the connected agent: Using Hronaut, create a new isolated workspace named “Hronaut first run”, open https://example.com, take a semantic snapshot, and tell me the page heading. Use only that task workspace.

A successful run stays visible in Hronaut, creates an isolated workspace, and remains available after that coding-agent conversation ends.

Ready for a real task? Use the copy-ready starter workflows for authenticated handoff, localhost QA, and responsive review without weakening Hronaut's workspace and privacy boundaries.

For recurring work, run the scheduled and triggered browser workflow. Its disposable Docker fixture shows which component owns triggers, browser authority, human takeover, retries, cancellation, and authoritative outcome reconciliation.

Hronaut automates web pages in its own browser, not native desktop applications or other application windows. See browser and native testing boundaries to choose the right test surface, and approval boundaries before consequential actions.

Choose a persistent profile or Hronaut workspaces

A dedicated persistent browser profile can be enough for one project and one identity. Playwright MCP supports this through --user-data-dir; persistence does not require Hronaut. Its profile documentation also explains separate profiles for concurrent browser instances.

Choose Hronaut when you want named profiles managed together in a desktop browser, visible pause and takeover, or deliberate workspace resumption across compatible MCP clients. Each new workspace has separate website storage; bookmarks, history, download records, and remembered permissions remain application-wide. See the workspace contract for the exact boundaries. Hronaut adds a desktop application to run and maintain; its terms are in License.

Each live MCP transport can hold a bounded exclusive write lease for the workspace it creates or resumes. A resume remains usable for read-only inspection when another transport already owns writes, but conflicting mutations return a typed BUSY result without dispatch. Pausing agents, rotating authentication, disconnecting, releasing ownership, or lease expiry revokes that transport's write authority; claim it again only after inspecting fresh state. This lease prevents concurrent writers inside one Hronaut process, not coordination across different Hronaut installations.

Try the short first-run checks for both paths before committing to a workflow. Hronaut's client connection guide and Playwright MCP's client setup instructions cover their respective connections.

Move reviewed setup between machines with portable workspace templates, without copying browser sign-ins. The Support, recovery, and exit path explains how to reconnect a client, replace or remove a workspace, recover local data, and get help.

Keep personal and agent work separate

Open Home to find a project, switch to its tabs, or create a new space. The Open and Archived views keep ongoing and saved work easy to find. Search by workspace name or page title. Each workspace card shows direct agent access and any site restrictions; choose Manage to edit them. Workspace options can hide a workspace from the left sidebar or protect it from permanent deletion. Hidden workspaces stay accessible from Home, and protected workspaces can still be archived.

The browser mute button works from Home before any website tabs exist. It silences existing and future tabs and survives restart. A tab’s Mute / Unmute control can temporarily override browser mute for that tab. Turning browser mute on again clears these exceptions; turning it off restores each tab’s saved mute preference.

Choose Archive when you finish a task. Tabs and sign-ins remain saved, and Undo archive restores an accidental archive immediately. Use Restore workspace in the Archived view to pick up where you left off. Permanent deletion asks for confirmation and removes the workspace’s website data.

Hronaut starts on Home without creating a Default workspace. Opening your first tab creates an isolated workspace. Workspace state saved in an unsupported format stops startup instead of being upgraded.

• Fork a workspace to reuse its cookies and local storage in an independent profile. Choose any active or archived source; the fork starts with a blank tab and keeps the source's site restrictions, or only some of its listed sites if you choose them.
• Disable direct agent access when a workspace should stay under your control. Agents can still fork it, but cannot browse or change its original tabs. The fork receives a copy of its site data, so this setting does not prevent agents from reusing copied sign-ins.
• Copy or Move site data with explicit source and destination controls. Move requires both workspaces archived and verifies the destination before removing transferred data from the source. Profiles with background site-worker storage cannot currently be moved.

Transfers include cookies and local storage, not history, saved passwords, IndexedDB, cache, or downloaded files. They are one-time copies, not ongoing synchronization. Deleting a workspace permanently removes its browser profile; archiving keeps it for later.

Works with your coding agent

Connect through Hronaut's local Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint. Choose the focused guide for your client, or start with the generic setup:

• Terminal and desktop agents: Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Goose, OpenCode, Devin Local, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Qwen Code, and Warp.
• Editor agents: Cursor, VS Code / GitHub Copilot (or the Hronaut extension from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX), Cline, Zoo Code, Kiro, Kilo Code, JetBrains Junie, Zed, and Windsurf.
• Other clients: use the generic Streamable HTTP setup.

When Hronaut is the right browser

Hronaut fits when you already have a coding agent and want the browser to remain local, visible, and reusable after one task or chat ends.

• Keep authenticated sites in named, isolated workspaces instead of rebuilding login state for every agent session.
• Watch work as it happens, pause agent access, lock website interaction, or take over the same tab for CAPTCHA, 2FA, payment, and other human-only steps.
• Resume one deliberately scoped browser workspace across compatible local MCP sessions with its private task capability, without exposing it to other connected clients or connecting the agent to your everyday browser profile.
• Preserve tabs and evidence between coding sessions for debugging, authenticated QA, and multi-agent handoffs.
• Track long browser workflows with bounded deadlines, heartbeats, and runtime-checked completion evidence instead of relying on a model message alone.

Explore the source-backed workflows for authenticated browser handoff, parallel agent workspaces, localhost QA, local Web3 wallets, and security and release trust.

Use a task-owned headless browser or automation library when the browser should be disposable or embedded inside your own agent runtime. Use a hosted browser service when you need remote regions, managed proxies, stealth, or fleet-scale execution. The source-backed Browser MCP decision guide compares Hronaut with Playwright MCP, Chrome DevTools MCP, and an extension-based Browser MCP without claiming persistence is unique.

Where Hronaut fits in your agent stack

Hronaut is a local, visible MCP execution layer for agents that already have their o