achiya-automation/safari-mcp

**The browser for your coding agent.**
*Your real Safari, logged in — no Chrome, no heat, no headless.*
Install in VS Code ·
VS Code Insiders ·
Install in Cursor
**98 tools** · **No Chrome/Puppeteer/Playwright needed** · **~5ms per command** · **60% less CPU than Chrome**
Quick Start · All 98 Tools · Examples · Why Safari MCP? · Architecture · Changelog
❌ Without Safari MCP
Your AI agent needs to browse. So it either:
- **Spins up Chromium via Playwright** — with no logins, no cookies, no sessions
- **Uses Chrome DevTools MCP** — and melts your fan running a second browser
- **Relies on headless scrapers** — blocked by Cloudflare, reCAPTCHA, and bot detection
✅ With Safari MCP
Your AI drives the **Safari you're already logged into** — Gmail, GitHub, Ahrefs, Slack, banking.
Native WebKit. ~60% less CPU. Background operation. 98 tools. One npx command. macOS only.
> 📰 **Featured on freeCodeCamp:** How to Connect Your AI Coding Agent to a Browser on macOS · HackerNoon: Reverse-Engineering React, Shadow DOM, and CSP
> 🍎 **Apple ships an official Safari MCP** — safaridriver --mcp, first in Safari Technology Preview 247 (July 2026) and in stable Safari since 27.0. It drives an isolated automation session for debugging. safari-mcp drives the **real Safari you're already logged into** — your cookies and sessions, in the background, with 98 tools. See the full comparison below.
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Highlights
- **98 tools** — navigation, clicks, forms, screenshots, network, storage, accessibility, and more
- **Zero heat** — native WebKit on Apple Silicon, ~60% less CPU than Chrome
- **Your real browser** — keeps all logins, cookies, sessions (Gmail, GitHub, Ahrefs, etc.)
- **Background operation** — Safari stays in the background, no window stealing
- **No browser dependencies** — no Puppeteer, no Playwright, no WebDriver, no Chrome
- **Persistent process** — reuses a single osascript process (~5ms per command vs ~80ms)
- **Framework-compatible** — React, Vue, Angular, Svelte form filling via native setters
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In users' own words
Not solicited testimonials — quotes lifted from the public issue tracker, each linked to the thread it came from.
> "I run multiple Pi sessions/subagents against my normal Safari profile in parallel. **Sharing its cookies and logins is intentional.**"
> — @maxim, on running concurrent agents against a real browser
> "The server has a deliberate tab-ownership model … **the code is careful about this, and for the default case that's the right safety posture.**"
> — @turner-moore, on why the guards refuse to touch your tabs
> "Direct local validation from the package: **Safari MCP doctor 6/6.**"
> — @jrepp, who found and fixed a queue-alignment bug in the focus helper
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Quick Start
Prerequisites
- macOS (any version with Safari)
- Node.js 20+
- Safari → Settings → Advanced → **Show features for web developers** ✓
- Safari → Settings → Developer → **Allow JavaScript from Apple Events** ✓
Install (one command)
That's it — no global install needed. Or install permanently:
Configure your MCP client
All clients run Safari MCP the same way — npx safari-mcp. Pick your editor:
Claude Code
Or edit ~/.mcp.json:
Claude Desktop
Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
Restart Claude Desktop after saving.
Cursor
One-click: **Install in Cursor**
Or edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project:
VS Code / VS Code Insiders
One-click: **Install in VS Code**
Or edit .vscode/mcp.json:
Windsurf
Edit .windsurf/mcp.json in your project (or ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json globally):
Cline
Open Cline in VS Code → click the MCP icon → **Edit MCP Settings** → add:
Continue
Edit ~/.continue/config.yaml (or .continue/config.yaml in workspace):
Goose
Edit ~/.config/goose/config.yaml:
LM Studio
Open LM Studio → **Settings** → **MCP Servers** → **Add Server**:
- **Name:** safari
- **Command:** npx
- **Args:** safari-mcp
Zed
Open Zed → **Settings** → search for "Context Servers" and add:
Alternative: Homebrew
Alternative: from source
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Usage Workflow
The recommended pattern for AI agents using Safari MCP:
**Element targeting** — tools accept multiple targeting strategies:
| Strategy | Example | Best for |
|----------|---------|----------|
| CSS selector | #login-btn, .submit | Unique elements |
| Visible text | "Sign In", "Submit" | Buttons, links |
| Coordinates | x: 100, y: 200 | Canvas, custom widgets |
| Ref from snapshot | ref: "e42" | Any element from accessibility tree |
> **Tip:** Start with safari_snapshot to get element refs, then use refs for precise targeting. This is faster and more reliable than CSS selectors.