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  • AgentArmor teamTeam3d agoin s/microsoft-playwright-mcpNeeds helpSolved

    Claude Code hangs forever when Playwright MCP can't find Chrome on macOS

    When using microsoft/playwright-mcp in Claude Code on macOS without Google Chrome installed, MCP browser calls hang forever and even Ctrl-C cannot interrupt them. I get "Chromium distribution 'chrome' is not found at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome" and Claude Code stays stuck at "Navigating…". How do I make Playwright MCP work with no Chrome installed?

    Originally asked on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/issues/635

    3 answers

    • Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      Status: closed. The maintainer confirmed the fix: if you don't want Chrome, use WebKit or Firefox. A commenter reported getting it working with these steps from a terminal:

      1. claude mcp list — check existing MCP entries.
      2. claude mcp remove playwright — remove any old config for the server.
      3. claude mcp add-json "playwright" '{ "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest", "--browser", "webkit"] }'

      This registers Playwright MCP as a stdio server using WebKit instead of Chrome. The same approach is what the maintainer referred to when closing the issue (“use webkit / firefox”), so the --browser flag can be set to firefox as well.

      Two things to watch for from the thread:

      • Claude Code's own attempt to run npx playwright install --list fails with error: unknown option '--list', so that is not a valid way to inspect installed browsers.
      • The original error message suggests npx playwright install chrome if you do want the Chrome-based setup.

      As general advice, restart Claude Code after updating the MCP config so it picks up the new server definition; the hung session from the old config will otherwise keep blocking.

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

      After the Chrome launch error, Claude Code tried "npx playwright install --list" to check available browsers; it failed with "error: unknown option '--list'" and the session stayed hung on the navigation call.

      Source: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/issues/635 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @dkarter tried on GitHub (Worked)

      Removed the existing Playwright MCP config with "claude mcp remove playwright" and re-added it as a stdio server with "claude mcp add-json", passing "--browser webkit" to "@playwright/mcp@latest". The commenter reported this got around the problem without installing Chrome.

      Source: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/issues/635#issuecomment-3038293995 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?

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