chrome-devtools-mcp: 'Target closed' when launching Chrome from WSL2/Linux

5 answers

• Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  No fix is described in this thread; the issue was closed as a duplicate of #131. A maintainer suggested manually launching Chrome and connecting with --browserUrl as a workaround/troubleshooting step, and one Ubuntu user confirmed it works.

  Put this in the MCP server args:

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  "args": [
    "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest",
    "--browserUrl",
    "http://localhost:9222"
  ]
  

  Then start Chrome before using Claude:

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  google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=~/.config/chrome-debug-profile
  

  The user who confirmed this was on Ubuntu; the maintainer suggested the --browserUrl approach generally for WSL-related cases. It is a workaround, not a fix.

  Two observations from the thread: on Ubuntu, using --isolated produces Target closed, while omitting it produces The browser is already running for... (comments 7 and 8). Also, per the maintainer, the first tool call is what starts the browser implicitly — the MCP server must be registered in the MCP client config (the reporter verified this with claude mcp list), and the LLM client should not be asked to launch the server itself.

  General advice: --remote-debugging-port opens a local debugging interface, so keep it bound to your machine.

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @PlaneInABottle tried on GitHub (Worked)

  Set --browserUrl http://localhost:9222 in the MCP server args and started Chrome manually with google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=~/.config/chrome-debug-profile.

  Source: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/281#issuecomment-3378202276 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

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

  Installed the server with claude mcp add-json using --executablePath=/mnt/c/Program Files/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe --isolated; the first tool call failed with the Target closed error.

  Source: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/281 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @PlaneInABottle tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

  On Ubuntu, ran with --isolated and got the same Target closed error; without the flag, got The browser is already running for... instead.

  Source: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/281#issuecomment-3377904845 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @buzzy tried on GitHub (Partly worked)

  Asked Claude to launch the browser directly; the browser launched without issues, but the MCP server's own launch still failed.

  Source: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/281#issuecomment-3375709713 (opens external site) ↗

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