Cannot open external browser

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

At last week everything works well. I know, linux later gave the updates, it is not a problem. but in this week, the chat deny to open external and controlled browser. It can open by xdg-open (which starts a new application, without control) and it can user poor internal browser. But the previous browser MCP gone.
I try it in a different computer with an older version of cursor (2.2.20) but didn’t work.

Steps to Reproduce

just prompt:

open the external browser with localhost and write “róka” into the first input field.

Expected Behavior

opens an external browser and control it.

Operating System

Linux

Version Information

Version: 2.4.31
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 3578107fdf149b00059ddad37048220e41681000
Date: 2026-02-08T07:42:24.999Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.8.0-94-generic

For AI issues: which model did you use?

auto

Additional Information

We have a team subscription with more than 30 users. So this is a huge problem for us.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

3

Hey, thanks for the report.

The Chrome option was intentionally removed in recent versions for security reasons. It was an internal Playwright MCP build that we’ve deprecated. So this isn’t a bug, it’s a product change.

Alternatives for your workflow:

  1. Browser Tab (built-in browser)
  • Settings > Tools & MCP > Browser Automation > Browser Tab
  • Same capabilities: navigation, clicks, console, network
  • Difference: the browser runs inside Cursor, not in a separate window
  • Docs: Browser | Cursor Docs
  1. Microsoft Playwright MCP (if you need an external Chrome)

Other users confirm Playwright MCP works as a replacement: No access to browser automation

Try Browser Tab first. If a separate window is critical for your use case, Playwright MCP should solve it. Let me know if that doesn’t work for you.

4

Thank you for the fast answer!

Can I find out what happened, what changed in the background that caused this previous operation to break down, and now does it need to be set up?

I tried and used the built-in browsertab solution, but honestly it doesn’t really look professional. Starting from the window size, through the available tools, to any add-ons. So if possible, I would use an external browser.

Meanwhile I’m looking at the playwright installer and I’m stuck on the fact that I need npx, which requires npm, which requires nodejs… but I don’t have these and it would be nice if it stayed that way. BTW it could even use nodejs from docker.

I’m in a difficult and sad situation

5

I get it, this is inconvenient. I’ll explain what happened and what options you have.

What changed: Cursor used to include a built-in Playwright-based MCP for controlling Chrome. It was removed for security reasons. That was an intentional decision, not a bug.

About Node.js and the Playwright MCP: If you don’t want to install Node.js on your system, you can run the Playwright MCP via Docker. Microsoft provides a ready-to-use Docker image. In the MCP config, it looks roughly like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "--init", "--pull=always", "mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Details are here: GitHub - microsoft/playwright-mcp: Playwright MCP server. The README has a Docker section. This way, Node.js stays inside the container.

About the Browser Tab: I agree, it has limitations compared to a full external browser. But for basic tasks like navigation, clicks, forms, console, and network, it works.

1 Like
6

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