No access to browser automation

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Until the update recently I was running fully automated via the agent Chrome browser. It did all m runpod deployments and Vercel deployments etc in autopilot agent mode. Now the @browers does not work anymore, when I go to the Tools/browserI only can chose between Off and Browser Tab. Which is not really usable and no replacement for Chrome automation. I installed Puppeteer MCP but that just opens Chrome but cannot “see” nor “write” in t. So completely useless. Can you please bring back that functionality. Cannot work like this.

Steps to Reproduce

It is just there when I reboot computer, restart cursor, switch on and off browser automation tab…

Expected Behavior

I want the cursor agent to open up Chrome browser (and there it should say something like your browser is under software control) and then work fully automatically within the browser, doing tests and checks, deployment to my runpod, to Vercel etc. Have automated these steps completely by delegating them to the agent.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.4.28 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: f3f5cec40024283013878b50c4f9be4002e0b580
Date: 2026-02-03T00:56:18.293Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Early Access
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Opus 4.6, same with 4.5… IDE issue and not LLM issue.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

1 Like
Cannot open external browser
3

facing the same issue

4

Hey, thanks for the report.

The Chrome option was intentionally removed in recent versions for security reasons. It wasn’t well maintained and had potential vulnerabilities. It was an internal version of Playwright MCP, which is now deprecated.

Alternatives for your workflow:

  1. Browser Tab (built-in browser) - Settings > Tools & MCP > Browser Automation > Browser Tab

    • Same capabilities: navigate, click, console, network
    • Difference: the browser runs inside Cursor, not in a separate window

  2. Official Playwright MCP - if you need control of an external Chrome:

The Puppeteer MCP you tried is a different implementation, so it can behave differently. Microsoft’s Playwright MCP is the more stable option.

1 Like
5

Hi

The playwright worked! That is a perfect replacement for the old funtionality. Puppeteer is too slow and clunky with its screenshots all the time…

Thank you,
Andrea

1 Like
7

Try a spin-off called Playwriter.dev its really good provided you’re happy to accept using another vendor/package GitHub - remorses/playwriter: Chrome extension to let agents control your browser. Runs Playwright snippets in a stateful sandbox. Available as CLI or MCP

It also has access to your real browser session rather than opening a new window, so if your app has SSO its no longer a pain to set things up.

Apparently its more token efficient too,

9

Thank you so much for your help! It works again with your hint re playwright! Big thank you!

10

That worked with Playwright! Big thank you!

11

@deanrie Browser Tab doesn’t seem to be working

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