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Browsegrab

@arknillMCP server · External

Token-efficient browser agent for local LLMs. Playwright + accessibility tree + MarkGrab.

Freeno charge per call

Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.

What it does

  1. Reads
  2. Writes
  3. High impact

At most: moves money, runs code or commands, deletes data, or sends messages for you.

What it costs

Free

Odel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.

Runs locally over stdio

This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).

PyPIbrowsegrabv0.1.1

Run

uvx browsegrab

MCP client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browsegrab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "browsegrab"
      ]
    }
  }
}
README4 min read

한국어 문서 · llms.txt

Token-efficient browser agent for local LLMs — Playwright + accessibility tree + MarkGrab, MCP native.

browsegrab is a lightweight browser automation library designed for local LLMs (8B-35B parameters). It combines Playwright's accessibility tree with MarkGrab's HTML-to-markdown conversion to achieve 5-8x fewer tokens per step compared to alternatives like browser-use.

Features

  • Token-efficient: ~500-1,500 tokens/step (vs 4,000-10,000 for browser-use)
  • Local LLM first: Optimized for vLLM, Ollama, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints
  • MCP native: Built-in MCP server with 8 browser automation tools
  • MarkGrab integration: HTML → clean markdown for content extraction
  • Accessibility tree + ref system: Stable element references (e1, e2, ...) without vision models
  • Success pattern caching: Zero LLM calls on repeated workflows
  • 5-stage JSON parser: Robust action parsing for local LLM outputs
  • Minimal dependencies: Only playwright + httpx in core

Installation

bash
pip install browsegrab
playwright install chromium

With optional features:

bash
pip install browsegrab[mcp]      # MCP server support
pip install browsegrab[content]  # MarkGrab content extraction
pip install browsegrab[cli]      # CLI with rich output
pip install browsegrab[all]      # Everything

Quick Start

Python API

python
from browsegrab import BrowseSession

async with BrowseSession() as session:
    # Navigate and get accessibility tree snapshot
    await session.navigate("https://example.com")
    snap = await session.snapshot()
    print(snap.tree_text)
    # - heading "Example Domain" [level=1]
    # - link "Learn more": [ref=e1]

    # Click using ref ID
    result = await session.click("e1")
    print(result.url)  # https://www.iana.org/help/example-domains

    # Type into search box
    await session.navigate("https://en.wikipedia.org")
    snap = await session.snapshot()
    await session.type("e4", "Python programming", submit=True)

    # Extract compressed content (AX tree + markdown)
    content = await session.extract_content()

CLI

bash
# Accessibility tree snapshot
browsegrab snapshot https://example.com

# JSON output
browsegrab snapshot https://example.com -f json

# Extract content (AX tree + markdown)
browsegrab extract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python

# Agentic browse (requires LLM endpoint)
browsegrab browse https://example.com "Find the about page"

MCP Server

bash
browsegrab-mcp  # Start MCP server (stdio)

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code config:

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browsegrab": {
      "command": "browsegrab-mcp"
    }
  }
}

8 MCP tools: browser_navigate, browser_click, browser_type, browser_snapshot, browser_scroll, browser_extract_content, browser_go_back, browser_wait

How It Works

Agent Browse Loop

mermaid
flowchart LR
    A["🌐 URL + Goal"] --> B["Navigate"]
    B --> C["AX Tree Snapshot\n~200–500 tokens"]
    C --> D{"LLM\nDecision"}
    D -->|"click / type / scroll"| E["Execute Action"]
    E --> C
    D -->|"goal reached"| F["Extract Content\n(MarkGrab)"]
    F --> G["✅ Result"]

Token Efficiency

browsegrab separates structure (accessibility tree) from content (MarkGrab markdown), sending only what the LLM needs:

mermaid
flowchart TD
    A["Raw HTML"] --> B["Accessibility Tree"]
    A --> C["MarkGrab Markdown"]
    B --> D["Structure: ~200–500 tokens\nInteractive elements with ref IDs"]
    C --> E["Content: ~300–800 tokens\nClean markdown · on-demand"]
    D --> F["Combined: ~500–1,300 tokens/step\n⚡ 5–8× fewer than browser-use"]
    E --> F

Token efficiency (measured)

PageInteractive elementsTokensbrowser-use equivalent
example.com1~60~500+
Wikipedia article452~1,254~10,000+

Architecture

browsegrab/
├── config.py                 # Dataclass configs (env var loading)
├── result.py                 # Result types (ActionResult, BrowseResult, ...)
├── session.py                # BrowseSession orchestrator
├── browser/
│   ├── manager.py            # Playwright lifecycle (async context manager)
│   ├── snapshot.py           # Accessibility tree + ref system
│   ├── selectors.py          # 4-strategy selector resolver
│   └── actions.py            # navigate, click, type, scroll, go_back, wait
├── dom/
│   ├── ref_map.py            # ref ID ↔ element bidirectional mapping
│   └── compress.py           # AX tree + MarkGrab → compressed context
├── llm/
│   ├── base.py               # LLMProvider ABC
│   ├── provider.py           # vLLM, Ollama, OpenAI-compatible
│   ├── prompt.py             # System prompts (~400 tokens)
│   └── parse.py              # 5-stage JSON fallback parser
├── agent/
│   ├── history.py            # Sliding window history compression
│   ├── cache.py              # Domain-based success pattern cache
│   └── loop_guard.py         # Duplicate action detection
├── __main__.py               # CLI (click)
└── mcp_server.py             # FastMCP server (8 tools)

Configuration

All settings via environment variables (BROWSEGRAB_* prefix):

bash
# Browser
BROWSEGRAB_BROWSER_HEADLESS=true
BROWSEGRAB_BROWSER_TIMEOUT_MS=30000

# LLM (for agentic browse)
BROWSEGRAB_LLM_PROVIDER=vllm          # vllm | ollama | openai
BROWSEGRAB_LLM_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000/v1
BROWSEGRAB_LLM_MODEL=Qwen/Qwen3.5-32B-AWQ

# Agent
BROWSEGRAB_AGENT_MAX_STEPS=10
BROWSEGRAB_AGENT_ENABLE_CACHE=true

Part of the QuartzUnit Ecosystem

LibraryRole
markgrabPassive extraction (URL → markdown)
snapgrabPassive capture (URL → screenshot)
docpickDocument OCR → structured JSON
browsegrabActive automation (goal → browser actions → results)

Development

bash
git clone https://github.com/QuartzUnit/browsegrab.git
cd browsegrab
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
playwright install chromium

# Unit tests (no browser needed)
pytest tests/ -m "not e2e"

# Full suite including E2E
pytest tests/ -v

License

MIT


Part of the QuartzUnit ecosystem — composable Python libraries for data collection, extraction, search, and AI agent safety.

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