Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

AutoCua vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. AutoCua scores 44.3 (E) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

Best desktop and mobile app automation for AI agents · All 48 desktop comparisons

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Which one, for what

AutoCua E

Best for Developers who want a local agent to operate desktop apps, their own browser or phones across platforms, on a machine they control.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 25 against 12
  • Agent ergonomics, 55 against 47
  • Security & auth, 38 against 22
  • Maintenance & community, 65 against 0

Also in its favour

  • Still running. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) has shut down
  • No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 points for them

Watch for

Two weeks old at version 0.1.9, with no changelog file

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) F

Best for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 42

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community AutoCua +65

AutoCua 65

v0.1.9 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Four tags in 90 days (20). Issues and pull requests weren't read (0 of 25). The PyPI wheel is current (15). No CI; dependencies pinned per OS in requirements files (0 of 10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 65.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 0

Last release 2025.5.12 on 12 May 2025 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). Archived on 29 May 2025 and read-only (0). Not in the official MCP registry (0). Pinned to MCP SDK 1.0.1 and an unsupported Puppeteer major (0).

Transparency & trust Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +35

AutoCua 42

MIT (30). Says it sends data only to the chosen model provider and keeps everything else locally, and the source agrees (20 of 30). No deprecation policy (0). States no telemetry, and none was found (20). 30 + 20 + 0 + 20 = 70.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 77

MIT, an OSI licence (30). Local software that keeps screenshots and console logs in memory and talks only to the pages it opens (20). The GitHub banner dates the archive to 29 May 2025 and the archive README says no security updates will follow. Neither the archive, the main repository's Archived list nor the npm deprecation message names a successor, where the Brave and Slack entries do (10). No telemetry (20).

Security & auth AutoCua +16

AutoCua 38

Framework reading (telemetry, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Provider keys stored in a local folder with Chrome profiles (10 of 30). The worker tools are an allow-list with no write tool, unseen ids are refused, downloads need a yes, but on Windows the model answers UAC elevation prompts itself through a kernel driver, with no person asked (6 of 20). The scraping ruleset has a prompt-injection instruction to log page text that gives instructions (10 of 15). Runs are logged in the app, with no audit log (7 of 15). No security policy, disclosure route or advisories found (5 of 20, for the vault and certificate handling). 10 + 6 + 10 + 7 + 5 = 38.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 22

No credentials to leak and nothing to scope, so the middle band (20). The guard against dangerous Chrome flags such as --no-sandbox is switched off by allowDangerous: true in the puppeteer_navigate arguments, so the model or a page that steers it can lift it. The Docker mode always launches with --no-sandbox --single-process --no-zygote, and puppeteer_evaluate runs any script (2). Page content and console output reach the model unmarked, with no injection guidance. The README's only caution is that the browser can reach local files and internal addresses (0). No call log (0). The archive README says "NO SECURITY GUARANTEES", and the pinned Puppeteer ^23.4.0 is itself deprecated on npm as "< 24.15.0 is no longer supported" (0).

Reliability AutoCua +13

AutoCua 25

Local package. Installs from PyPI as AutoCua with Python 3.10 or later and the supported platforms stated (20). No CI runs the tests; the only workflow, use_case_label.yml, labels issues (0). GitHub issues weren't read, so the open-issue line is scored absent (0). Four tags in a week with no changelog file (5). Version 0.1.9 (0). 20 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 25.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 12

Archived and superseded, so we scored what's left as a local stdio package. @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer 2025.5.12 still installs from npm, deprecated there with a generic message, and no runtime is stated (10). No tests and no CI for it in the archive (0). The repository has been read-only since 29 May 2025, so nobody can file or fix a crash, and console logs collect in an array that never empties (0). A date version and no changelog (2). Never 1.0 and never declared stable (0).

Agent ergonomics AutoCua +8

AutoCua 55

Framework reading. One call with a mode, provider, model and task runs a whole agent (20 of 25). A separate compression agent splices handoff summaries in, and runs are capped and stoppable (15 of 20). Permission and blocked-input errors are reported specifically, with no error reference (8 of 20). No resume or retry semantics described (2 of 20). Sensible defaults (simulators unless device is set), Python only (10 of 15). 20 + 15 + 8 + 2 + 10 = 55.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 47

Seven compact tools, about 700 tokens in total (25). No snapshot or text extraction, so the agent works from screenshots and puppeteer_evaluate. Screenshot width and height are the only size controls (4). Errors return as tool results with the browser's message (10). No annotations at all (0). One or two required parameters per tool, Node only (8).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAutoCuaPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Edge
Reliability16%202512AutoCua +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24241AutoCua +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.25547AutoCua +8
Security & auth14%17.53822AutoCua +16
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8650AutoCua +65
Transparency & trust7%8.84277Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +35
Negative events≤150-4
TotalE 44.3/100F 30.8/100

Facts side by side

FactAutoCuaPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)
KindAgent frameworkMCP server
VendorAshish Yadav and contributors (ComputerUseAgent on GitHub)Model Context Protocol (archived)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transportsstdio
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Tools exposednone7
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-11-042025-05-12
Terms last updatedno document linked2021-09-08
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2023-03-15
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetnot found in the text
Popularitynone294 stars, 25k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone1/5 (2)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

AutoCua

A capable, fast-moving open-source agent for driving desktops, browsers and phones through real input and accessibility trees, with a careful safety section. It's two weeks old, with no test CI or changelog, and on Windows the model itself decides whether to accept an admin elevation prompt.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Seven tools in about 700 tokens, every input with a required list. Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm.

Before you call either

AutoCua

  1. pip install AutoCua, then call run_agent with a mode such as "web use" or "computer use", a provider, a model and a task
  2. Run it on a machine or account you can afford to lose; it drives real input and keeps logged-in browser profiles
  3. On Windows, don't install the Interception driver unless you accept the model deciding UAC prompts
  4. Set AutoCua_DATA_DIR to keep keys and profiles somewhere private
  5. Phones go over USB from a script; Wi-Fi only through the desktop app

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

  1. Don't install it for new work. playwright-mcp covers the same tasks with snapshots and annotations
  2. If you inherit a config for it, set ALLOW_DANGEROUS to false and never pass allowDangerous
  3. Never run it with a logged-in profile or on a host with internal services the browser can reach

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, AutoCua or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)?

AutoCua scores 44.3 (E) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust.

Can an agent call AutoCua and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for AutoCua. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Are AutoCua and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) open source?

Yes. AutoCua is open source (MIT). Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with AutoCua or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Disclosure

MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing.

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