# Chrome DevTools MCP vs Kane CLI (slim)

> Chrome DevTools MCP scores 72.4 (BB) to Kane CLI's 55.3 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-01
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Chrome DevTools MCP scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Kane CLI's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do browser automation.

- Chrome DevTools MCP: BB 72.4, rank #107 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp.min.md
- Kane CLI: C 55.3, rank #805 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kane-cli.min.md
- Chrome DevTools MCP, good for Coding agents debugging or profiling a web app they're building. Ahead on Reliability, 83 against 50; Schema & documentation, 87 against 77; Agent ergonomics, 73 against 65; Security & auth, 63 against 55; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Maintenance & community, 93 against 77; Transparency & trust, 82 against 38. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; Open source.
- Kane CLI, good for Coding agents and CI that need to check a web or mobile app in a real browser or device and keep replayable Markdown tests with evidence. Also No incidents deducted, where Chrome DevTools MCP loses 4 points for them.

| Category | Chrome DevTools MCP | Kane CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 83 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 87 | 77 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 73 | 65 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 63 | 55 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 93 | 77 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 38 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Chrome DevTools MCP | Kane CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google (Chrome DevTools team) | TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) |
| Transports | stdio |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | The npm wrapper, skill and repository are Apache-2.0. The runner, assurance and pinned Node binaries it installs are labelled Apache-2.0 on npm, but their source isn't in the linked repository. TestMu AI's service terms weren't read |
| Tools exposed | 59 | none |
| MCP registry | `io.github.ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-22 | 2026-10-28 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 49k stars, 1.5M npm/wk | 2.1k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (8) | none |

Why the edge:
- Transparency & trust, Chrome DevTools MCP +44: Chrome DevTools MCP 82 (Apache-2.0 (30). The README says usage statistics go to Google under its privacy policy and that performance tools send trace URLs to the CrUX API. No retention figures for either (20). No deprecation policy. The configuration docs mark `--experimentalScreencast` as deprecated and to be removed, with no date, and the README commits to supporting the latest Extended Stable Chrome (6). Usage statistics are on by default, disclosed at the top of the README, with `--no-usage-statistics`, an environment variable and automatic opt-out under CI. CrUX lookups switch off with `--no-performance-crux` (20).); Kane CLI 38 (The editorial half. The wrapper, skill and docs are Apache-2.0. The runner, assurance and pinned Node binaries are labelled Apache-2.0 on npm with no source in the linked repository, and the service terms couldn't be read (12 of 30). The repository says what leaves the machine. Every run uploads to Test Manager with screenshots and an evidence pack recording the user's name and email, secrets are masked, credentials are stored with mode 0600, and the evidence viewer reads packs locally. The privacy policy, DPA and retention periods are on testmuai.com and weren't read (10 of 30). The changelog calls out breaking changes, such as the removal of the bare-objective shortcut in 0.4.1, but there's no deprecation policy or dated notice period (5 of 20). The changelog describes telemetry (a remote log, support ids, errors spooled and sent at exit) and a daily npm update check. The opt-out `KANE_TELEMETRY=0` appears only in a skill reference, not the user guide (8 of 20).)
- Payments & pricing, Chrome DevTools MCP +40: Chrome DevTools MCP 60 (Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20. No payment protocol (0).); Kane CLI 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public per the listing check of 1 November 2026 (Starter $17 a month billed annually, Pro $89), and `run_end` reports credits per run, but the credit price per run isn't published, so plan-only pricing (10). The release says "free to start" and the check found a 10,000-credit, 30-day trial; whether it needs a card couldn't be read today. Judgement call (10 of 20). A person signs up and approves OAuth in a browser, or copies an access key from the dashboard, before any run (0).)
- Reliability, Chrome DevTools MCP +33: Chrome DevTools MCP 83 (Scored as a local stdio package. Official npm package, 1.12.0 on 22 October per the changelog and the official MCP registry, with Node ^20.19, ^22.12 or 23 and later in `engines` and Chrome stable and Chrome for Testing named as supported (20). Tests run on every push to main and on pull requests across Ubuntu, Windows and macOS, plus a memory-leak workflow. We couldn't see the run status (GitHub's pages refused our requests on 6 and 17 October and 1 November), so 20 of 25. 77 open issues per the 1 October count, not re-read since, most carrying triage labels. Both open bugs named then have fixes, traces over about 512 MB failing to stop (#2701) in 1.10.0 on 23 September and screenshots capturing the wrong region after scrolling (#2684) in 1.11.0 on 15 October (#2685), and 1.12.0 lists 51 fixes (18). release-please writes the changelog from conventional commits, but 1.8.0 on 25 August made `pageId` required by default and filed it under `Features` in a minor release, and 1.11.0 turned the screencast tools on by default, also as a feature (10). 1.0.0 shipped on 18 May 2026 (15). 20+20+18+10+15 = 83.); Kane CLI 50 (Graded with the hosted lines, because every run, exploration and design job goes through TestMu AI's service and spends credits, and Exploration runs on HyperExecute. status.lambdatest.io (Statusfy) lists Kane CLI and KaneAI as their own components with incident history and an Atom feed (20). From 3 August to 1 November 2026 no incident names Kane CLI or KaneAI. The platform under it had test creation timeouts from 09:00 to 13:30 UTC on 28 September with slow Automation and HyperExecute starts, six hours of partial macOS HyperExecute degradation on 25 September, and real-device partial outages on 21 August and 22 October (57 minutes). Judgement call, 10 for multi-hour degradation of the service runs depend on. No request rate limit is published; the only numbers are Exploration's built-in limits (an hour, 400 actions or 800 model calls), 20 cloud browsers and a 15-minute real-device queue (5 of 15). No 429 or Retry-After guidance. `maintain reconcile` is documented as idempotent, Exploration refuses a second run with `RUN_ACTIVE`, and the skill says never to rerun a paid command just to get a support id (5 of 15). No SLA found; the terms weren't readable (0). Nothing in the repository labels Kane CLI or Exploration beta or preview (10).)
- Maintenance & community, Chrome DevTools MCP +16: Chrome DevTools MCP 93 (1.12.0 on 2026-10-22, the latest entry in the official MCP registry on 1 November (published 22 October), with commits on main to 30 October (30). Seven releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 1.7.0 on 10 August to 1.12.0 (20). Open issues carry triage labels within days, though the ten newest showed no maintainer comments in the list view, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (18). Listed in the official MCP registry as io.github.ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp, published by a workflow on each tag (15). CI matrix across three systems and three Node versions, GitHub Actions pinned by commit hash (10). 30+20+18+15+10 = 93.); Kane CLI 77 (0.10.0 on npm on 28 October 2026, 4 days ago (30). 28 releases from 3 August to 1 November 2026, 0.8.4 to 0.10.0, each in the changelog (20). The repository has 337 commits, pull requests up to #222 merged within days by LambdaTest staff, a Discord and an issue tracker. GitHub's API wasn't reachable from this session, so open issues and reply times weren't counted (12 of 25). Not an MCP server. The CLI and skill are current on npm and a Homebrew tap, with no SDK (10 of 15). CI runs the skill installer's tests on Linux, macOS and Windows with Node 18 and 22. The CLI's own source and tests aren't public, and the main package carries no npm provenance attestation while the skill package does (5 of 10). Kane CLI is six and a half months old by its first npm release.)
- Schema & documentation, Chrome DevTools MCP +10: Chrome DevTools MCP 87 (Every tool has a Zod input schema with types, required fields and enums (25). Generated Markdown tool references in the repository and an Agent skills folder, but no llms.txt (7). Descriptions say what each tool does and often when, for example `evaluate_script` tells the model to pass `waitForStableDom: false` when it only reads, with sample functions. Few say when not to use a tool (16). Enums such as `format` (`function` or `script`), numeric page ids and file-path options (13). Inline examples in descriptions and a troubleshooting guide covering common errors, but no error catalogue (11). CHANGELOG.md for every release since 0.x (15).); Kane CLI 77 (No OpenAPI or JSON Schema file. The NDJSON events are documented in typed Markdown tables, `run_end` is declared stable across versions, and each command family has its event list (10 of 25). Markdown docs in the repository, an agent skill and a context7.json for agents. The agents.md guide on testmuai.com wasn't readable and no llms.txt was checked (10). The user guide and skill say when to use `run`, `testmd`, `testrun`, assurance or Exploration, and when not (Exploration when there are no written requirements, `read_only` for data you care about) (17 of 20). Flag tables give defaults and allowed values for `--mode`, `--target`, `--policy` and `--bug-detection`; `--variables` and `--session-context` take free-form JSON (12 of 15). Examples throughout, exit-code tables and troubleshooting tables with named failures such as `failed:setup_failed` and `RUN_ACTIVE`. The README's `run_end` example names `credits` while the skill names `credits_consumed` (13 of 15). Semantic versions with a dated Keep a Changelog file and git tags (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, Chrome DevTools MCP +8: Chrome DevTools MCP 73 (59 tools in the full reference across 11 categories. 1.11.0 on 15 October moved `screencast_start` and `screencast_stop` from behind `--experimentalScreencast` to on by default, so by our count of the category defaults and flag conditions in the source, 32 tools load by default (30 in 1.10.1), unchanged in 1.12.0 on 22 October. Extensions, PWA, third-party, WebMCP, vision and 13 of the 14 memory tools still sit behind flags. More than 30 tools (5, was 15 at about 30). Category flags turn groups off, and `--slim` cuts the list to three tools (navigate, evaluate, screenshot) (plus 10). `list_network_requests` and `list_console_messages` page and filter by resource type, `compare_heapsnapshots` gained pagination and truncation in 1.11.0, the heap snapshot tools paginate by default since 1.12.0, and large outputs can go to a file path instead of inline (20). Errors come back as tool text, dialogue boxes that block a tool are reported, and 1.11.0 adds errors to slim responses, but we found no documented error codes (14). Every tool sets `readOnlyHint` (28 true, 39 false in the 1.12.0 source), with no `destructiveHint` (14). Few required parameters, but `pageId` has been required on page tools by default since 1.8.0. npm only (10).); Kane CLI 65 (Graded on the CLI as an agent drives it. `run_end` carries `summary`, `one_liner` and only the values asked for with "store as" in `final_state`, and `--max-steps` and `--timeout` bound a run. The skill an agent loads is about 40 KB with 25 reference files (15 of 25). `testrun` selects by paths, `--match` and `--tags`, `explore list` and `explore sessions` filter by run, and `--json` on design and review commands; few size controls beyond that (14 of 20). Exit codes separate pass, fail, setup error and timeout, failure reasons are named, and refusals name the command to run next (18 of 20). Replays of saved tests come from cache, reconcile resumes rather than re-billing, and Exploration allows one run at a time. A one-shot `run` has no idempotency key and Exploration's default can change data (10 of 20). One required argument for `run`; Exploration's `mutating` default isn't a safe one; no SDKs, only the CLI from npm, Homebrew and a shell script (8 of 15).)