# Kane CLI vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) (slim)

> Kane CLI scores 55.3 (C) to Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md (~5,650 tokens) · this version ~3,130 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. Kane CLI scores 55.3 (C) 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 payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- Kane CLI: C 55.3, rank #805 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kane-cli.min.md
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server): F 30.8, rank retired, not ranked · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.min.md
- 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. Ahead on Reliability, 50 against 12; Schema & documentation, 77 against 41; Agent ergonomics, 65 against 47; Security & auth, 55 against 22; Maintenance & community, 77 against 0. Also Still running. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) has shut down; No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 points for them.
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server), good for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Transparency & trust, 77 against 38. Also No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; Open source.

| Category | Kane CLI | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 12 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 41 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 47 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 55 | 22 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 77 | 0 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 38 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kane CLI | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Licence | 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 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 7 |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2025-05-12 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2023-03-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 2.1k npm/wk | 294 stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Kane CLI +77: 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.); 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).)
- Payments & pricing, Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +40: 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).); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 60 (Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20. No payment protocol (0). The rubric is mechanical here and says nothing in favour of installing it.)
- Transparency & trust, Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +39: 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).); 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).)
- Reliability, Kane CLI +38: 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).); 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).)
- Schema & documentation, Kane CLI +36: 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).); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 41 (Seven tools with JSON Schema inputs and `required` lists on every one, but `launchOptions` is a free-form object (20). The README is Markdown on GitHub, no llms.txt (5). Descriptions are three to nine words, "Navigate to a URL", "Execute JavaScript in the browser console", with no when-to-use guidance (4). No enums or constraints. Selectors and scripts are free strings (6). The README shows `launchOptions` examples, and failures come back as `isError` text such as "Script execution failed" (6). No versioning or changelog beyond the date version (0).)
- Security & auth, Kane CLI +33: Kane CLI 55 (Two credential routes. OAuth with browser consent and token revocation on logout, scopes not documented; or the account's username and access key, which the docs say lets anyone holding it run tests on the account, passed as a command-line flag in CI. Not in a URL. 20 of 30 for revocable credentials without documented scopes. Exploration's `read_only` policy blocks write requests to any host and never presses Delete, Sign out or Pay, with `--deny`, `--allow-domain` and `--allow-post`, and the first `mutating` run in a project asks once on a terminal. The default is `mutating`, with no confirmation in agent mode (12 of 20). Results include text from the page under test. The 0.10.0 content fence masks secrets before they leave the worker, but no prompt-injection guidance was found (2 of 15). Every run lands in Test Manager with screenshots, evidence packs record steps and logs, and Exploration findings keep a history naming who changed what (13 of 15). SECURITY.md with security@testmuai.com, signed and notarised binaries per the README, npm registry signatures. No bug bounty, certification or security.txt could be checked, since testmuai.com wasn't readable, and SECURITY.md's supported versions list only 0.1.x (8 of 20).); 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).)