# Kane CLI vs Puppeteer (slim)

> Puppeteer scores 70.7 (BB) to Kane CLI's 55.3 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer.md (~4,200 tokens) · this version ~2,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-puppeteer
- 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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Puppeteer scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Kane CLI's 55.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation.

- Kane CLI: C 55.3, rank #805 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kane-cli.min.md
- Puppeteer: BB 70.7, rank #163 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer.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.
- Puppeteer, good for Agents that write and run Node.js scripts against Chrome or Firefox. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 50; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Maintenance & community, 89 against 77; Transparency & trust, 71 against 38. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Open source.

| Category | Kane CLI | Puppeteer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 80 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 55 | 52 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 77 | 89 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 38 | 71 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kane CLI | Puppeteer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) | Google |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-22 |
| Popularity | 2.1k npm/wk | 96k stars, 11.5M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Puppeteer +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 60 (Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20 under the self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0).)
- Transparency & trust, Puppeteer +33: 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 71 (Apache-2.0, published by Google (30). No data statement for the library. It runs locally, downloads browsers from Google's storage at install, and the docs say where browsers are cached (18 of 30). Each release lists breaking changes, deprecated APIs are marked in the reference, and the support table maps versions to browsers. No written deprecation policy (10 of 20). No telemetry found in the library source, and the docs do not say so either way (14 of 20).)
- Reliability, Puppeteer +30: 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 80 (Scored as local software. Official npm packages `puppeteer` and `puppeteer-core` at 25.16.0 (repository tag, 22 October 2026), with Node.js 22.12 or later stated in `engines` and a browser support table (20). Public CI runs Chrome and Firefox tests on Linux, macOS and Windows. Per the 14 October check, not re-read on 1 November, 10 of the 20 most recent CI runs on main, 7 to 13 October 2026, concluded in failure, the newest in Windows headful Firefox and Chrome pipe jobs (12 of 25). Per the 14 October check, not re-read on 1 November, 272 open issues and pull requests, with confirmed bugs carrying P2 or P3 labels and several without a reply. One of them, `page.goto()` ignoring its timeout after a second navigation, was fixed in 25.16.0 (18 of 25). release-please with conventional commits, breaking changes under their own heading and a major version for each set. None of the six releases since 25.13.0 marks a breaking change (15). Version 25, stable (15).)
- Maintenance & community, Puppeteer +12: 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 89 (25.16.0 on 22 October 2026 (30). Twelve releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 25.5.0 on 4 August to 25.16.0 (20). Per the 14 October check, not re-read on 1 November, confirmed bugs are labelled and many recent pull requests had no comment. Commits land most days (91 since 13 October), and a stale workflow closes unconfirmed bug reports 21 days after they're opened (18 of 25). Current official npm packages, no MCP server to register (15). Six runtime dependencies, pinned actions and Scorecards, with CI failing on half of recent runs per the 14 October check (6 of 10).)