Playwriter vs Playwright MCP

Playwright MCP is the official MCP server from the Playwright team. By default it drives a separate Chromium profile that Playwright manages. The profile is persistent, so logins survive between runs, but it is not your everyday Chrome with all your sessions and extensions. It also has an --extension mode to attach to your real browser.

Playwriter is extension-first: it connects to the Chrome you're already using, and adds raw CDP, native video, cloud browsers, and one-click tab sharing on top.

Comparison

	Playwriter	Playwright MCP
Browser	Your running Chrome (extension, no relaunch)	Separate managed profile by default
Login state	Your live sessions, zero setup	Persistent, but a separate profile from your daily Chrome
Extensions	Your existing ones	None by default
Attach to your Chrome	Core design	`--extension` mode
Bot handling	Real browser; disconnect to solve manually	Managed automation profile by default
Raw CDP access	First-class (`getCDPSession`)	Not exposed
Native video	`chrome.tabCapture`, no base64	Trace / screencast based
Cloud + remote tab share	Built-in	No

The separate-browser problem

Playwright MCP's default is a persistent Chromium profile stored in a cache directory, kept apart from your everyday browser. That means:

Not your logins by default. Gmail, GitHub, Slack, internal tools: the agent starts in a profile you haven't logged into, unless you log in there once or switch to --extension.
Not your extensions. Ad blockers, password managers, cookie consent auto-accepters are absent from the managed profile.
A separate window. A managed profile runs as its own browser process, so you don't collaborate in the same tab you're looking at.

Its --extension mode narrows this gap by attaching to your Chrome, which is exactly the model Playwriter is built around, plus Playwriter layers on raw CDP, native chrome.tabCapture video, cloud browsers, remote tab sharing, and the Skill Recorder.

How Playwriter is different

Playwriter runs in your existing Chrome session. Your cookies, extensions, and browsing history are all there. Sites that require login just work. CAPTCHAs are rare because your browser looks like a real user's browser; it is a real user's browser.

When the agent hits something it can't handle (a CAPTCHA, a consent wall, a two-factor prompt), you see it in your own browser and can step in to help. The agent picks up where you left off.

123456# Playwright MCP: agent is alone in a fresh browser
# Playwriter: agent works in your browser, you collaborate in real time

playwriter session new
playwriter -s 1 -e "state.page = await context.newPage(); await state.page.goto('https://gmail.com')"
# Already logged in, no credentials needed