Access chrome while in WSL environment

[ljmerza]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Codex works far better in a linux based environment thus it's generally recommended if yo are on windows to use WSL. The problem here is this MCP only tries to look for chrome inside the WSL instead of the host system.

Describe the solution you'd like

The MCP server would know it's in WSL and use the host system's chrome

Describe alternatives you've considered

Can use codex for windows but it's not officially supported.

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[yuwenlong]

@OrKoN @jackfranklin It is indeed necessary to consider supporting the windows subsystem.

[OrKoN]

@ljmerza Could you try to use the --executable-path argument in the MCP server config to pass a custom path to where Chrome is installed?

[yuwenlong]

@OrKoN I just tried it and it didn't work. The wsl subsystem is Ubuntu. If I configure it with this parameter, it's equivalent to using windows chrome across systems. Does the code logic support it? You need to look at the code.

[OrKoN]

Thanks for checking! I would have expected the ability to run Windows binaries to be a feature of the WSL :) In this case a few other options are possible:

1. Starting Chrome manually with --remote-debugging-port=9222 and a custom --user-data-dir outside of WSL and connecting to the running Chrome by specifying --browser-url=http://127.0.0.1:9222 in the args for the MCP server.
2. Installing a Linux Chrome version in WSL (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9025903?hl=en).
3. Installing a Chrome for Testing build in WSL and pointing to it via --executable-path. npx @puppeteer/browsers install chrome@stable would install the latest stable build.

We will look into WSL support in general but in code we are just launching sub-processes (and we cannot do much if the environment does not support it) and locating Chrome at the well-known path per OS reported by Node.

[OrKoN]

@yuwenlong also Chrome is not started in the MCP discovery phase (it is started on the first tool call). The error could be something else. Which gemini-cli version do you use and which node version is it?

[ThomasRumasLM]

Hello, I'm also trying to use the MCP through a DevContainer, can be the same solution for WSL and DevContainer I guess.

I already tried to launch a Chrome instance by using the --browserUrl=http://host.docker.internal:9222, but I got a connection refused that my header isn't an IP with a curl.

So I tried the solution with Puppeteer installation, I give the executable path to the MCP with this configuration:

"chrome-devtools": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
        "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest",
        "--executable-path=/workspaces/xxx/chrome/linux_arm-140.0.7339.207/chrome-linux64/chrome",
        "--headless",
        "--isolated",
        "--no-sandbox"
        // "--browserUrl=http://host.docker.internal:9222"
    ]
}

When I'm not using the isolated parameter, I got this error:

When I'm using it, I've got now:

When I'm checking the output of the MCP Server, I don't see any errors :

2025-09-25 08:49:35.039 [info] Discovered 26 tools
2025-09-25 08:50:23.874 [info] Stopping server chrome-devtools
2025-09-25 08:50:23.910 [info] Connection state: Stopped
2025-09-25 08:50:27.460 [info] Starting server chrome-devtools
2025-09-25 08:50:27.461 [info] Connection state: Starting
2025-09-25 08:50:27.467 [info] Starting server from Remote extension host
2025-09-25 08:50:27.493 [info] Connection state: Starting
2025-09-25 08:50:27.494 [info] Connection state: Running
2025-09-25 08:50:28.231 [warning] [server stderr] chrome-devtools-mcp exposes content of the browser instance to the MCP clients allowing them to inspect,
2025-09-25 08:50:28.231 [warning] [server stderr] debug, and modify any data in the browser or DevTools.
2025-09-25 08:50:28.231 [warning] [server stderr] Avoid sharing sensitive or personal information that you do want to share with MCP clients.
2025-09-25 08:50:28.244 [info] Discovered 26 tools

Let me know If I need to open an other issue specifically for DevContainer

[OrKoN]

If you use containers you should also have required system dependencies installed to run Chrome in the container https://pptr.dev/guides/system-requirements

[yuwenlong]

@yuwenlong also Chrome is not started in the MCP discovery phase (it is started on the first tool call). The error could be something else. Which gemini-cli version do you use and which node version is it?

[OrKoN]

Thanks for checking. Node 20 is not supported (see https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp?tab=readme-ov-file#requirements).

[ThomasRumasLM]

If you use containers you should also have required system dependencies installed to run Chrome in the container https://pptr.dev/guides/system-requirements

I've already installed the needed package but still got the Protocol error (Target.setDiscoverTargets): Target closed

[yuwenlong]

感谢您的检查。Node 20 不受支持（请参阅https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp?tab=readme-ov-file#requirements）。

@OrKoN Thank you. node has been upgraded.

It seems to be okay. The mcp configuration is as follows. Let others who have encountered problems take a look:

"chrome-devtools": {
                        "command": "npx",
                        "args": [
                                "-y",
                                "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest",
                                "--executable-path=/mnt/c/Program\\ Files/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe"
                        ]
                }

[yuwenlong]

@OrKoN I'm still not sure if it can work in actual operation? After all, this is an exe run by ubuntu on windows. It should still not work. After all, it's cross-system!

[OrKoN]

@yuwenlong please see other possible options in #131 (comment)

[yuwenlong]

@yuwenlong please see other possible options in #131 (comment)

Ok. Thank you.