familiar
EN JA
  • Claude Code plugin
  • MCP server
  • macOS + Chrome
  • MIT

The Chrome you already use, now your familiar.

Your AI agent reads pages, clicks, and submits forms in the Chrome you're already signed in to. It works through Apple Events, the messaging layer built into macOS. No DevTools Protocol, no Playwright, no separate driver.

/plugin marketplace add dominion525/familiar/plugin install familiar@familiar

Run these two lines in Claude Code. In Cursor, Codex CLI, and other clients, add it as an MCP server.

Get started View on GitHub
Illustration

Use cases

Stay signed in.
Hand it off.

01

Read from admin dashboards

Keep a signed-in dashboard open and let the agent pull its numbers and lists into a summary.

02

Fill in forms

Issue trackers, request forms: the agent fills them in and submits them. No need to sign in again.

03

Delegate while you keep working

The agent addresses its tab by windowId + tabId, so you can carry on in other tabs meanwhile.

What's different

No new browser.
Your own Chrome does the work.

01

The real Chrome

familiar drives the Chrome you're signed in to, through Apple Events. Pages see an ordinary Chrome session, with no WebDriver or DevTools channel attached.

02

No driver

No DevTools Protocol, no Playwright, no separate driver. It talks to Chrome using nothing but AppleScript, which ships with macOS.

03

Targets tabs, not focus

Every action targets a specific tab by windowId + tabId. It never depends on the active tab, so it stays out of your way while you work in another one.

How it compares

All of these let an AI agent drive a browser, and most can now attach to your everyday browser with some setup. The difference is how they connect: familiar doesn't change how Chrome is launched; it just sends commands over Apple Events.

familiar Chrome DevTools MCP Playwright MCP safari-mcp
Control channel Apple Events DevTools Protocol Playwright Apple Events
Browser it drives by default Your everyday Chrome A freshly launched Chrome A freshly launched Chromium / Firefox / WebKit Your everyday Safari
navigator.webdriver
with default launch 		false true false false
Using your everyday browser Works out of the box --autoConnect Browser extension Works out of the box
Approval for your everyday browser Once Every connection Every connection (can be skipped) Once
Platforms macOS macOS / Windows / Linux macOS / Windows / Linux macOS

As of October 2026. The Playwright MCP value for navigator.webdriver is for Chromium, which the MCP server launches with --disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled; the safari-mcp value is taken from its README. When a tool connects to your everyday browser, its launch flags are unchanged, so the value stays false. (We confirmed on Chrome 154 that attaching over the DevTools Protocol alone does not set it to true.)

What is navigator.webdriver?

It tells a page whether the browser is being controlled by automation. It becomes true when Chrome is launched with flags such as --enable-automation. familiar only sends commands to your everyday Chrome, so it stays false. That doesn't mean you'll go undetected: sites still enforce their own access controls.

Install

Bind your familiar.

Claude Code plugin

Run these two lines in Claude Code.

/plugin marketplace add dominion525/familiar
/plugin install familiar@familiar

MCP server

The same 32 actions, available to any MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex CLI, and more). Launch the npm package @dominion525/familiar-mcp with npx. Requires Node.js 20 or later.

Claude Code 
claude mcp add familiar -- npx @dominion525/familiar-mcp@latest
Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. 

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "familiar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@dominion525/familiar-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}
Cursor

Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "familiar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@dominion525/familiar-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}
Codex CLI

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml.

[mcp_servers.familiar]
command = "npx"
args = ["@dominion525/familiar-mcp@latest"]
Other MCP clients

Cline, Windsurf, Antigravity, and VS Code extensions (GitHub Copilot Chat, Continue, and others) use the same JSON config as Claude Desktop and Cursor. See each client's documentation for where its config file lives.

Check Once you've finished the first-run setup, ask your agent to "list the titles of my open tabs." If it lists them, you're connected.

Other ways to install

Vercel Skills (agent-skills)

npx skills add dominion525/familiar

The skill is unpacked into ~/.agents/skills/familiar/, where clients that follow the agent-skills spec pick it up automatically.

Standalone (no install)

osascript skills/familiar/familiar.applescript list_tabs

Clone the repository and run the script directly.

First-run setup

Two permissions,
granted once.

familiar needs two one-time grants to talk to Chrome: one in Chrome's settings, one in macOS.

  1. 1

    Turn on "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" in Chrome

    Check this item in Chrome's menu bar:

    ViewDeveloperAllow JavaScript from Apple Events

    Actions that run JavaScript in the page (reading, interaction, content/script, and waiting on JS conditions) need this setting. Tab, window, navigation, history, and loading-state actions use AppleScript alone and work without it.

    Chrome's View > Developer menu with "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" selected
  2. 2

    Approve the automation prompt

    The first time familiar talks to Chrome, macOS asks for permission. Click "Allow."

    You're not approving familiar itself. macOS grants automation permission to the parent process: the app that actually runs your MCP client or Claude Code (Terminal, VS Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, and so on). You're handing that app control of your signed-in Chrome, so only approve apps you trust.

    To review or change it later:

    System SettingsPrivacy & SecurityAutomation(the launching app)Google Chrome

    The macOS prompt: "Terminal" wants access to control "Google Chrome".
    System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation, with Google Chrome turned on under Terminal

Troubleshooting

... JavaScript is turned off

"Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" is off in Chrome. Turn it on as described in step 1.

Not authorized to send Apple events to "Google Chrome"

Automation permission is missing. In System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation, turn on Google Chrome under the launching app (Terminal, VS Code, Cursor, and so on).

The prompt never appears

Run this once from the terminal that launches the MCP server. It triggers the prompt for that process, whether or not a Chrome window is open. Once you approve, you won't be asked again. 

osascript -e 'tell application "Google Chrome" to get version'

Permissions & data

What you entrust
to your familiar.

Any client you connect to familiar gets your signed-in browser, as is.

The risk you take on

execute_js and execute_js_file run arbitrary JavaScript in the page. An MCP client given these tools can:

  • Read the DOM of any page you're signed in to, along with any cookies JavaScript can read
  • Submit forms, navigate, and fire fetch / XHR requests on your behalf
  • Manipulate your session state

Page JavaScript can't read HttpOnly cookies, but it can still act within the signed-in session they maintain.

Targeting a tab by windowId + tabId is addressing, not isolation: the client isn't confined to that tab.

familiar itself runs locally

The server runs on your machine and talks to your MCP client over stdio only. It makes no outbound connections of its own, and there is no telemetry or analytics.

That said, whatever familiar retrieves goes to your MCP client and, depending on its setup, on to the model provider.

Not a tool for evading detection

Pages see an ordinary Chrome session, but sites still enforce their own access controls. Access to any particular site is not guaranteed.

Read the source

It's open source under the MIT License. To see exactly what it sends to Chrome, read familiar.applescript.

Whatever you hand to an AI runs as you. How much you hand over is your call.

Details

Under the hood.

Capabilities 32 actions, four selector styles

Tabs / windows

7
  • list_tabs
  • new_tab
  • new_incognito_tab
  • close_tab
  • active_tab
  • window_mode
  • is_loading

Navigation

6
  • navigate
  • get_tab_url
  • reload
  • go_back
  • go_forward
  • stop

Waiting

3
  • wait_for_load
  • wait_for_selector
  • wait_for_function

Content / script

3
  • get_html
  • execute_js
  • execute_js_file

Reading

5
  • get_text
  • get_attribute
  • get_value
  • exists
  • query_all

Interaction

8
  • click
  • fill
  • clear
  • select_option
  • set_checked
  • press_key
  • submit
  • scroll_into_view

Four selector styles

  • button.primaryCSS (default)
  • text=Sign inVisible text
  • xpath=//form//inputXPath
  • label=EmailForm label
How it works Commands travel over Apple Events

Apple Events is the mechanism built into macOS that lets apps send commands to one another. familiar uses it through AppleScript to tell Chrome things like "open a tab" or "run this JavaScript in this tab."

A call from your MCP client passes through familiar-mcp to osascript, and AppleScript relays the command to Chrome.

The Claude Code plugin and the MCP server both run the same familiar.applescript, so they behave identically.

  1. MCP clientClaude Code / Cursor / …
  2. stdio (JSON-RPC)
  3. familiar-mcpNode.js
  4. osascript familiar.applescript ACTION …
  5. AppleScriptApple Events
  6. tell application "Google Chrome"
  7. Google ChromeYour real, signed-in browser
  9. Page DOM

Get started

Summon your familiar.

Get started View on GitHub