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PinchTab

Maintains a browser control server with CLI, HTTP, MCP, and official Skills, focusing on profiles, instances, and task sessions.

About PinchTab

The pinchtab organization publishes a browser control service and its agent interfaces. The project combines local runtime management with browser actions, giving coding agents a shared control plane instead of a new language-model assistant.

PinchTab separates persistent browser profiles, running instances, and individual tabs. This lets an agent identify which account context and page a request belongs to instead of treating every command as a new browser. CLI, HTTP, and MCP are control interfaces to that runtime; a handoff can return an interrupted task to a person.

Its CLI, MCP layer, and bundled Skills belong to the same project. The documentation treats remote exposure and high-risk capabilities as explicit operator decisions; the project guide explains setup and task boundaries.

Software from PinchTab

Choose the control interface after deciding which browser profile may be reused and which tasks need separate instances or tabs.

Alternatives to PinchTab Workflows

Compare Vercel Labs for terminal browser control, Browser MCP for extension access to existing Chrome, Steel for browser session infrastructure, Lightpanda for a lightweight browser engine. Choose by the browser environment and task result you need.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who maintains the official PinchTab source?
Use the pinchtab/pinchtab repository and the linked project site. Community MCP wrappers should retain their own maintainer identity.
Is PinchTab a Chrome fork?
The project is a control server and instance orchestrator that drives a selected browser. Its runtime and the browser binary are different components.
Are the CLI and MCP separate products?
They are interfaces to the PinchTab control plane. Their task identifiers and security settings need to remain consistent when used in one workflow.
Which Skills are for normal task use?
Use official operating or MCP guidance as documented. Repository-development Skills target contribution work and should not be substituted for browser-task instructions.
Does MIT licensing permit public endpoint exposure?
The code license does not establish a secure deployment. The project documents a controlled local model and separate responsibilities for remote operation.
How should package updates be checked?
Read release notes and compare bundled Skill versions before updating a long-running task environment. Recheck profile and tool behavior when the runtime changes.

Run an Isolated Report Lookup

Recording profile, instance, and tab separately makes a report lookup traceable when several browser tasks run at once.

Open PinchTab guide