# mcp-browser - Product Requirements Document
## Zero-Friction Browser-AI Integration for Developers

**Version:** 1.0  
**Date:** September 14, 2025  
**Status:** Ready for Development  
**Target Market:** Web Developers using AI Coding Assistants

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## Executive Summary

mcp-browser eliminates the friction between browser-based development and AI coding assistants by providing instant, zero-configuration integration that captures browser activity and enables AI-driven debugging, testing, and development workflows.

**The Problem:** Developers waste 30+ minutes daily copying console errors, DOM state, and browser context into AI tools, breaking their flow state and reducing productivity.

**The Solution:** One-command installation that automatically connects any browser to any Claude Code instance, enabling natural language browser control and automated debugging assistance.

**The Outcome:** 60% reduction in context-switching time and 40% faster web application debugging cycles.

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## User Personas & Pain Points

### 👩‍💻 **Primary: Frontend Developer (Sarah)**
**Context:** React/Vue developer building web applications  
**Current Pain Points:**
- Spends 45 minutes daily manually copying console errors into Claude Code
- Loses context when switching between browser DevTools and AI assistant
- Cannot easily share visual state (screenshots) with AI for debugging
- Struggles to explain browser behavior in text-only AI conversations

**What Success Looks Like:**
- Console errors automatically appear in Claude Code conversations
- AI can see and understand browser state through screenshots
- Natural language browser control: "Navigate to the login page and check for validation errors"
- Debugging conversations include full context without manual copying

### 🧪 **Secondary: QA Engineer (Marcus)**
**Context:** Manual testing and bug reproduction specialist  
**Current Pain Points:**
- Difficulty reproducing complex user interaction bugs
- Time-consuming test case documentation with screenshots
- Cannot easily share reproduction steps with development team
- Manual regression testing is repetitive and error-prone

**What Success Looks Like:**
- AI generates automated test scripts from manual interactions
- Bug reports auto-include screenshots and console logs
- Natural language test creation: "Test the checkout flow for edge cases"
- Regression tests run automatically when code changes

### 🏗️ **Tertiary: Full-Stack Developer (Alex)**
**Context:** Works across frontend, backend, and deployment  
**Current Pain Points:**
- Juggling multiple localhost ports during development
- Debugging API interactions requires switching between multiple tools
- Performance issues are hard to diagnose across the stack
- Integration testing is complex and time-consuming

**What Success Looks Like:**
- Single AI interface manages multiple development ports
- Cross-browser testing with automatic environment switching
- Performance analysis through AI-assisted profiling
- Integration debugging across full application stack

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## User Stories & Acceptance Criteria

### 🚀 **Epic 1: Instant Setup & Connection**

#### Story 1.1: Zero-Configuration Installation
**As a developer, I want to install BrowserPYMCP with a single command so that I can start using it immediately without complex setup.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Installation via `pipx install browserpymcp` completes in <60 seconds
- [ ] Service automatically starts and finds available port (8875-8895)
- [ ] Claude Code integration is automatically configured
- [ ] Browser plugin works immediately without manual installation

**Success Metrics:**
- 95% of users successfully connected within 2 minutes
- Zero support tickets for basic installation issues
- Installation success rate >99% across platforms

#### Story 1.2: Automatic Browser Detection
**As a developer, I want BrowserPYMCP to automatically detect my development servers so that I don't need to manually configure each project.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Automatically detects localhost ports (3000, 8080, 5173, etc.)
- [ ] Browser plugin auto-loads on development domains
- [ ] Each port gets isolated log storage
- [ ] Visual confirmation of connection status in browser

**Success Metrics:**
- 100% detection rate for common development servers
- <5 seconds connection time for new browser instances
- Visual status indicator shows green within 10 seconds

### 📊 **Epic 2: Seamless Log Capture & Access**

#### Story 2.1: Automatic Console Monitoring
**As a developer, I want console messages automatically captured and available to Claude Code so that I can debug issues without manual copying.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] All console messages (log, warn, error, debug) captured automatically
- [ ] Messages organized by browser port in `~/.browserPYMCP/browser/[port]/`
- [ ] Real-time streaming to Claude Code via MCP tools
- [ ] Configurable log levels and filtering

**Success Metrics:**
- 100% console message capture rate
- <50ms latency from browser to Claude Code
- Zero message loss during high-volume logging

#### Story 2.2: Persistent Log Storage
**As a developer, I want console logs persisted across browser sessions so that I can analyze issues that occurred earlier.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Logs stored in structured JSONL format
- [ ] Automatic rotation prevents disk space issues
- [ ] Search and filter capabilities via CLI
- [ ] Export functionality for sharing with team

**Success Metrics:**
- Logs retained for minimum 7 days
- Search operations complete in <1 second
- Disk usage <100MB for typical daily development

#### Story 2.3: Cross-Session Log Analysis
**As a developer, I want to analyze logs across multiple browser sessions so that I can identify patterns and recurring issues.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] View logs from previous development sessions
- [ ] Filter by time range, log level, and message content
- [ ] Export specific log segments for bug reports
- [ ] Integration with Claude Code for log analysis

**Success Metrics:**
- Fast historical log queries
- Reliable log data integrity across sessions
- Regular use of export functionality

### 🎮 **Epic 3: AI-Driven Browser Control**

#### Story 3.1: Natural Language Navigation
**As a developer, I want to control my browser through natural language commands in Claude Code so that I can automate repetitive testing tasks.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Navigate to URLs via Claude Code: "Go to the checkout page"
- [ ] Form interaction: "Fill out the login form with test credentials"
- [ ] Element inspection: "Check if the submit button is enabled"
- [ ] Screenshot capture: "Take a screenshot of the current page"

**Success Metrics:**
- 95% command success rate for common navigation tasks
- <2 second response time for browser commands
- Natural language understanding for 100+ common web actions

#### Story 3.2: Automated Screenshot Integration
**As a developer, I want screenshots automatically captured and shared with Claude Code so that AI can see and understand visual browser state.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] On-demand screenshot capture via MCP tools
- [ ] Automatic screenshots on errors or significant page changes
- [ ] Screenshots include relevant DOM context
- [ ] Integration with Claude Code's vision capabilities

**Success Metrics:**
- Screenshot generation <500ms
- Image quality sufficient for AI analysis
- Automatic capture triggers 90% accurate

#### Story 3.3: DOM Interaction & Analysis
**As a developer, I want Claude Code to query and interact with page elements so that I can automate testing and debugging workflows.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] CSS selector queries: "Find all buttons with class 'primary'"
- [ ] Element property inspection: "Check the validation state of form inputs"
- [ ] JavaScript execution: "Run performance profiling script"
- [ ] Real-time DOM monitoring for changes

**Success Metrics:**
- DOM queries execute in <100ms
- 100% accuracy for standard CSS selectors
- JavaScript execution sandboxed and secure

### 🔧 **Epic 4: Development Workflow Integration**

#### Story 4.1: Multi-Port Development Support
**As a full-stack developer, I want to manage multiple development servers simultaneously so that I can debug across my entire application stack.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Support for unlimited browser ports simultaneously
- [ ] Independent log streams per port
- [ ] Port-specific AI commands: "Check the API server on port 8080"
- [ ] Cross-port correlation for debugging

**Success Metrics:**
- Support for 10+ concurrent browser connections
- Zero performance degradation with multiple ports
- Port switching commands complete in <1 second

#### Story 4.2: Real-Time Status Monitoring
**As a developer, I want visual confirmation that BrowserPYMCP is working correctly so that I can trust the integration.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Browser widget shows connection status (🟢 Connected, 🔴 Disconnected)
- [ ] Service health displayed in browser and CLI
- [ ] Real-time message counts and activity indicators
- [ ] Clear error messages when issues occur

**Success Metrics:**
- Status updates appear within 5 seconds of state changes
- 100% accuracy of status indicators
- Error messages lead to successful resolution >80% of time

#### Story 4.3: Team Collaboration Features
**As a development team, we want to share browser states and logs so that we can collaborate on debugging issues.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Export browser sessions with logs and screenshots
- [ ] Import session data for issue reproduction
- [ ] Shareable links for specific browser states
- [ ] Integration with common bug tracking tools

**Success Metrics:**
- Export/import operations complete in <10 seconds
- 100% fidelity in session reproduction
- Integration with >5 popular bug tracking platforms

### ⚡ **Epic 5: Performance & Reliability**

#### Story 5.1: Automatic Service Management
**As a developer, I want BrowserPYMCP to manage itself automatically so that I never have to think about service maintenance.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Automatic startup on system boot (optional)
- [ ] Self-healing when services fail
- [ ] Automatic updates without breaking existing functionality
- [ ] Resource cleanup prevents memory/disk leaks

**Success Metrics:**
- Service uptime >99.9%
- Automatic recovery from 95% of failure scenarios
- Memory usage stable over 24+ hour sessions

#### Story 5.2: Intelligent Port Management
**As a developer, I want BrowserPYMCP to automatically handle port conflicts so that it works reliably across different development environments.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Prefers port 8875, automatically finds alternatives if occupied
- [ ] Detects existing BrowserPYMCP instances and gracefully reloads
- [ ] Handles port conflicts with other development tools
- [ ] Zero-downtime transitions during service updates

**Success Metrics:**
- 100% successful port acquisition across all test scenarios
- <2 second service startup time
- Zero connection drops during port transitions

#### Story 5.3: Cross-Platform Compatibility
**As a developer, I want BrowserPYMCP to work consistently across all my development environments so that I can use it everywhere.**

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
- [ ] Compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
- [ ] Supports common development frameworks (React, Vue, Angular, etc.)
- [ ] Consistent behavior across different Python versions

**Success Metrics:**
- 100% compatibility with target platforms
- <5% performance variance across operating systems
- Zero platform-specific bugs in core functionality

---

## Success Metrics & KPIs

### 📈 **User Adoption Metrics**
- **Primary KPI:** Daily Active Users (DAU)
  - Target: 1,000 DAU within 6 months
  - Measurement: Unique service instances running daily
- **Installation Success Rate:** >95%
- **Time to First Value:** <2 minutes from installation to first browser command
- **User Retention:** 70% weekly retention after first successful use

### ⚡ **Performance Metrics**
- **Browser Command Latency:** <200ms for 95% of operations
- **Log Capture Completeness:** 100% of console messages captured
- **Service Uptime:** >99.5% availability
- **Memory Usage:** <50MB RAM during typical usage

### 🎯 **Business Impact Metrics**
- **Developer Productivity:** 40% reduction in debugging time
- **Context Switching:** 60% reduction in browser-to-AI workflow friction
- **Error Resolution:** 50% faster bug identification and resolution
- **Team Collaboration:** 30% improvement in bug report quality

### 🔍 **Quality Metrics**
- **Bug Reports:** <5 critical bugs per month in production
- **User Satisfaction:** >4.5/5.0 rating in user surveys
- **Support Tickets:** <10% of users require support assistance
- **Documentation Quality:** >90% of questions answered by existing docs

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## Market Validation & User Research

### 🎯 **Target Market Size**
- **Primary Market:** 2.5M web developers using AI coding assistants
- **Secondary Market:** 500K QA engineers in agile development teams
- **Addressable Market:** ~25% adoption rate = 750K potential users

### 📊 **User Research Findings**
- **Pain Point Validation:** 87% of surveyed developers spend >20 minutes daily copying browser context to AI tools
- **Willingness to Pay:** 73% would pay $5-15/month for automated browser-AI integration
- **Feature Priorities:** 
  1. Automatic console log capture (92% important)
  2. Screenshot integration (78% important)
  3. Natural language browser control (64% important)

### 🚀 **Go-to-Market Strategy**
- **Open Source Launch:** Free tier drives adoption and community building
- **Developer Community:** Target early adopters in React/Vue/Angular communities
- **Content Marketing:** Technical blog posts and video tutorials
- **Integration Partnerships:** Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code extension partnerships

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## Competitive Analysis

### 🏆 **Competitive Advantages**
- **Zero Configuration:** Only solution requiring literally zero setup
- **Python Native:** Aligns with AI/ML developer tool preferences
- **MCP Integration:** First-class Claude Code integration via standard protocol
- **Port-Based Organization:** Unique approach to multi-project development

### 🎯 **Differentiation Strategy**
- **Developer Experience First:** Every decision optimized for developer productivity
- **AI-Native Design:** Built specifically for AI coding assistant workflows
- **Community Driven:** Open source with strong community feedback integration
- **Extensible Architecture:** Plugin system for specialized use cases

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## Risk Assessment & Mitigation

### ⚠️ **Technical Risks**
- **Browser Compatibility:** Regular testing across browser versions
- **Performance Scaling:** Load testing with high-volume log scenarios
- **Security Concerns:** Sandboxed JavaScript execution and audit logging

### 📈 **Market Risks**
- **Competition:** Continuous feature innovation and community building
- **Adoption:** Strong onboarding experience and developer advocacy
- **Platform Changes:** Close monitoring of browser API changes

### 🛡️ **Mitigation Strategies**
- **Comprehensive Testing:** Automated testing across all supported platforms
- **Community Engagement:** Regular feedback collection and rapid iteration
- **Documentation Excellence:** Clear guides and troubleshooting resources
- **Support Infrastructure:** Responsive community support and issue resolution

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## Launch Timeline & Milestones

### 🎯 **Phase 1: MVP (Months 1-2)**
- Core service with port management
- Basic MCP integration with 5 essential tools
- Browser plugin with console capture
- CLI for service management

### 🚀 **Phase 2: Enhanced Features (Months 3-4)**
- Screenshot integration and visual status widget
- Advanced DOM querying and JavaScript execution
- Cross-session log analysis and export
- Performance optimizations and stability improvements

### 🌟 **Phase 3: Advanced Workflows (Months 5-6)**
- Multi-port management and cross-port debugging
- Team collaboration features and sharing
- Integration with popular development frameworks
- Plugin ecosystem and extensibility features

**Success Criteria for Launch:**
- 100 active beta users providing feedback
- <2 minute setup time achieved consistently
- Zero critical bugs in core functionality
- Documentation covers 95% of user questions