PinchTab

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Browser automation for AI agents using Chrome's accessibility tree

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PinchTab screenshot
/ About /

PinchTab is a local HTTP server that enables AI coding assistants like Claude Code to interact with web browsers via Chrome's accessibility tree, using roughly 800 tokens per page — far fewer than competing tools. It supports navigation, clicking, typing, screenshots, and text extraction, and runs as a persistent background daemon. The article is a comparative review of six browser automation tools for Claude Code, concluding that PinchTab is the best daily driver for efficiency.

/ How it works /

PinchTab runs as a local HTTP server on port 9867 and uses Chrome's accessibility tree to parse and interact with web pages, returning compact text output that consumes far fewer tokens than DOM or screenshot approaches

/ Who it's for /

developers using AI coding assistants like Claude Code who need browser automation

/ More info /

Background.

Status
launched
Business model
free
/ Discovered patterns /

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