Web Draw: Drive the live browser as compact text, without screenshots

Olib AI — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 22:38:05 +0000

Most tools that let AI agents browse the web work by taking screenshots of the page. That approach burns thousands of tokens per action, runs slowly, and leaves the model guessing pixel coordinates to click.

We built Web Draw to solve this. It is a free Chrome extension paired with a local MCP server that lets any LLM agent read and drive the tab you already have open, as compact text instead of pixels.

How it works

Web Draw reads the visible DOM and turns it into structured text with a stable handle on every button, link, and input:

[search]
e4 searchbox "Search Amazon" ="usb c hub"
[form]
e29 combobox "Sort by:" ="Featured"
e49 button "Add to cart"
off-screen: 37 controls below, next "Popular Shopping Ideas"

The agent acts directly on a handle (like clicking e49 or typing into e4) instead of guessing coordinates.

Why this matters

Token efficiency: An entire checkout page reads in around 550 tokens, compared to thousands for a screenshot. An Amazon search results view takes roughly 750 tokens.
Honest error reporting: When a web form rejects a submission, it usually does not add new controls. It just prints a message. Web Draw reports what the page actually said and halts remaining actions, instead of letting the agent run into silent failure down the line.
Works in your normal browser: Runs directly in Chrome, Brave, or Edge with your existing sessions and logins.
Local and private: Connects only to 127.0.0.1 on your own machine. No accounts, no ads, and no telemetry.

Five tools included

Web Draw exposes five tools to your agent:

browser_navigate: Open URLs, reload, go back or forward, and manage tabs
browser_view: Read the visible page as structured text
browser_act: Run a batch of steps (click, type, select, hover, scroll) and return the updated view in a single call
browser_status: Check extension connectivity
browser_screenshot: A small JPEG fallback for questions only an image can answer

Getting started

Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/web-draw-by-olib-ai/goknikkadndlonalcpjmnfpnljdehaim?authuser=0&hl=en

Add Web Draw to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, or any agent supporting MCP):

"web-draw": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@olib-ai/web-draw-mcp"]
}

Once running, the extension toolbar badge switches to ON, and your agent can read and drive the active tab.

DEV Community: Olib AI

Web Draw: Drive the live browser as compact text, without screenshots

How it works

Why this matters

Five tools included

Getting started