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zdayang
zdayang

Posted on • Originally published at Medium

Let Claude Code or Codex in WSL Use Windows Chrome

#wsl #chrome #ai #devtools

If you run Claude Code or Codex inside WSL, browser automation can get awkward fast.

Your AI coding tool is running in Linux. Your real browser is usually Windows Chrome. That means the agent may open a fresh Linux browser, lose your logged-in state, miss your normal debugging environment, or fail to connect to Chrome DevTools MCP at all.

For frontend work, QA, screenshots, console logs, and network debugging, that is a bad default. You usually want the agent to control the same Windows Chrome environment you actually use.

The pain

The idea sounds simple: connect WSL to Windows Chrome.

In practice, there are several small traps:

  • Chrome remote debugging should use a dedicated profile, not your everyday default profile.
  • WSL networking may expose Windows Chrome through 127.0.0.1, a gateway IP, or another reachable host depending on the setup.
  • Installing chrome-devtools-mcp is not enough; Codex or Claude Code must load the right MCP config.
  • The browser should not open every time the AI tool starts. It should open only when you ask the agent to browse.
  • If another browser tool is installed, the agent may silently use the wrong one unless you give it clear default-routing instructions.

None of these are hard alone. Together, they are annoying enough to waste an afternoon.

The setup I recommend

Use this shape:

Claude Code or Codex in WSL
-> Chrome DevTools MCP
-> reachable Windows Chrome debug endpoint
-> dedicated Windows Chrome profile
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The dedicated Chrome profile matters. It keeps AI-driven browser work separate from your everyday Chrome profile while still allowing persistent sessions for development tasks.

A good profile path is:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\ChromeDevtoolsMcpProfile
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After setup, a simple test should work:

Use the WSL Chrome Bridge to open Google in Windows Chrome and search for latest AI news.
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If that opens Windows Chrome, not a disposable Linux browser, the bridge is doing its job.

The packaged version

I packaged this setup as WSL Chrome Bridge so you do not have to wire it by hand.

It includes:

  • an installable wsl-chrome-mcp-browser Skill for Codex and Claude Code
  • launcher scripts for Windows Chrome from WSL
  • Chrome DevTools MCP config examples
  • install docs designed to be followed by the AI coding tool itself
  • troubleshooting guidance for common WSL, npm, Chrome, and MCP issues
  • optional default-routing snippets for AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md

Support docs are here:

https://github.com/zdayang/wsl-chrome-bridge-support

The packaged installer is available on Gumroad:

https://mindstructor.gumroad.com/l/wsl-chrome-bridge

It does not bypass CAPTCHA, 2FA, paywalls, or anti-bot systems. It simply helps your AI coding tool in WSL use a Windows Chrome debug profile you control.

That is the whole point: fewer browser setup problems, more reliable AI-assisted debugging.

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