name: "cli-anything-safari"
description: >-
Safari browser automation CLI on macOS via safari-mcp. Controls real Safari
(native, keeps logins) by wrapping the safari-mcp MCP server. Every one of
the 84 MCP tools is exposed 1:1 with schema-accurate arguments — guaranteed
parity, no manual drift.

cli-anything-safari#

A command-line interface for Safari browser automation on macOS. Wraps the
safari-mcp Node.js MCP
server in a Python Click CLI.

Feature parity is guaranteed. Every Click command is generated
automatically from safari-mcp's tool schema (bundled as
resources/tools.json). All 84 tools are reachable with the exact
argument names and types the MCP server expects.

When to use this CLI#

Each CLI invocation spawns a fresh subprocess, so there is per-call
overhead. If your agent speaks MCP natively (Claude Code, Cursor, Cline,
etc.), using safari-mcp directly over MCP stdio will be faster.

Use this CLI when:

Your agent framework does not speak MCP (Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot

CLI, custom scripts, older agent frameworks).

You need to script browser automation from bash —

cli-anything-safari --json tool snapshot | jq '...'.

You run in CI/CD and want cron-able, subprocess-friendly output.
You're debugging interactively from Terminal.

Installation#

Prerequisites#

macOS — Safari MCP is macOS-only.
Safari — already installed on macOS.
Node.js 18+ — brew install node or from https://nodejs.org/
Python 3.10+
Enable Apple Events for Safari: Safari → Develop → Allow JavaScript from Apple Events

Install the CLI#

cd safari/agent-harness
pip install -e .

The first tool call will download the safari-mcp npm package (one-time, a few MB).

Command Structure#

The CLI has 5 top-level commands:

Command	Purpose
`tool`	Call any of safari-mcp's 84 tools (dynamic, schema-driven)
`tools`	Inspect the bundled tool registry (`list`, `describe`, `count`)
`raw`	Escape hatch — call a tool by full name with raw JSON args
`session`	In-memory session state (last URL, current tab)
`repl`	Interactive REPL (default when no subcommand given)

Usage Examples#

Discover the tool surface#

# Count of tools (sanity check — must match safari-mcp's registered tools)
cli-anything-safari tools count
# → 84

# List every tool
cli-anything-safari tools list
cli-anything-safari tools list --filter click   # filter by substring

# Full schema for one tool (JSON or human format)
cli-anything-safari tools describe safari_scroll
cli-anything-safari --json tools describe safari_click

Call a tool (schema-driven)#

# Navigate
cli-anything-safari tool navigate --url https://example.com

# Take a snapshot (preferred over screenshot — structured text with ref IDs)
cli-anything-safari --json tool snapshot

# Click by ref (refs come from snapshot; they expire on the next snapshot!)
cli-anything-safari tool click --ref 0_5

# Click by selector or visible text
cli-anything-safari tool click --selector "#submit"
cli-anything-safari tool click --text "Log in"

# Fill a field
cli-anything-safari tool fill --selector "#email" --value "user@example.com"

# Scroll by direction/amount (NOT x/y — note the schema!)
cli-anything-safari tool scroll --direction down --amount 500

# Drag one element onto another
cli-anything-safari tool drag \
    --source-selector ".card" \
    --target-selector ".trash"

# Screenshot — returns base64 JPEG in stdout. Decode with:
cli-anything-safari --json tool screenshot --full-page \
    | python3 -c "import sys,json,base64; \
        d=json.load(sys.stdin); \
        open('/tmp/shot.jpg','wb').write(base64.b64decode(d['data']))"

# Save as PDF (this one writes to disk directly)
cli-anything-safari tool save-pdf --path /tmp/page.pdf

# Evaluate JavaScript (note: parameter is --script, not --code)
cli-anything-safari tool evaluate --script "document.title"

Navigate and read in one round-trip#

cli-anything-safari --json tool navigate-and-read --url https://example.com

Form fill (bulk)#

safari_fill_form takes an array of {selector, value} objects.
Pass it as a JSON string:

cli-anything-safari tool fill-form --fields '[
  {"selector": "#email",    "value": "user@example.com"},
  {"selector": "#password", "value": "hunter2"}
]'

Run cli-anything-safari tools describe safari_fill_form to see the
exact schema, including any new fields safari-mcp adds upstream.

Network monitoring#

cli-anything-safari tool start-network-capture
cli-anything-safari tool navigate --url https://example.com
cli-anything-safari --json tool network
cli-anything-safari tool performance-metrics

Storage#

cli-anything-safari tool get-cookies
cli-anything-safari tool set-cookie --name session --value abc123 --domain example.com
cli-anything-safari tool local-storage --key theme
# export-storage returns JSON to stdout — no --path arg. Pipe to a file:
cli-anything-safari --json tool export-storage > /tmp/storage.json

Raw JSON escape hatch#

When you need to pass a complex nested object or want to drive the CLI from
a pre-built JSON blob:

cli-anything-safari raw safari_evaluate \
    --json-args '{"code":"[...document.querySelectorAll(\"a\")].map(a => a.href)"}'

Interactive REPL#

cli-anything-safari

The REPL banner prints the absolute path to this SKILL.md so agents can
self-discover capabilities.

JSON Output#

All commands support --json as a global flag:

cli-anything-safari --json tool snapshot
cli-anything-safari --json tool list-tabs
cli-anything-safari --json tools list

State Management#

The CLI maintains a small amount of in-memory state for REPL display only:

last_url — last URL the CLI navigated to (updated after every

successful tool navigate, tool navigate-and-read, or
tool new-tab)

current_tab_index — last known active tab index

There is no persistent session, no undo/redo, no document model.
Every CLI invocation starts with fresh state. Safari MCP itself is
stateless per-call: each tool command spawns a fresh
npx safari-mcp subprocess, performs the action, and exits. This is a
deliberate design choice; see HARNESS.md and TEST.md for the
reasoning behind the deviation from the standard undo/redo pattern.

Output Formats#

All commands support dual output modes:

Human-readable (default): indented key-value text for dict

results, bullet lists for arrays, plain text otherwise

Machine-readable (--json flag): structured JSON for agent

consumption

# Human output
cli-anything-safari tool snapshot

# JSON output for agents
cli-anything-safari --json tool snapshot
cli-anything-safari --json tools list
cli-anything-safari --json tools describe safari_click

For AI Agents#

When using this CLI programmatically:

Always use --json flag for parseable output.
Check return codes — 0 for success, non-zero for errors (URL

validation failures, MCP call failures, invalid JSON args).

Parse stderr for error messages; use stdout for data.
File-handling tools have inconsistent path arg names — always

check tools describe <name> first:

tool save-pdf --path /tmp/x.pdf
tool upload-file --selector ... --file-path /tmp/x.txt (note: --file-path, not --path)
tool export-storage — no path arg; pipe JSON output to a file
tool import-storage --path /tmp/x.json
tool screenshot / screenshot-element — return base64 in

the JSON response, no path arg (decode it yourself)

Snapshot before click — refs from tool snapshot expire on the

next snapshot. Always snapshot → find ref → click in close
succession.

Discover tools via tools list — the bundled registry is the

source of truth for what's available. Do not hard-code tool names
that may change upstream.

Use tools describe <name> to learn the exact schema (required

args, enum choices, JSON-typed args) before constructing a call.
Never assume parameter names from the description — for example,
safari_evaluate takes --script (not --code) even though the
description says "JavaScript code to execute".

Agent-Specific Guidance#

Finding the right tool#

Use the introspection commands. The CLI is guaranteed to reflect the
MCP server 1:1:

# Find all click-related tools
cli-anything-safari tools list --filter click

# Get the full schema (including every argument with type, description,
# required/optional, enum choices, defaults)
cli-anything-safari --json tools describe safari_click

Tool selection strategy#

tool snapshot over tool screenshot — structured text with ref IDs

is orders of magnitude cheaper and carries the refs needed for clicks.

tool click --ref over tool click --selector — refs are stable

within a single snapshot, selectors may be brittle.

tool navigate-and-read over navigate + read-page — saves one

round-trip.

tool click-and-read over click + read-page — saves one round-trip.
tool native-click only when regular click fails with 405/403 (WAF

blocks, G2, Cloudflare) — it physically moves the cursor.

Refs Expire#

Refs from tool snapshot expire when you take a new snapshot:

First snapshot: refs 0_1, 0_2, 0_3...
Second snapshot: refs 1_1, 1_2, 1_3...

Always snapshot → click in close succession. If in doubt, snapshot again.

Tab Ownership Safety#

Safari MCP tracks tab ownership per session. Tools that modify a tab
(navigate, click, fill) are blocked on tabs the session did not open.
To operate on a specific page, always start with tool new-tab --url ....

Error Handling#

Common errors:

npx not found → install Node.js 18+
safari-mcp package not found on npm registry → check network
Not macOS → harness is macOS-only
AppleScript denied → enable "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" in Safari → Develop
Blocked URL scheme: file → URL validation rejected the input (by design)

URL Validation#

The CLI validates URLs before passing them to safari_navigate,
safari_navigate_and_read, and safari_new_tab. Blocked schemes:
file, javascript, data, vbscript, about, chrome, safari,
webkit, x-apple, and other browser-internal schemes. The raw
command also enforces this for navigation tools.

Multi-Session Warning#

Safari MCP enforces a single active session by killing stale Node.js
processes older than 10 seconds. If you run two CLI instances at once,
one will kill the other's backend. There is currently no daemon
mode — for latency-sensitive workflows, drive the CLI from a
long-lived Python script that imports
`cli_anything.safari.utils.safari_backend.call()` directly to avoid
re-spawning the subprocess on every invocation.

Links#

Security Considerations#

URL Validation#

All navigation tools (tool navigate, tool navigate-and-read, tool new-tab, and raw safari_navigate*) pass the url argument through
utils/security.py which blocks dangerous schemes and optionally blocks
private networks (set CLI_ANYTHING_SAFARI_BLOCK_PRIVATE=1).

Tab Isolation#

Safari MCP enforces per-session tab ownership upstream — tools cannot
operate on tabs the session did not open.

Profile Isolation#

Set SAFARI_PROFILE env var to use a separate Safari profile for
automation:

export SAFARI_PROFILE="Automation"
cli-anything-safari tool navigate --url https://example.com

This keeps cookies/logins/history separate from the user's main browsing.

JavaScript Execution#

tool evaluate and tool run-script run arbitrary JavaScript in the page
context. Treat untrusted input with the same care as any dynamic code
execution path.

Clipboard#

tool clipboard-read and tool clipboard-write touch the system
clipboard. Be careful when running inside a user's active session —
overwriting the clipboard mid-task is disruptive.

Regenerating the tool registry#

If you upgrade safari-mcp, regenerate the bundled schema:

python scripts/extract_tools.py \
    "$(npm root -g)/safari-mcp/index.js" \
    cli_anything/safari/resources/tools.json

The parity test (test_parity.py) pins the expected tool count; update
it when the upstream tool list changes.

More Information#

Full documentation: cli_anything/safari/README.md in the package
Test coverage: cli_anything/safari/tests/TEST.md in the package
Architecture analysis: safari/agent-harness/SAFARI.md
Methodology: cli-anything-plugin/HARNESS.md
MCP backend pattern: cli-anything-plugin/guides/mcp-backend.md

Version#

1.0.0 — targets safari-mcp 2.7.8 (84 tools). Bundled tool registry is
regenerated via scripts/extract_tools.py when safari-mcp upgrades.