ToolsEnabled ToolsEngine
ToolsEngine is a local MCP server for browser automation, workspace files and public web reading on Windows and Linux. The installation paths below select the eight-tool no-browser route. Optional browser sessions use Chrome or Edge already on your machine, with a dedicated profile by default.
ToolsEngine 0.1.8 · Native Windows candidate 0.1.9-rc.1 · Linux and Windows, 64-bit
How it works
One archive, one installer, one server name. Your client starts the server over stdio; nothing is hosted.
One archive per system, with its dependencies inside; install Node.js separately. The paths below install the eight-tool no-browser route, copy the program under your profile and check the server. The installer uses no network.
With --register, the installer runs each client’s own registration command, for Claude Code, Codex or both. Without it, it prints the commands with the real paths filled in, for any MCP client that starts a stdio server.
Open a new session. The tools appear under the server name toolsengine. system.status reports the version, workspace, offered capabilities and browser session type; capability.find searches the offered tools.
What you get
Every tool has a title and tells your agent app whether it only reads, whether it can delete or overwrite, whether repeating it is safe, and whether it reaches outside your computer. 27 with a browser, 26 when attached to a browser you started, 8 with no browser at all.
Navigate and go back, snapshot and find, click, type and fill, keys, select, hover and drag, tabs, dialogs and wait, screenshot and PDF, upload, resize the page viewport, and close the whole dedicated browser.
browser.navigate browser.navigate_back browser.snapshot browser.find browser.click browser.type browser.fill_form browser.press_key browser.select_option browser.hover browser.drag browser.tabs browser.handle_dialog browser.wait_for browser.take_screenshot browser.pdf_save browser.file_upload browser.close browser.resize
List, read UTF-8 files, create or replace a whole file, and bounded literal search, all inside the one workspace folder you chose.
workspace.list workspace.read_file workspace.write_file workspace.search
Public HTTPS GET, and bounded HTML text and link extraction.
web.fetch web.extract
Runtime status, and ranked search of the tools actually offered.
system.status capability.find
Four more tools, not among the 27: inspect current-owner windows and controls, capture one window, act on observed controls, and click or scroll with the real mouse inside a fresh captured image. Off unless you install with --desktop; Windows only.
desktop.inspect desktop.act desktop.capture desktop.pointer
No hosted endpoint, no OAuth service, no directory listing, no auto-update, no API key and no account. Tool results go to your MCP client, which may send them to its model provider; ToolsEngine cannot determine that provider’s retention.
The fine print, plainly
The default is a new headless Chromium session with a dedicated ephemeral profile. It does not open your everyday profile and has none of its sign-ins. Reusable sign-ins exist only when you choose --profile-dir and sign in yourself.
No direct shell API, arbitrary JavaScript evaluation, cookie or storage dump, credential, financial, consent-changing, remote-execution or agent-spawn tools are offered. The same explicit tool map governs discovery and dispatch.
web.fetch accepts only public HTTPS destinations, revalidates DNS and redirects, verifies the site’s certificate and caps time and response size. --allow-local-network is a startup-only option for HTTPS intranet addresses. The browser’s own navigation is ordinary browser network access, private networks included.
ToolsEngine starts its browser with Chromium’s sandbox on. --no-browser-sandbox exists, but the installer never sets it; it has to be added to the client’s configuration by hand.
The file tools read and write only inside the workspace folder. Hidden files such as .env there are readable like any other file, so choose a workspace that holds nothing the assistant should not read. These checks are guardrails, not an OS sandbox.
Browser input is real input: it can submit forms, send messages, confirm purchases and delete things. There is no per-action confirmation, no on-screen indicator and no emergency stop key in this package. Your MCP client’s approval settings are the only check before an action.
Install
ToolsEngine 0.1.8 was published on 15 October 2026. Both paths select the eight-tool no-browser route. Install Node.js 22.14 or later separately; installing the platform archive downloads nothing.
Download Linux tar archive and its SHA256 checksum.
sha256sum -c toolsengine-0.1.8-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256
tar -xzf toolsengine-0.1.8-linux-x64.tar.gz
cd toolsengine-0.1.8-linux-x64
./install.sh --browser none --register claude codexLinux archive:7,953,295 bytes, SHA256 6f62bd33a9e134ead0a21d05ff6b2096c6dc885a4982723726d3af9d81240707.
This installs under your account’s own profile, or under --home DIR if you give one; when the installer could not register a client, it prints that client’s command instead and ends with exit code 2 even though the install itself is complete.
Download Windows ZIP and its SHA256 checksum. Requires Node.js 22.14+ and Windows PowerShell 5.1. In a new download folder:
$expected = ((Get-Content .\toolsengine-0.1.8-windows-x64.zip.sha256 -Raw).Trim() -split '\s+')[0]
if ((Get-FileHash .\toolsengine-0.1.8-windows-x64.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLowerInvariant() -cne $expected) { throw 'Archive checksum mismatch' }
Expand-Archive .\toolsengine-0.1.8-windows-x64.zip -DestinationPath .\toolsengine-018
Set-Location .\toolsengine-018\toolsengine-0.1.8-windows-x64
.\install.cmd --browser none --register claude codexWindows ZIP:9,902,764 bytes, SHA256 e28baf86c8da7cea68918f864840579c5eccd88825749be0f3fcc2852e9d7437.
This selects the eight-tool no-browser route. Follow app/docs/CODEX.md for the separate self-distributed plugin and explicitly prepared matching durable runtime.
Windows uses private per-user installation ACLs and fixed local NTFS paths. CLI/stdio, installation and the eight-tool no-browser launcher passed native and independent fresh-folder checks on Windows 10 Pro 22H2 build 19045 under elevated engineering and a calibrated medium token. Interrupted-install recovery is manual. For this older 0.1.8 release, interactive browser/desktop and real Windows Codex host acceptance were not completed, and Windows 11 was untested. The candidate below has separate native Windows 11 qualification. The Codex plugin keeps browser and desktop control off and requires a matching runtime outside its cache and the project. No OpenAI directory listing or approval is claimed.
This standalone MCP package runs directly on Windows, without WSL. It includes the download watcher fix and has passed the native Windows 11 suite and all eight installed desktop checks. Requires Node.js 22.14+, PowerShell 5.1 and a local NTFS drive.
$archive = '.\toolsengine-0.1.9-rc.1-windows-x64.zip'
$expected = 'bfe11f2b62b97fda18031c87698dd35db69cb32107ebb3bbe2d30a1d5efec03b'
if ((Get-FileHash $archive -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLowerInvariant() -cne $expected) { throw 'Archive checksum mismatch' }
Expand-Archive $archive -DestinationPath .\toolsengine-019rc1
Set-Location .\toolsengine-019rc1\toolsengine-0.1.9-rc.1-windows-x64
.\install.cmd --browser none --register claude codexWindows ZIP: 9,983,738 bytes. Check this installation with node "$env:USERPROFILE\ToolsEngine\0.1.9-rc.1\install.mjs" check.
Desktop control remains an explicit standalone option (--desktop). The OpenAI plugin keeps its eight-tool file/public-web ceiling and refuses browser, desktop, login transfer and private-network startup. Native tests do not establish marketplace approval or acceptance by every MCP client.
Open a new session in your client, and check the installation any time
node ~/ToolsEngine/0.1.8/install.mjs checkThe tools appear under the server name toolsengine, and system.status shows what is switched on. check compares the installed files with release.json and starts the server once. On Windows the installed folder is C:\Users\you\ToolsEngine\0.1.8.
Connect your client
ToolsEngine is a local stdio server: the client starts it as a child process. Use it from Claude Code, Codex, or any other MCP client that can start a stdio server.
The no-browser commands the installer runs with --register, or prints without it
claude mcp add --scope user toolsengine -- NODE ENTRY --workspace WORKSPACE --no-browser
codex mcp add toolsengine -- NODE ENTRY --workspace WORKSPACE --no-browserNODE is the Node.js program, ENTRY is app/bin/toolsengine.js in the installed folder, WORKSPACE is the workspace folder. For Claude Code the registration is in the user scope, so it applies to all your projects.
Connect a client later, or replace an existing toolsengine entry
node ~/ToolsEngine/0.1.8/install.mjs register claude
node ~/ToolsEngine/0.1.8/install.mjs register codex --replaceHand-written configuration: JSON for Claude Code, TOML for Codex
Follow app/docs/CODEX.md for the separate self-distributed plugin and explicitly prepared matching durable runtime. The plugin keeps browser and desktop control off and requires a matching runtime outside its cache and the project. No OpenAI directory listing or approval is claimed.
Read the source, run the test suite and compare the two tool catalogs with the running server. Issues and questions are welcome on GitHub.
Current release: ToolsEngine 0.1.8 · Release notes · Security policy · Privacy
Released as tag v0.1.8 from commit 4396c25a09543a8b0a9ca9ad0e3888fd47b26e4a. Two offline Linux builds each passed 254 tests, with 22 platform skips, across 55 files; both release archives and two npm packs reproduce byte-for-byte. All eight release files were downloaded back byte-identically. Read the release report and release notes for scope and the separate Windows qualification.