AIHawk vs Strata
A side-by-side look at the AIHawk and Strata MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose AIHawk for browser automation work; choose Strata for browser automation as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose AIHawk when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Browser Automation domain.
- Its auth model fits you: API key required.
- You want tools like
browser_open, browser_close, browser_list.
Choose Strata when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Browser Automation domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
browser_close, browser_resize, browser_console_messages.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Browser Automation | Browser Automation |
| Quality signal | 63/100 · Good | 65/100 · Great |
| Install command | Not confirmed yet | Confirmed |
| Transport | — | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | API key required | Not declared |
| Pricing | BYOK (pay the provider) | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 32,179 | 5,821 |
| Directory activity | 3 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 17 | 25 |
| Full listing | View AIHawk | View Strata |
Tools & capabilities
AIHawk tools 17
browser_openOpen `main` or `support`, or reopen one as somebody else. `support` is yours to manage: open it when the task needs a second identity, and close it with browser_close as soon as the task no longer needs it, before you answer. It is not saved. Called on a browser that is already up, this REOPENS it with the settings given, and what it held is gone. seed the identity; same seed, same fingerprint. Left out, one is drawn. profile a directory keeping cookies, logins and the seed between opens; "" means none. It keeps the SEED too, so a login does not come back on different hardware every visit. proxy the exit, `http://user:pass@host:port` or `socks5://host:port`; "" means this machine's own address; left out for `support`, it shares the exit `main` has. A profile does NOT pin its exit, and a login arriving from a new country is as visible as one arriving on new hardware.browser_closeClose one browser and free what it was holding. The page it had is gone with it. The other browser is not touched. Who it was is kept: browser_open with no arguments brings the same person back. To be somebody else, pass a seed, a proxy or a profile.browser_listWhich of the two browsers are open, where each one is, and which one you are working in. Answers JSON: `focus`, the browser your last command acted in, or "" when none is open; `note`, which says how many are open and that a command naming no browser goes to `main`; and `browsers` - each row `id`, `url` (the page it is on) and `urls` (every page it holds, which is more than one only when a site opened one). Only open browsers are listed, so every row is one you can act on. Starts nothing: it reports what is open, so asking is free.browser_statusWho is browsing right now: the identity, the exit, the profile and the page. Ask whenever you need to know which person the browser currently is, or from where its traffic leaves. The seed is what you would pass to `browser_open` to become this person again, so this is also how you record an identity worth repeating. It starts nothing: a browser that is not open, or gone, is answered with the sentence that says which.browser_navigateGo to a url in this browser's page, opening it if none exists. Answers with the HTTP status the server gave and the url actually landed on, which is not always the one asked for: a redirect to a login wall or a regional domain shows up here. Read the status before trusting the page - a 404 or a 403 still has a document, and reading it as content is the mistake this reply exists to prevent. If the page you were on navigates itself at that moment (a redirect on a timer), Firefox can follow it instead, and the answer is an error saying "interrupted by another navigation to" a url. The browser is on that url, and you can navigate again from there. wait_until is "domcontentloaded" by default, which returns as soon as the markup is parsed. Use "load" when the page needs its images and stylesheets, or "networkidle" for a single-page app that fetches its content after load.browser_read_textThe visible text of an element, with the markup gone, whole. The cheapest way to read a page. Narrow the selector when you know where the answer is; use browser_read_html instead when the structure matters, or browser_snapshot when you need something to click.browser_snapshotTitle, url, and the interactive elements that are actually visible. Each element carries a `selector` when one can reach it: pass that string to browser_click or browser_type VERBATIM rather than writing your own. It is built to match exactly ONE element, which the obvious selector often does not, and the driver acts on the first match - so a caller aiming at the third of five identical links would silently hit the first and be told it succeeded. Elements with no `selector` carry `at`, the centre coordinates, for browser_click_at. It lists what a caller can act on, and it is not the accessibility tree: one country `<select>` would otherwise fill the answer with its options before the form you were looking for appears.browser_read_htmlThe page's HTML, cleaned down to what is worth reading. Use this when the STRUCTURE matters - a form and its labels, a table, what a control is wired to. `browser_snapshot` gives a flat inventory of things to click; this keeps the markup and the relationships inside it. mode="form" keeps the interactive surface and the text explaining it, mode="text" returns the prose alone, mode="full" keeps the structure with the noise and the attribute soup removed. Unlike browser_read_text this is NOT capped: it returns the whole reduced page, tens of thousands of characters on a large one. Cutting markup in the middle leaves tags that mean nothing, so it is not cut - but the answer can be long. Reach for browser_snapshot when you only need something to click.browser_take_screenshotOne screenshot of this browser's page, on demand.browser_watchThe whole browser window as a person at the machine sees it: tab strip, address bar, the page and the pointer, from a live capture kept running on that page. For watching the work, not for acting on it: the picture is window pixels, so do not feed its coordinates to browser_click_at; use browser_take_screenshot for that. Starts nothing. A browser that is not open has no window, so this answers the sentence that says so, and the live panes - which call this many times a second - read that sentence as the idle pane.browser_clickClick the first element matching a CSS selector. Scrolls it into view and waits for it to be clickable. When no selector can describe the target, use browser_click_at with coordinates from browser_snapshot.browser_click_atClick (or press-and-hold) a raw viewport coordinate instead of a selector - for targets a selector cannot reliably reach: a slider track, a canvas-drawn captcha, a precise point inside a wider element. Moves the pointer there first (no teleport), then down, then up, holding first if hold_seconds is set. Returns a screenshot taken right after release. Coordinates are relative to the VIEWPORT, not to the page, so the ones in a snapshot go stale the moment anything scrolls. Nothing raises when that happens: the click lands on whatever is at that spot now. Take a fresh snapshot after anything that could have moved the page, and prefer browser_click with the element's `selector` whenever it has one.- +5 more on the listing page
Strata tools 25
browser_closeClose the pagebrowser_resizeResize the browser windowbrowser_console_messagesReturns all console messagesbrowser_handle_dialogHandle a dialogbrowser_emulate_mediaEmulate CSS media features for the page, for example switch between the light and dark color scheme. Omitted parameters are left unchanged; null clears an override.browser_evaluateEvaluate JavaScript expression on page or elementbrowser_file_uploadUpload one or multiple filesbrowser_dropDrop files or MIME-typed data onto an element, as if dragged from outside the page. At least one of "paths" or "data" must be provided.browser_findSearch the accessibility snapshot of the current page for text or a regular expression. Returns matching snapshot nodes with a few lines of surrounding context (like search snippets), each shown under its path from the root of the tree, which is cheaper than capturing the whole snapshot when you only need to locate an element and its ref.browser_fill_formFill multiple form fieldsbrowser_press_keyPress a key on the keyboardbrowser_typeType text into editable element- +13 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
AIHawk
No confirmed install command for AIHawk yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.
Strata
{
"mcpServers": {
"strata": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@playwright/mcp@latest"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
AIHawk is categorized under Browser Automation and uses an install path we have not confirmed yet. Strata belongs to Browser Automation and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick AIHawk for browser automation work and Strata for browser automation.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client. AIHawk has no confirmed install command yet — follow its own setup instructions.
AIHawk is bring-your-own-key: usage is billed by the API provider you supply a key for. Auth: api key required. Strata has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add aihawk-2 and strata as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, AIHawk has a quality signal of 63/100 (Good) with 3 views, 0 installs and 32,179 GitHub stars. Strata has 65/100 (Great) with 1 views, 0 installs and 5,821 GitHub stars.
