frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: What Is the Point of WebMCP?

1•curtisblaine•1h ago
So I have a question that should be simple, but apparently is not. I have Chrome Canary with WebMCP enabled. I have the Model Context Tool extension installed. I have a WebMCP-enabled test app running in it.

The only thing the extension offers is connecting to the Gemini API via an API token and using that as the driver for the WebMCP app. I don't understand this use case. If I wanted my app to consume API tokens I would have directly coded interoperation with the major providers with one of the thousands libraries that di exactly that.

What I do have are subscriptions to OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, and GitHub Copilot. All the clients I use can connect to MCP servers. I thought: I have WebMCP enabled in Canary, so my browser will actually be an MCP server that gives access to the underlying WebMCP apps it is running. It turns out that no, of course that would be logical, but you can't do that. Chrome exposes an MCP server, but it is only for controlling Chrome itself, like Playwright. It does not provide any bridging to WebMCP.

I then thought there would be an extension that does this, but the Chrome extension ecosystem is full of bullshit extensions from fraudsters who vibe-coded their way into trying to capitalize on the AI craze. There are no extensions for that. All of them want you to subscribe, or give them API tokens. Many of them have non-working websites. One option I see mentioned online is running Chrome in debug mode and exposing a remote debugging port. This is exactly what WebMCP was supposedly invented to avoid, so running your browser in a special way to expose it to complete control cannot be the right way to do this. I'm perfectly able to already do that without WebMCP.

Am I understanding it wrong? I understand the proposal is in its infancy, but I expect the goal of it to be at least clear. I don't understand where it helps developers or users in any single way that wasn't already available before.

Comments

BlueHotDog2•54m ago
WebMCP is a protocol for exposing tools the AI can call from your running web app. the point isn't "consume API tokens", it's "let the AI do stuff in your app" (click buttons, fill forms, read DOM state). The Gemini integration is just the orchestrator for the example implementation. not the protocol
curtisblaine•30m ago
Yes, but in practice, how do you connect AI to WebMCP? What is the point of a protocol that speaks MCP inside the browser if it's not reachable outside the browser?

Wikipedia has deprecated and will blacklist archive.today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archive.today_guidance
1•gyrovague-com•1m ago•0 comments

TamboUI: A Modern Terminal UI Framework for Java (GraalVM Native)

https://github.com/tamboui/tamboui
1•mikepapadim•2m ago•0 comments

Optimism Plunges 28% as Base Drifts from OP Stack: What's Next?

https://timescrypto.com/cryptonews/altcoins/optimism-plunges-28-as-base-drifts-from-op-stack-what...
1•Alan_Writer•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Aismond – attack-surface monitoring for MSP client fleets

https://www.aismond.com/
1•mirceamitu•3m ago•0 comments

I discovered a hidden tragedy tied to Russia's most famous painting

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/20/an-unknown-woman-how-i-discovered-a-hidden-t...
2•n1b0m•6m ago•0 comments

I have included AI in Corpus Lifetime free. net worth in one place

https://icorpus.vercel.app
1•mathan_karthik•9m ago•1 comments

Retrofitting Bridges with "Smart" Steel

https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/bruecken-mit-intelligentem-stahl-sanieren
1•JeanKage•10m ago•0 comments

CHERIoT Rust status update #0

https://rust.cheriot.org/2026/02/15/status-update.html
1•fanf2•10m ago•0 comments

Pens, pen clips, design engineer, obsession. Surprisingly interesting [video]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3i9FGaakX-Y
1•lifeisstillgood•12m ago•0 comments

Trump directs US govt to release files on 'alien and extraterrestrial life'

https://news.sky.com/story/trump-directs-us-government-to-release-files-on-alien-and-extraterrest...
2•iamben•14m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Delulu9 - SEO keyword research for Claude Code content pipeline

https://delulu9.com/
1•last_layer•23m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Chowser – A lightweight macOS browser chooser

https://github.com/bsreeram08/chowser
1•bsreeram08•28m ago•0 comments

I Donut Belive

https://idonutbelieve.com/
1•lifty•33m ago•1 comments

Show HN: FakeSec – AI photo detector with 12 independent analysis methods

https://fakesec.com/
1•theevoq•38m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: How many people are facing the problem of gst invoice mismatch?

1•SRMohitkr•39m ago•0 comments

Using an Agent Engine AI Agent from Dotnet C#

https://furotmark.github.io/2026/02/05/Using-An-Agent-Engine-AI-Agent-From-Dotnet.html
1•furoTmark•39m ago•0 comments

Vibenchmarking different JSON schema validator CLI tools

https://github.com/whacked/cow/blob/main/vibe%20benchmarking%20json%20schema%20validators.md
1•whacked_new•44m ago•0 comments

Regulated Crypto Investigation Team – Intelligence Cyber Wizard Services

1•Robertjoe•49m ago•0 comments

I tried building my startup entirely on European infrastructure

https://www.coinerella.com/made-in-eu-it-was-harder-than-i-thought/
124•willy__•50m ago•58 comments

How HTTP Requests Work

https://xeiaso.net/blog/how-http-requests-work-2020-05-19/
1•chromehearts•52m ago•0 comments

Tech Is Taking over Olympic Curling

https://spectrum.ieee.org/olympics-curling-robot-ai
1•JeanKage•55m ago•0 comments

US Justice Department hangs Trump banner at headquarters

https://www.ft.com/content/6eca9b40-a775-470f-83f0-a6f72e616230
5•pera•55m ago•0 comments

Internationalise the Fediverse

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/internationalise-the-fediverse/
4•todsacerdoti•59m ago•1 comments

Slurm: A Highly Scalable Workload Manager

https://github.com/SchedMD/slurm
1•tosh•59m ago•0 comments

Rust Developer Ecosystem Survey 2025: Popularity, Trends, and Future

https://blog.jetbrains.com/rust/2026/02/11/state-of-rust-2025/
3•gudzpoz•1h ago•0 comments

Untapped Way to Learn a Codebase: Build a Visualizer

https://jimmyhmiller.com/learn-codebase-visualizer
1•andreabergia•1h ago•0 comments

Terrible economics of package registries and how to fix them [video]

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/8WJKEH-package-registry-economics/
1•stargrave•1h ago•0 comments

Don't Touch the Mouse: Chrome Shortcuts Every Developer Should Know

https://devdong.textlanes.com/en/dont-touch-the-mouse
1•textlanes33•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: AstroLens – AI that watches the sky and finds what nobody catalogued

https://github.com/deepfieldlabs/astroLens
1•samantaba•1h ago•0 comments

The paradox of work – Tim Harford

https://timharford.com/2026/02/the-paradox-of-work/
3•swolpers•1h ago•0 comments