codegraph vs playwright-mcp
Two of the top projects in MCP servers for developers, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
codegraph
Local code knowledge graph that coding agents query over MCP
playwright-mcp
MCP server that lets LLMs drive a browser through Playwright accessibility snapshots
Verdict
codegraph ranks higher, 95 to 92. Of the 4 score parts we measure for both, codegraph leads on 2, playwright-mcp on 1 and 1 is even.
- Adoptioncodegraph leads by 5 points, 98 to 93.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenanceplaywright-mcp leads by 9 points, 100 to 91.
- Agent-readycodegraph leads by 40 points, 85 to 45: a wide gap.
Pick codegraph if you are
Developers who want faster, cheaper code navigation for AI coding agents
- Auto-configures nine agents with one `codegraph install` command
- Index stays current by watching files; no manual re-indexing
Pick playwright-mcp if you are
Developers giving LLM agents browser automation through MCP clients
- Uses accessibility snapshots, so text-only models can operate pages without vision
- Works with many MCP clients: VS Code, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose and others
| What we compare | codegraph | playwright-mcp |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 98, widely used | 93, widely used |
| Momentum | Not scored for this kind | Not scored for this kind |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 91, healthy | 100, healthy |
| Agent-ready | 85, ready | 45, minimal |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 77.4k | 39.5k |
| License | MIT (permissive) | Apache-2.0 (permissive) |
| Last commit | Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Docker | No | Yes |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Mentioned | Not stated |
codegraph
CodeGraph indexes a project into a local `.codegraph/` graph of symbols, call edges and dependencies, then exposes it to coding agents through an MCP server. Agents can fetch relevant source, call paths and change impact in one call instead of grepping and reading files. `codegraph install` wires it into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, opencode, Gemini, Kiro, Copilot and others; the index auto-syncs on file changes.
Who it is for: Developers who want faster, cheaper code navigation for AI coding agents
Strengths
- Auto-configures nine agents with one `codegraph install` command
- Index stays current by watching files; no manual re-indexing
- Covers about 35 languages with cross-file resolution in one graph
- Benchmarks published with method: 7 repos, median of 4 runs, CLI blocked in both arms
Weaknesses
- Benchmark figures come from the author and use one model, Claude Opus 4.8
- README says responses leave about 80% more context resident in long sessions
- Must run `codegraph init` in every project to build its graph
- Hosted CodeGraph platform is a waitlist product, separate from this tool
- no GPU
- Models: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, opencode, Hermes Agent
playwright-mcp
Runs as an MCP server, started with `npx @playwright/mcp@latest`, and exposes Playwright browser control to any MCP client. It feeds the model structured accessibility-tree snapshots instead of screenshots, so no vision model is required. Options cover Chrome, Firefox, WebKit and Edge, CDP or extension attachment to a running browser, proxies, device emulation and origin allow/block lists.
Who it is for: Developers giving LLM agents browser automation through MCP clients
Strengths
- Uses accessibility snapshots, so text-only models can operate pages without vision
- Works with many MCP clients: VS Code, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose and others
- Can attach to a running Chrome or Edge via CDP endpoint or the Playwright Extension
- Many flags: isolated profiles, secrets file, URL param redaction, init scripts, proxy, device emulation
Weaknesses
- README says tool schemas and verbose snapshots cost more tokens than the Playwright CLI with skills
- README recommends the separate Playwright CLI for high-throughput coding agents
- Origin allow/block lists are documented as not a security boundary
- Headed browser by default, so servers need --headless
- no GPU
- Docker
- Needs Node.js 18 or newer, Playwright browsers (Chrome, Firefox, WebKit or Edge), MCP client
- Models: Any LLM via an MCP client
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