Claude Control Chrome connectorWhat Claude can do in your Control Chrome account.
The Claude Control Chrome connector exposes 10 tools: 3 read, 7 write. The first group looks at your tabs and a page's text, the second opens, closes, navigates, or runs code. Below: what Claude does in your browser, and who keeps control.
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What changes in your browser
Control Chrome is a desktop extension published by Anthropic and framed as a demonstration. It lets Claude drive Google Chrome on your Mac through AppleScript, Apple's scripting language: open an address, hop between tabs, read a page's text, then answer you based on what it found there.
Clean up your tab pile. list_tabs shows everything that's open, switch_to_tab brings the right one to the front, and close_tab shuts the ones you're done with.
Summarize what you're reading. get_current_tab spots the active tab and get_page_content grabs its text, which Claude condenses or checks against another source.
Browse without the mouse. open_url loads an address, go_back and go_forward step through history, reload_tab refreshes, and execute_javascript runs a script inside the open page.
What Claude can't do here: anything outside Chrome, anything outside macOS, and anything these ten tools don't explicitly cover. The manifest describes no bookmark handling, no downloads, and no dedicated form filling. Nothing runs by itself either: no tab opens on a schedule or when an email arrives. For that kind of routine you need an automation tool, a different job covered on the Integrations hub.
The vocabulary in one minute
Five words before you install the extension.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and a service or app you already use, so Claude can work with it while it answers you.
- Tool
- A named capability the connector opens to Claude. Claude picks the ones it needs on its own; the directory sheet lists them by name.
- Authorization
- The access you hand Claude when you connect, granted once per person and taken back whenever you want by switching the connector off.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before completing anything that changes something, shown in the conversation at the moment it matters.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors run on: it's what lets an assistant like Claude drive an outside service or program.
Plug Control Chrome into Claude in three steps
- 01
Find the extension
In Claude Desktop on your Mac, open Customize, then Connectors, and look for Control Chrome. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner has to enable it for the organization first.
- 02
Start the connection
Click Connect on its row and follow the window that opens. If the extension ever stops responding, use Disconnect, then connect it again from that same row.
- 03
Read what you open up
Before you confirm, read the authorization screen, because that screen, not Claude, sets what the access covers. Take your time. Once connected, Claude can close tabs and run code in the pages you have open.
The 10 tools of the Claude Control Chrome connector
Control Chrome gives Claude 10 tools: 3 that read your account, 7 that change something in it.
Three tools that look, seven that act on the browser. Names stay exactly as Claude shows them.
- 3 read
- 7 write
What Claude looks at (3)
3 toolsThree tools that read Chrome's state without touching anything.
get_current_tab
Returns information about the tab currently in front, so Claude knows which page you're on before answering or acting.
list_tabs
Takes stock of every tab open in Chrome. Claude gets the big picture before choosing which one to read, bring back, or close.
get_page_content
Grabs the text of the page shown in the current tab. Claude reads it to summarize it, pull out a fact, or compare it.
What Claude does in Chrome (7)
7 toolsSeven tools that open, close, move, or execute. No source describes a confirmation step of their own, so the general rule below applies.
open_url
Approval: see the ruleLoads the address you want in Chrome, either in a new tab or in place of the current page. The site shows up as if you had typed it in.
close_tab
Approval: see the ruleShuts one specific Chrome tab. The page leaves your window as if you'd clicked its little cross.
switch_to_tab
Approval: see the ruleBrings one specific tab to the front without opening a new one. Chrome jumps to the requested page.
reload_tab
Approval: see the ruleReloads a tab to display the latest version of the page, just like the refresh key.
go_back
Approval: see the ruleSteps the tab one notch back in its browsing history, exactly like the back arrow.
go_forward
Approval: see the ruleMoves the tab one notch forward in its history, to get back to a page you just left.
execute_javascript
Approval: see the ruleRuns a chunk of JavaScript, the language web pages are built with, inside the current tab. The script acts on the page as if it were part of it.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before any action it takes for you. With seven tools that act on your browser, that's the rule that matters.
On a Team or Enterprise workspace, owners decide whether a member can let certain actions through without being asked again. They can also cap what a connector does for the whole organization, for example keeping reads and blocking writes, and nobody bypasses that from their own account. And Claude works with your permissions, nothing more: pages your own Chrome session can't open stay closed to it too.
Which plans it's available on
None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows availability by plan. A connector-by-connector answer isn't published anywhere.
The general rule is sourced: desktop extensions install on Claude Desktop, open to all of its users, while remote connectors run on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop, and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner enables them for the organization. For the current status, check the Control Chrome sheet in the official directory.
Where Control Chrome stops
A connector isn't an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you: no tab opens on its own, on a schedule or on an event.
This extension has no page in Claude's help center: its only description is the manifest Anthropic publishes, one line per tool. Anthropic presents it as a demonstration of the desktop extension format. The directory badge isn't a security audit, and the sheet reminds you that Anthropic can't vouch for how exposed tools behave. The same reading grid applies to other sheets, such as the Claude affinity connector page.
Need help connecting Control Chrome to Claude?
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