Recursively crawl a website via BFS. Opens pages in new tabs, extracts text and links, follows them up to max_depth. Respects robots.txt and scope constraints.\n\nWhen to use: Extracting content from multiple pages of a site when the URL structure is not known in advance.\nWhen NOT to use: Use cr...
AI agents invoke crawl to trigger actions in OpenChrome. What it does depends on the arguments the agent supplies, and its effects often reach beyond the immediate call — builds kicked off, notifications sent, workflows started.
This tool actively drives a real browser — opening tabs, navigating to URLs, and following links recursively — which constitutes triggering external operations with effects that depend on arguments (pages visited, depth, scope).
From the tool's definition Recursively crawl a website via BFS. Opens pages in new tabs, extracts text and links, follows them up to max_depth.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access crawl gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and OpenChrome, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for crawl:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"crawl": {
"limits": [
{
"counter": "crawl_rate",
"window": "minute",
"max": 10,
"scope": "grant"
}
]
}
}
}crawl stays usable, but rate-capped — a runaway agent can't fire it dozens of times a minute. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
Free to start. No card required.
Recursively crawl a website via BFS. Opens pages in new tabs, extracts text and links, follows them up to max_depth. Respects robots.txt and scope constraints.\n\nWhen to use: Extracting content from multiple pages of a site when the URL structure is not known in advance.\nWhen NOT to use: Use crawl_sitemap when the site has a sitemap.xml, or navigate for a single page. It is categorised as a Execute tool in the OpenChrome MCP Server, which means it can trigger actions or run processes. Use rate limits and argument validation.
Register the OpenChrome MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for crawl: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches OpenChrome. Nothing to install.
crawl is a Execute tool with high risk. Execute tools should be rate-limited and have argument validation enabled.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the crawl rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for crawl. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
crawl is provided by the OpenChrome MCP server (shaun0927/openchrome). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Deterministic rules across all 106 OpenChrome tools. Per-identity grants. Full audit log. Live in minutes. Nothing to install.
Free to start. No card required.
106 OpenChrome tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 42,500+ MCP servers.