From a02262bd86e978ffc5a8d410b127764c7adb9cde Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicholas Roscino <nroscino@google.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:40:10 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] fix: mark categoryExtensions flag mutually exclusive with
 autoConnect

---
 src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts | 10 ++++++----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts b/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
index f81c9e208..c324168f2 100644
--- a/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
+++ b/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ export const cliOptions = {
     type: 'boolean',
     description:
       'If specified, automatically connects to a browser (Chrome 144+) running locally from the user data directory identified by the channel param (default channel is stable). Requires the remoted debugging server to be started in the Chrome instance via chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging.',
-    conflicts: ['isolated', 'executablePath'],
+    conflicts: ['isolated', 'executablePath', 'categoryExtensions'],
     default: false,
     coerce: (value: boolean | undefined) => {
       if (!value) {
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ export const cliOptions = {
     description:
       'Connect to a running, debuggable Chrome instance (e.g. `http://127.0.0.1:9222`). For more details see: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp#connecting-to-a-running-chrome-instance.',
     alias: 'u',
-    conflicts: 'wsEndpoint',
+    conflicts: ['wsEndpoint', 'categoryExtensions'],
     coerce: (url: string | undefined) => {
       if (!url) {
         return;
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ export const cliOptions = {
     description:
       'WebSocket endpoint to connect to a running Chrome instance (e.g., ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/<id>). Alternative to --browserUrl.',
     alias: 'w',
-    conflicts: 'browserUrl',
+    conflicts: ['browserUrl', 'categoryExtensions'],
     coerce: (url: string | undefined) => {
       if (!url) {
         return;
@@ -213,7 +213,9 @@ export const cliOptions = {
     type: 'boolean',
     default: false,
     hidden: true,
-    describe: 'Set to false to exclude tools related to extensions.',
+    conflicts: ['browserUrl', 'autoConnect', 'wsEndpoint'],
+    describe:
+      'Set to true to include tools related to extensions. Note: This feature is only supported with a pipe connection. autoConnect is not supported.',
   },
   performanceCrux: {
     type: 'boolean',

From 6fb8295c1bf5ceecce3f50ce8f227ed1fe818a0f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicholas Roscino <nroscino@google.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:57:17 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] fix: removing default to false for categoryExtensions to
 fix tests

---
 src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts | 1 -
 src/index.ts                               | 2 +-
 tests/cli.test.ts                          | 2 --
 3 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts b/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
index c324168f2..b4792629c 100644
--- a/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
+++ b/src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts
@@ -211,7 +211,6 @@ export const cliOptions = {
   },
   categoryExtensions: {
     type: 'boolean',
-    default: false,
     hidden: true,
     conflicts: ['browserUrl', 'autoConnect', 'wsEndpoint'],
     describe:
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index 1e731521c..7dabf6766 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ export async function createMcpServer(
     }
     if (
       tool.annotations.category === ToolCategory.EXTENSIONS &&
-      serverArgs.categoryExtensions === false
+      !serverArgs.categoryExtensions
     ) {
       return;
     }
diff --git a/tests/cli.test.ts b/tests/cli.test.ts
index 4bea6b954..b18a4532f 100644
--- a/tests/cli.test.ts
+++ b/tests/cli.test.ts
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@ describe('cli args parsing', () => {
     categoryEmulation: true,
     'category-performance': true,
     categoryPerformance: true,
-    'category-extensions': false,
-    categoryExtensions: false,
     'category-network': true,
     categoryNetwork: true,
     'auto-connect': undefined,