MCP server is unusable when User Data directory is redirected by Group Policy

[0xfeeddeadbeef]

My company's Active Directory Group Policy redirects the User Data directory to a non-default location. This MCP server tries to launch Chrome instance with --user-data-dir command line argument. But the --user-data-dir cannot take effect when User Data policy is active.

As a result, all tool calls fail with error:

puppeteer:error ConnectionClosedError: Connection closed.

Is there a workaround for this problem?

[OrKoN]

You can launch the Chrome by yourself and let the mcp server connect automatically given that you know the actual --user-data-dir used or if the default one is used: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/agents/use-cases/auto-connect

I am not familiar with Active Directory Group Policy: how does it work? does it just remove --user-data-dir arg that the MCP server sets?

[0xfeeddeadbeef]

The --auto-connect solved my problem. Thank you!

I am not familiar with Active Directory Group Policy: how does it work? does it just remove --user-data-dir arg that the MCP server sets?

There is a UserDataDir value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome key in Windows Registry; and it always overrides whatever you pass to --user-data-dir command line argument.

[0xfeeddeadbeef]

--auto-connect workaround solved my problem.