Head to head
Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.
Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
Ref (Ref Context)Chrome DevTools MCPCline MCP Marketplace
Quick read
- Free with no card: Chrome DevTools MCP, Cline MCP Marketplace.
| Field | Ref (Ref Context)ref.tools | Chrome DevTools MCPgithub.com | Cline MCP Marketplacegithub.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | An MCP server that searches public and private documentation from any MCP-compatible coding agent, tuned to return the relevant chunk rather than a whole page. Served at https://api.ref.tools/mcp using an x-ref-api-key header or OAuth. Ref also ships Ref Plans, a plan-review workspace sharing the same credit pool. | Maintained by Google's Chrome DevTools team. It lets a coding agent control and inspect a live Chrome browser with full DevTools access: performance traces and insights, console messages with source-mapped stack traces, network request inspection, screenshots, DOM interaction, Lighthouse audits and memory debugging. | A curated marketplace built into the Cline VS Code extension. Authors submit a server via GitHub issue with a repo URL and logo; reviewers weigh community adoption, developer credibility, project maturity and security, usually within a couple of days. On install, Cline handles setup and configuration autonomously. |
| Category | MCP servers & registries | MCP servers & registries | MCP servers & registries |
| Cost tier | paid | free | free |
| Pricing | $9/mo for 1,000 queries · $10 per additional 1,000 credits | Free, open source | Free |
| Why builders pick it | Point it at your own private docs — internal API references, a design system, a team wiki — and the agent stops guessing at in-house conventions. Token efficiency keeps doc lookups from crowding out your actual code. | Closes the loop where the agent writes frontend code but cannot see the result. It reads the real console error and the real network waterfall instead of asking you to paste a screenshot. | Removes the config-file step entirely — pick a server in the sidebar and the agent installs and wires it up. The human review gate makes it far safer than pulling from a 70,000-entry index. |
| Watch out for | No meaningful free tier, and credits are shared with Ref Plans, so plan-orchestration usage quietly drains your documentation-search budget. | If you attach it to an existing Chrome instance it drives your real profile and logged-in sessions — never point it at anything sensitive. Performance traces return very large payloads. | Only useful if you already use Cline, and the curated list is a tiny fraction of what Smithery or Glama index. |
| How to wire it up | claude mcp add --transport http Ref https://api.ref.tools/mcp --header 'x-ref-api-key: YOUR_KEY' | claude mcp add chrome-devtools --scope user npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest | not logged |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Ref (Ref Context) vs Chrome DevTools MCP vs Cline MCP Marketplace Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects. Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code. ## Ref (Ref Context) (ref) - URL: https://ref.tools - Category: MCP servers & registries - Cost: paid — $9/mo for 1,000 queries · $10 per additional 1,000 credits - What it is: An MCP server that searches public and private documentation from any MCP-compatible coding agent, tuned to return the relevant chunk rather than a whole page. Served at https://api.ref.tools/mcp using an x-ref-api-key header or OAuth. Ref also ships Ref Plans, a plan-review workspace sharing the same credit pool. - Why builders pick it: Point it at your own private docs — internal API references, a design system, a team wiki — and the agent stops guessing at in-house conventions. Token efficiency keeps doc lookups from crowding out your actual code. - Trap: No meaningful free tier, and credits are shared with Ref Plans, so plan-orchestration usage quietly drains your documentation-search budget. - Wiring: claude mcp add --transport http Ref https://api.ref.tools/mcp --header 'x-ref-api-key: YOUR_KEY' - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/ref ## Chrome DevTools MCP (chrome-devtools-mcp) - URL: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp - Category: MCP servers & registries - Cost: free — Free, open source - What it is: Maintained by Google's Chrome DevTools team. It lets a coding agent control and inspect a live Chrome browser with full DevTools access: performance traces and insights, console messages with source-mapped stack traces, network request inspection, screenshots, DOM interaction, Lighthouse audits and memory debugging. - Why builders pick it: Closes the loop where the agent writes frontend code but cannot see the result. It reads the real console error and the real network waterfall instead of asking you to paste a screenshot. - Trap: If you attach it to an existing Chrome instance it drives your real profile and logged-in sessions — never point it at anything sensitive. Performance traces return very large payloads. - Wiring: claude mcp add chrome-devtools --scope user npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp ## Cline MCP Marketplace (cline-mcp-marketplace) - URL: https://github.com/cline/mcp-marketplace - Category: MCP servers & registries - Cost: free — Free - What it is: A curated marketplace built into the Cline VS Code extension. Authors submit a server via GitHub issue with a repo URL and logo; reviewers weigh community adoption, developer credibility, project maturity and security, usually within a couple of days. On install, Cline handles setup and configuration autonomously. - Why builders pick it: Removes the config-file step entirely — pick a server in the sidebar and the agent installs and wires it up. The human review gate makes it far safer than pulling from a 70,000-entry index. - Trap: Only useful if you already use Cline, and the curated list is a tiny fraction of what Smithery or Glama index. - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/cline-mcp-marketplace ## Quick read - Free with no card: Chrome DevTools MCP, Cline MCP Marketplace. ## Rules 1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is. 2. Read the full dossier before integrating. 3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.
Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=ref,chrome-devtools-mcp,cline-mcp-marketplace