What's New

Tool Groups System

Introducing flexible tool selection with curated groups! Instead of choosing between Rapid (limited) and Pro (everything), you can now:

• Mix and match tool groups using GROUPS environment variable
• Add individual tools via the TOOLS variable
• 9 curated groups: ecommerce, social, browser, finance, business, research, app_stores, travel, advanced_scraping

Example configuration:

{
  "env": {
    "GROUPS": "browser,ecommerce",
    "TOOLS": "scrape_as_markdown"
  }
}

All Changes

Features

• Add tool groups system with 9 curated categories (c23af1b)

🚀 Upgrade Guide

No breaking changes! Existing configurations continue to work:

• PRO_MODE=true still enables all tools
• Default Rapid mode unchanged
• New GROUPS/TOOLS variables are optional

Bright Data MCP Server - Release 2.6.2

Release Date: Dec 1, 2025

• Added DOM-based interactive element capture with stable data-fastmcp-ref refs, improving click/scroll/type tooling on custom clickable elements not present in the filtered ARIA snapshot.
• Extended snapshot output to include a compact “DOM Interactive Elements” section when available.
• scraping_browser_snapshot now accepts filtered (default: false) to choose between raw and compacted snapshots.

Bright Data MCP Server - Release 2.6.1

Release Date: Nov 16, 2025

• Pinned @modelcontextprotocol/sdk to 1.21.2 to avoid the completions capability mismatch that caused “Server does not support completions” on fresh installs.

• No other changes.

Bright Data MCP Server - Release 2.6.0

Release Date: October 27, 2025

We're thrilled to announce the release of Bright Data MCP Server version 2.6.0! This major update brings significant improvements to browser automation, enhanced observability, and better resource management. Whether you're building AI agents for web scraping, search, or data extraction, this release makes your workflows more reliable and efficient.

Highlights

Browser Automation with ARIA References

Say goodbye to fragile CSS selectors! This release introduces a game-changing approach to browser automation using ARIA snapshots and ref-based element targeting. Your browser automation scripts are now more reliable, maintainable, and resistant to website changes.

Multi-Client Session Isolation

Working with multiple AI clients or concurrent sessions? We've implemented robust session isolation to ensure browser sessions never interfere with each other, providing clean separation and preventing cross-contamination.

🚀 What's New

Browser Automation Enhancements

ARIA Snapshot-Based Element Targeting

The Problem: Traditional CSS selectors break when websites update their layouts or class names, making browser automation fragile and maintenance-heavy.

The Solution: We've introduced a revolutionary ARIA snapshot system that provides stable, semantic element references:

• scraping_browser_snapshot - New tool that captures all interactive elements with stable ref identifiers
• Ref-based tools - All interaction tools now use reliable refs instead of brittle selectors:
  • scraping_browser_click_ref - Click elements by ref
  • scraping_browser_type_ref - Type into inputs by ref
  • scraping_browser_scroll_to_ref - Scroll to elements by ref
  • scraping_browser_wait_for_ref - Wait for elements by ref

Network Request Tracking

New tool: scraping_browser_network_requests

Monitor all HTTP requests made by the page - perfect for:

• Debugging API calls and data fetching
• Understanding page behavior
• Tracking AJAX requests
• Analyzing third-party integrations

See every request with method, URL, status code, and response details.

ARIA Snapshot Filtering

To reduce token consumption and improve AI response times, we've added intelligent filtering that:

• Extracts only interactive elements (buttons, links, inputs, etc.)
• Compresses snapshot data by ~70% on average
• Maintains all critical information for automation
• Filters out decorative and non-interactive elements

Session Isolation & Resource Management

Multi-Session Browser Isolation

Each MCP client session now gets its own isolated browser environment:

• Session-based isolation - Browser sessions are keyed by client session ID
• Automatic cleanup - Sessions are released when clients disconnect
• No cross-contamination - Multiple clients can work independently

📊 Observability & Client Tracking

Client Identification & Logging

Know exactly which AI clients are using your tools:

• Client name detection - Automatically identifies connecting clients (Claude, GPT, etc.)
• Request tracking - All tool calls logged with client information
• Usage attribution - Understand which clients generate which requests

Logging Example:

[search_engine] executing (client=claude-desktop) {"query": "AI news"}

Error Handling Improvements

• Polling optimization - Dataset polling now stops immediately on HTTP 400 errors instead of retrying
• Better error messages - More descriptive error context for debugging
• Graceful degradation - Improved handling of browser disconnections

Fixed Values Support for Datasets

Dataset tools now support fixed parameter values:

• Reduces token count in tool definitions
• Simplifies tool usage for AI models
• Pre-configures common parameters

🔄 Breaking Changes

Tool Renaming

Some tools have been renamed. If you have hardcoded tool names, please update:

• Check tool descriptions for any name changes
• Update any automation scripts accordingly

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Dataset polling - Fixed infinite retry loop on permanent failures (HTTP 400 now stops polling immediately)
• Browser session cleanup - Fixed memory leaks from unclosed sessions
• Error propagation - Improved error context in deeply nested calls
• Connection handling - Better recovery from browser disconnections

🔮 Looking Ahead

This release lays the groundwork for exciting future enhancements:

• Advanced browser automation capabilities
• Enhanced analytics and usage insights
• More dataset integrations
• Performance optimizations

📚 Resources

• Documentation: https://docs.brightdata.com/mcp-server/overview
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/brightdata/brightdata-mcp
• Support: Contact us at support@brightdata.com

🐛 Report Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? We'd love to hear from you!

• Open an issue on GitHub
• Contact support at support@brightdata.com
• Join our community channels for discussions

Happy Automating! 🚀

The Bright Data Team

Full Changelog: v2.4.2...v2.6.0