Published: Oct 13, 2025 by Isaac Johnson
There are two MCP Servers I really want to check out: Chrome DevTools MCP Server and the new Google provided Nanobanana extension which bundles an MCP Server.
My idea with the Chrome DevTools is perhaps to use it to capture newspaper headlines or use Bing image generation. Let’s give it a try…
Chrome MCP Server
One that came on my radar just recently was Chrome DevTools MCP Server.
Make sure you are in agent mode and click the “Configure tools” icon
From there we can add a new MCP server
While it did not work, I did first try to use the ‘npm’ option and give it chrome-devtools-mcp@latest
but that failed to find it
Instead, I used the stdio with the npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest invokation
Give it a name
And if you are like me, rocking in WSL, make sure to say “Remote”
I now have a block just like I did for my Imagen service
"my-mcp-image": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-image"
],
"env": {
"GEMINI_API_KEY": "ASADFASDFASDFASDF",
"IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR": "/tmp/images"
}
},
"my-chrome-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"
]
}
},
I saw errors about the wrong version of NodeJS
2025-09-27 09:48:04.702 [info] Connection state: Running
2025-09-27 09:48:09.573 [warning] [server stderr] ERROR: `chrome-devtools-mcp` does not support Node v21.7.3. Please upgrade to Node 22.12.0 or newer.
2025-09-27 09:48:09.630 [info] Connection state: Error Process exited with code 1
2025-09-27 09:48:09.631 [error] Server exited before responding to `initialize` request.
Indeed, that was what I was using:
$ nvm list
v16.20.2
v18.20.2
-> v21.7.3
system
default -> stable (-> v21.7.3)
iojs -> N/A (default)
unstable -> N/A (default)
node -> stable (-> v21.7.3) (default)
stable -> 21.7 (-> v21.7.3) (default)
lts/* -> lts/iron (-> N/A)
lts/argon -> v4.9.1 (-> N/A)
lts/boron -> v6.17.1 (-> N/A)
lts/carbon -> v8.17.0 (-> N/A)
lts/dubnium -> v10.24.1 (-> N/A)
lts/erbium -> v12.22.12 (-> N/A)
lts/fermium -> v14.21.3 (-> N/A)
lts/gallium -> v16.20.2
lts/hydrogen -> v18.20.4 (-> N/A)
lts/iron -> v20.15.1 (-> N/A)
I’lll try and update
builder@LuiGi:~/Workspaces/chromemcp$ nvm install 22.12.0
Downloading and installing node v22.12.0...
Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v22.12.0/node-v22.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz...
################################################################################################################# 100.0%
Computing checksum with sha256sum
Checksums matched!
Now using node v22.12.0 (npm v10.9.0)
builder@LuiGi:~/Workspaces/chromemcp$ nvm use 22.12.0
Now using node v22.12.0 (npm v10.9.0)
builder@LuiGi:~/Workspaces/chromemcp$
While I got it installed, things fell apart in usage.
The first attempt with :
I could get things to work if I just switched to curl (which would also work but doesn’t use the chrome MCP server)
The next attempt failed because “chrome isn’t available” in this environment
Though, I did see VS Code fire up a simple browser so it seems to have wanted to do something.
I later solved this issue by installing the latest chrome
$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
--2025-09-27 10:37:00-- https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
Resolving dl.google.com (dl.google.com)... 172.217.4.78, 2607:f8b0:4009:805::200e
Connecting to dl.google.com (dl.google.com)|172.217.4.78|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 120353168 (115M) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: ‘google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb’
google-chrome-stable_curre 100%[========================================>] 114.78M 37.2MB/s in 3.1s
2025-09-27 10:37:04 (37.2 MB/s) - ‘google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb’ saved [120353168/120353168]
$ sudo apt install ./google-chrome*.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'google-chrome-stable' instead of './google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb'
google-chrome-stable is already the newest version (140.0.7339.207-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 178 not upgraded.
Gemini CLI
Let’s add this MCP server to Gemini CLI. Perhaps we will have more success here. Since I had to move to a newer NodeJS, I had to first reinstall Gemini CLI:
$ npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
added 575 packages in 32s
148 packages are looking for funding
run `npm fund` for details
$ gemini mcp add chrome-devtools npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest
(node:9143) [DEP0040] DeprecationWarning: The `punycode` module is deprecated. Please use a userland alternative instead.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
MCP server "chrome-devtools" added to project settings. (stdio)
If I fire up Gemini CLI now I can see a registered MCP server. Ctrl-T will show me some of it’s 26 tools
I thought perhaps I would ask it to use MJ for an image gen
which triggered the tool
This did properly get me to the login page
Sadly, cloudflare blocked me for both Google and Discord
Here I try and use Bing which did let me go through the User/Password flow
It got a bit hung up on delays in the end, but I did get my Sloth, Phd:
I tried again to see I stayed logged in. Indeed I did, but it timed out waiting for the image (where the image was already done)
I found sometimes just asking a query meant Gemini would use Google search and not need to engage the MCP server at all - for instance, revisiting my weather MCP server:
Sometimes it seemed intentionally obtuse
Extensions
We will get into extensions more in the future, however suffice it to say that Gemini CLI Extensions make it far easier to install and share groupings of plugins, mcp servers and prompts.
For instance, Let’s install the security analyze one. It’s a simple install command:
$ gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/security
(node:64327) [DEP0040] DeprecationWarning: The `punycode` module is deprecated. Please use a userland alternative instead.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
Extensions may introduce unexpected behavior.
Ensure you have investigated the extension source and trust the author.
This extension will run the following MCP servers:
* securityServer (local): node /tmp/gemini-extension5lWqjN/mcp-server/security.ts
This extension will append info to your gemini.md context using GEMINI.md
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]: Y
Extension "gemini-cli-security" installed successfully and enabled.
I was then able to run /security:analyze to run a report. While i did record it, it leaked my found key all over, so I’ll just show the summary:
Nano Banana
Let’s look at another one, the Nanobanana extension.
I had some reservations about trusting an unknown MCP server, but I have more faith in something offered directly by Google.
We can install it with:
$ gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/nanobanana
(node:65860) [DEP0040] DeprecationWarning: The `punycode` module is deprecated. Please use a userland alternative instead.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
Extensions may introduce unexpected behavior.
Ensure you have investigated the extension source and trust the author.
This extension will run the following MCP servers:
* nanobanana (local): node /tmp/gemini-extensionGfaW1P/mcp-server/dist/index.js
This extension will append info to your gemini.md context using GEMINI.md
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]: Y
Extension "nanobanana" installed successfully and enabled.
When you fire up Gemini, at least as of today, we will see the new extension as a configured MCP server:
I asked for an image, but it wouldn’t handle my request for folders
I then saw an error - looks like we need to set a key:
I’ll set that and fire it up again
Interestingly, on this second pass, it really didn’t mind the folder creation:
That worked great!
I’m going to try and push it a bit.. I find these AI image tools usually have G-rated nanny filters on …
I find it really annoying (especially during October when generating images of spooky bloody clowns might be fun).
Even the other off the shelf Nanobanana MCP server has nanny settings
I went back to my Evil Clown generator and found the most permissive settings I was allowed to apply looked like:
# Generate image with enhanced parameters for horror/scary content
images = model.generate_images(
prompt=prompt,
number_of_images=1,
aspect_ratio="1:1",
safety_filter_level="block_some",
person_generation="allow_adult",
language="en"
)
I’m not trying to intentionally generate violent or NSFW images - however, I am worried all these AI’s are preventing us from creating anything controversial or grown up - It’s the same issue with YouTube - most news avoids any controversial topics or gore to avoid strikes and demonetization - which is why the most popular stream service in the world is filled with fluffy nonsense.
Summary
Today we touched on the Chrome Dev Tools in VS Code (which seemed to have issues) and with Gemini CLI. We looked at using it to mess with Bing AI generation before moving on to trying out Google’s new Nano Banana extension. The extension basically packs an MCP server and prompts and makes it far easier to install and share MCP servers (at least within Gemini CLI).
My only issue, and this is true for any of the AI art MCP servers, is that they have too many content filters on which are a pain in October when we would want to create simple horror images for Halloween purposes.
