The Safari MCP server for web developers • Hacker News Board

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#41

Post by shubb » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:08 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

demetris wrote: post #13

But does Apple really care about web developers? How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How difficult can it be for Apple to make barebones virtual machines with just Safaris?

> How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How do you test a Playstation game without a Playstation (dev kit)? How do you test some hardware firmware without having the hardware? How can you run a program without the hardware required to run the program, if no emulator/simulator is available? I'm almost lost at words how these are questions, unless they're theoretical and some diatribe comes afterwa…

A lot of folks want to run tests off a GitHub action I.e. on a server somewhere. Ideally you want your test stack to fit in a docker image. So this does suck for developers in the respect and you could imagine apple releasing a special docker image that just ran safari if they wanted to really make it easy to develop for thier platform.

However, I imagine someone will fill a server rack with cheap old macs and offer and safari mcp as a service…

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#42

Post by demetris » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:19 PM UTC

frb wrote: post #36

pjmlp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said IE, not Edge.

But why would you still test for IE in 2026? Honest question. I’s < .5% market share and retired since 2023.

I think pjmlp is just being contrarian.

First, the Microsoft browser these days is Edge, not IE. IE is dead.

Second, if you want, or wanted in the past, to test on Internet Explorer without a Windows computer, you could just virtualize Windows. Windows can be legally virtualized on any hardware and on any host operating system.

Starting from 2013, you didn’t even need to pay for a Windows license to do that:

https://archive.org/details/modern.ie-vm

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#43

Post by andrethegiant » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

demetris wrote: post #13

But does Apple really care about web developers? How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How difficult can it be for Apple to make barebones virtual machines with just Safaris?

> But does Apple really care about web developers?

They just released this new tool, so yes.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#44

Post by embedding-shape » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

shubb wrote: post #41

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How do you test a Playstation game without a Playstation (dev kit)? How do you test some hardware firmware without having the hardware? How can you run a program without the hardware required to run the program, if no emulator/simulator is available? I'm almost lost at words how these are questions, unless they're theoretical and some diatribe comes afterwa…

A lot of folks want to run tests off a GitHub action I.e. on a server somewhere. Ideally you want your test stack to fit in a docker image. So this does suck for developers in the respect and you could imagine apple releasing a special docker image that just ran safari if they wanted to really make it easy to develop for thier platform. However, I imagine someone will fill a server rack with cheap old macs and offer…

> A lot of folks want to run tests off a GitHub action I.e. on a server somewhere.

Understandable, but also if you're dealing with these sort of projects, you kind of have to setup that sort of automation yourself in an office/someone's house, unless you find some provider that already hosts that sort of thing, like the various Apple/vendor-specific services for that.

It's also not a very new thing really, MacStadium for example been around since like 2010 sometime.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#45

Post by jickmao » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

MCP for browser automation is interesting because Safari's WebKit engine is the one most AI agents can't easily drive (Playwright and Puppeteer are Chromium-first). Having an MCP server for it could fill a real gap in cross-browser testing for agent workflows.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#46

Post by alphabettsy » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

shubb wrote: post #41

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How do you test a Playstation game without a Playstation (dev kit)? How do you test some hardware firmware without having the hardware? How can you run a program without the hardware required to run the program, if no emulator/simulator is available? I'm almost lost at words how these are questions, unless they're theoretical and some diatribe comes afterwa…

A lot of folks want to run tests off a GitHub action I.e. on a server somewhere. Ideally you want your test stack to fit in a docker image. So this does suck for developers in the respect and you could imagine apple releasing a special docker image that just ran safari if they wanted to really make it easy to develop for thier platform. However, I imagine someone will fill a server rack with cheap old macs and offer…

GitHub has been providing macOS runners for a while now.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#47

Post by SunboX » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

shubb wrote: post #41

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How do you test a Playstation game without a Playstation (dev kit)? How do you test some hardware firmware without having the hardware? How can you run a program without the hardware required to run the program, if no emulator/simulator is available? I'm almost lost at words how these are questions, unless they're theoretical and some diatribe comes afterwa…

A lot of folks want to run tests off a GitHub action I.e. on a server somewhere. Ideally you want your test stack to fit in a docker image. So this does suck for developers in the respect and you could imagine apple releasing a special docker image that just ran safari if they wanted to really make it easy to develop for thier platform. However, I imagine someone will fill a server rack with cheap old macs and offer…

quote: "GitHub-hosted runners are available with Ubuntu Linux, Windows, or macOS operating systems." source: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/concepts/runners/github-h...

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#48

Post by hbn » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

demetris wrote: post #13

But does Apple really care about web developers? How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How difficult can it be for Apple to make barebones virtual machines with just Safaris?

> How do you test on Safari if you don’t have Apple devices? How do you test a Playstation game without a Playstation (dev kit)? How do you test some hardware firmware without having the hardware? How can you run a program without the hardware required to run the program, if no emulator/simulator is available? I'm almost lost at words how these are questions, unless they're theoretical and some diatribe comes afterwa…

I don't think it's fair to compare development for web, which is supposed to be an open standard, with developing for a proprietary piece of hardware like the Playstation.

If you want to develop a game for the Switch and ignore the Playstation entirely, you can, and then you don't need a Playstation (dev kit).

When you're developing for the web, you're ideally making something that runs regardless of the user's browser. When you start getting bug reports in from Safari users, how else are you supposed to fix them? Cheapest option is detect if they're a Safari user and tell them to use another browser, but that's not really ideal for anyone except Google.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#49

Post by pjmlp » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

demetris wrote: post #42

frb wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would you still test for IE in 2026? Honest question. I’s < .5% market share and retired since 2023.

I think pjmlp is just being contrarian. First, the Microsoft browser these days is Edge, not IE. IE is dead. Second, if you want, or wanted in the past, to test on Internet Explorer without a Windows computer, you could just virtualize Windows. Windows can be legally virtualized on any hardware and on any host operating system. Starting from 2013, you didn’t even need to pay for a Windows license to do that: https://…

Nope, making a point.

You would still need a VM for that.

Just like you can get a macOS VM, plenty of ways to get them.

Re: The Safari MCP server for web developers

#50

Post by pjmlp » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

frb wrote: post #36

pjmlp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said IE, not Edge.

But why would you still test for IE in 2026? Honest question. I’s < .5% market share and retired since 2023.

Making a point that Microsoft just like Apple, didn't necessarily made it easier.

Naturally Chrome forks work everywhere, given that so many devs have sponsored Google's takeover the Web.