Give any AI agent direct control over Perplexity Comet via the Model Context Protocol.

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What is Asteria?

Asteria is an MCP server that bridges your AI assistant (Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, or any MCP client) with Perplexity Comet — the agentic browser that researches, browses, and answers questions autonomously.

Unlike simple search APIs, Comet can navigate pages, follow links, and reason over live web content. Asteria exposes all of that through 12 clean MCP tools via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) — no Puppeteer, no Playwright.

graph LR
  A["AI Agent\n(Claude / GPT / Gemini)"] -->|"MCP stdio"| B["Asteria\nMCP Server"]
  B -->|"CDP WebSocket"| C["Perplexity\nComet Browser"]
  C -->|"HTTP requests"| D["Web Pages\n& Sources"]
  D -->|"Response + Sources"| C
  C -->|"Research results"| B
  B -->|"Formatted response"| A

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Demo

Claude Code calls comet_ask → Comet researches the web → sources and answer flow back to the agent

GIF coming soon. Star the repo to get notified on release.

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Features

	Feature	Description
🔌	12 MCP tools	Connect, ask, poll, stop, screenshot, mode switch, tab management, source extraction, conversation history
⚡	Non-blocking polling	Submit a prompt and poll for completion — agent keeps working while Comet researches
🔍	Auto-detect Comet	Finds Comet on Windows and macOS, launches it with the correct debug port
🔄	Auto-reconnect	Exponential backoff with health checks — survives Comet restarts without dropping the session
🧠	Version-aware selectors	Auto-detects Comet's Chrome version and routes to the right CSS selectors
📑	Tab categorization	Tracks main, sidecar, agent-browsing, and overlay tabs separately
🚫	Zero browser dependencies	No Puppeteer or Playwright — uses CDP directly via chrome-remote-interface
🛠️	CLI included	asteria detect to check installation, asteria snapshot to capture DOM structure

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Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• Perplexity Comet installed and running
• Windows or macOS (Linux: manual COMET_PATH required)

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Installation

npm install -g @onestepat4time/asteria

Note: The package is currently in active development. Until published to npm, install from source:

git clone https://github.com/OneStepAt4time/asteria.git
cd asteria && npm install && npm run build && npm link

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Quick Start

1. Add to your MCP client config

Claude Code (~/.claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "asteria": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "asteria",
      "args": ["start"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) — same format.

2. Make sure Comet is running

Open Perplexity Comet on your machine. Asteria auto-detects it.

3. Use in your agent

> Ask Perplexity what the latest AI research papers are this week

Asteria launches (or connects to) Comet, sends the query, waits for the full research response, and returns it — with cited sources — to your assistant.

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Tools

Tool	Description	Example Use Case
comet_connect	Connect to or launch Perplexity Comet	Start a session before other tools
comet_ask	Send a prompt and start an agentic search	"Summarize the latest news about quantum computing"
comet_poll	Check current agent status	Monitor long research queries non-blocking
comet_stop	Stop the running agent	Cancel a query that's taking too long
comet_screenshot	Capture a screenshot of the active tab	Visually verify what Comet is showing
comet_mode	Get or switch search mode	Switch to Deep Research for thorough analysis
comet_list_tabs	List all open tabs by category	See what pages Comet opened during research
comet_switch_tab	Switch focus to a specific tab	Read content from an agent-browsed page
comet_get_sources	Extract cited sources from the last response	Get the URLs Comet cited in its answer
comet_list_conversations	List recent Comet conversations	Find a previous search to reference
comet_open_conversation	Open a conversation by URL	Resume a past research session
comet_get_page_content	Extract full text from the active page	Read what Comet found on a browsed page

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CLI

asteria start      # Start MCP stdio server
asteria detect     # Detect Comet installation path and debug port
asteria --version  # Print version
asteria --help     # Print help

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Configuration

All settings can be overridden via environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
ASTERIA_PORT	9222	CDP debug port
COMET_PATH	auto-detect	Path to Comet executable
ASTERIA_LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level: debug / info / warn / error
ASTERIA_TIMEOUT	30000	Comet launch timeout (ms)
ASTERIA_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT	120000	Max wait for response (ms)
ASTERIA_POLL_INTERVAL	1000	Status poll interval (ms)
ASTERIA_SCREENSHOT_FORMAT	png	Screenshot format: png / jpeg
ASTERIA_MAX_RECONNECT	5	Max reconnection attempts
ASTERIA_RECONNECT_DELAY	5000	Max reconnection backoff delay (ms)

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How It Works

Connection Flow

1. comet_connect — checks if Comet is running on port 9222, launches it if not, closes extra tabs
2. comet_ask — types the prompt into Comet's input field, submits it, begins polling
3. Status detection — monitors stop buttons, spinners, and body text to detect working / idle / completed
4. Response extraction — reads prose elements, filters UI chrome, returns clean text + sources

Architecture

graph TD
  subgraph MCP["MCP Protocol Layer"]
    T1[comet_connect] & T2[comet_ask] & T3[comet_poll]
    T4[comet_stop] & T5[comet_screenshot] & T6[comet_mode]
    T7[comet_list_tabs] & T8[comet_switch_tab]
    T9[comet_get_sources] & T10[comet_list_conversations]
    T11[comet_open_conversation] & T12[comet_get_page_content]
  end

  subgraph UI["UI Automation"]
    S[Selector Strategies]
    I[Prompt Input]
    ST[Status Detection]
    EX[Content Extraction]
  end

  subgraph CDP["CDP Transport"]
    BR[Browser Launcher]
    CO[WebSocket Connection]
    TA[Tab Management]
    RC[Auto-Reconnect]
  end

  T2 --> I
  T3 --> ST
  T9 --> EX
  T5 & T7 --> TA
  I & ST & EX --> S
  CO --> BR
  TA & RC --> CO
  CO --> Comet[Perplexity Comet]

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Roadmap

• npm publish — release @onestepat4time/asteria to the public registry
• Streaming responses — stream Comet responses token-by-token instead of polling
• MCP Resources — expose Perplexity pages as MCP resources for direct reading
• Multi-Comet sessions — control multiple Comet instances simultaneously
• HTTP/SSE transport — support N8N and REST clients in addition to stdio
• Browser extension — package as a browser extension for tighter integration

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue before submitting large PRs.

git clone https://github.com/OneStepAt4time/asteria.git
cd asteria
npm install
npm run build
npm test

See contributing.md for code style, adding Comet versions, and commit conventions.

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Support the Project

If Asteria saves you time, consider:

 

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License

MIT © 2026 OneStepAt4time