Prerender Buddy developer tools
Choose public diagnostics, hosted or local MCP, scoped article API workflows, managed rendering or the standalone engine.
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Overview
Choose the surface for the evidence or action you need. The web application, Developer API, hosted MCP, published local package, CLI and rendering engine have different capabilities. How PB Works explains the complete platform workflow.
Managed Prerender Buddy
The web application connects website Health, recorded crawler activity, controlled AI Visibility and full article workflows. Eligible accounts can generate complete drafts, review them and use configured publishing connections to send CMS drafts or explicitly release approved articles. Managed rendering is available when a public page has a confirmed JavaScript delivery gap.
Features, providers and allowances depend on the effective account and configuration. Article Generation explains the content workflow; Pricing lists current offers. The optional human management package is separate from rendering infrastructure.
Chrome extension
Run a focused crawler-readability check for the current public page and continue into PB for the wider workflow. The extension does not modify the website.
Public HTTP diagnostics: CLI
Inspect returned HTML, compare browser-style and crawler-style HTTP requests, and check discovery files from a terminal or CI workflow.
npx @prerenderbuddy/[email protected] check https://example.comNo PB account is needed. The CLI does not execute browser JavaScript, read account data or change a website. Its observations do not prove indexing, citations or crawler identity.
Hosted MCP: evidence and confirmed article drafts
A compatible remote MCP client can connect to:
https://mcp.prerenderbuddy.com/mcpComplete the PB authorization flow offered by the client, or configure a supported scoped API key in its protected connection settings. A URL alone does not authorize workspace access. Eligible Starter, Growth and Pro accounts and effective legacy entitlements can grant the supported scopes.
Hosted tools read bounded website, Health, crawler, visibility, recommendation and content evidence. With separately authorized content-write access, they can list article ideas, prepare a sourced proposal and generate a full, unapproved draft after explicit confirmation. Generation uses the shared workspace allowance.
Hosted MCP exposes no article approval, delivery or scheduling tool. The Developer API provides those separate reviewed workflows. See the MCP connection guide for the supported scopes and boundaries.
Local MCP: public checks and workspace evidence
The published local stdio package has a narrower tool set:
npx --yes @prerenderbuddy/[email protected]Node.js 20 or newer is required. Without a workspace key it provides public HTTP diagnostics. An eligible scoped key supplied through PRERENDER_BUDDY_API_KEY enables seven workspace-read tools for sites, Health, activity, visibility, recommendations and content status.
The published archive returns bounded evidence and metadata, not full provider answers or article bodies. It does not start workspace collections, generate articles, clear cache, change settings or publish. Hosted server capabilities must not be inferred from the local package, or vice versa. Neither local public diagnostics nor workspace reads execute browser JavaScript.
Keep keys in protected process/client configuration, not prompts, browser code or repositories.
Agent plugin
The PB plugin adds reusable public-audit and workspace-review guidance around its packaged MCP surface. Installation and validation differ by host; use the maintained setup notes for Codex, Claude Code or Cursor rather than assuming one universal marketplace installation.
The available Cursor source package uses the published local MCP release: public diagnostics without an account and optional scoped, read-only workspace evidence. It does not generate or publish articles. Manual setup and actual host support are separate from Cursor marketplace submission or approval.
Self-hosted rendering engine
Operate the Apache-2.0 browser-rendering core with Docker when your team wants to own its infrastructure, routing, capacity, security, monitoring, upgrades and incident response.
The standalone engine does not include the hosted dashboard, AI Visibility, article generation/publishing, billing or account-management workflows. This engine boundary does not limit what the managed PB platform can do.
Choose the next step
| Need | Start here |
|---|---|
| Inspect a public page | Public checker, extension, CLI or local MCP diagnostics |
| Read saved evidence from a compatible assistant | Authorized hosted MCP or the published local read tools |
| Prepare a proposal and confirmed full draft from an assistant | Hosted MCP with authorized content-write access |
| Approve, deliver or schedule a reviewed article | Application or scoped Developer API workflow |
| Use a packaged audit/review workflow | Agent plugin and the relevant host setup notes |
| Deliver readable HTML for a measured gap | Configured managed rendering |
| Operate the rendering core yourself | Standalone Docker engine |
Use API documentation for endpoint-level operations and availability for account and configuration requirements. Buddy in the web application remains a separate read-and-explain surface.