TernFree for Mac

A browser for your AI agents

Claude Code and Codex use it to read the web. Pages come back as clean text, it uses your own logins, and it remembers the API calls a site makes so the next read skips the page.

Download for Mac See the race

Version 0.2.2 · Apple Silicon · Notarized by Apple

Tern with the Arctic tern Wikipedia page open while an agent works in three background tabs grouped under Agent: Hacker News, YouTube Creators and Twitch's broadcasting guidelines.

Claude Code

tern_fetchnews.ycombinator.com0.19 s
tern_queryhn.algolia.com · 100 results1.9 s
tern_querysame search again0.07 s
tern_browseyoutube.com/@YouTubeCreators1.8 s

Same 5 research tasks, same model

Tern vs Chrome vs Playwright

Claude (Sonnet) got the same prompts with one browser available per run, two runs each. Every answer was checked against the real pages.

Tern96 s

Playwright170 s

Claude in Chrome361 s

Total time for all 5 tasks

Agent turns16Chrome 58 · Playwright 44

Tokens processed443kChrome 1.98M · Playwright 1.35M

Model cost$0.43Chrome $0.83 · Playwright $0.89

Wrong or failed runs0Chrome 2 · Playwright 0

How I tested it

How it reads the web

Less for the agent to read

Pages as clean text

Normal pages come back as readable text in well under a second. Pages that need JavaScript render in a background tab first, and cookie walls get Reject all.

API memory

When a site loads its data from an API, Tern can call that request again without opening the page. On Hacker News search that's 100 results in about a second.

Its own tabs

Agents work in background tabs grouped under Agent. Your window stays yours, and idle agent tabs close themselves after 10 minutes.

Agents hand you the tab when a site needs a login
Your keys stay in the macOS Keychain
Watches and signals for pages you follow
No account and no analytics

Set up

Connect your agent

Move Tern to Applications and open it. Keys for search and a model are optional, Tern works without them. Then add it to your agent:

claude mcp add -s user -e ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 tern -- /Applications/Tern.app/Contents/MacOS/Tern /Applications/Tern.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/scripts/mcp.mjs

Run it in Terminal.

[mcp_servers.tern]
command = "/Applications/Tern.app/Contents/MacOS/Tern"
args = ["/Applications/Tern.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/scripts/mcp.mjs"]

[mcp_servers.tern.env]
ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE = "1"

Add it to ~/.codex/config.toml.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tern": {
      "command": "/Applications/Tern.app/Contents/MacOS/Tern",
      "args": [
        "/Applications/Tern.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/scripts/mcp.mjs"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add it to the MCP settings of Cursor, Claude Desktop or any other MCP client.

Tern is free

Apple Silicon Macs. It checks this page for new versions and tells you when one is out. Agents can't browse Reddit in Tern. It's new, so tell me what breaks at [email protected].

Download for Mac Releases on GitHub