Agent Browser

agent-browser — Browser Automation CLI for AI Agents

Fast native Rust CLI for browser automation via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). No Playwright, no Puppeteer, no Node.js dependency for the daemon.

Repo: https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser Local clone: ~/Documents/github/agent-browser License: Apache 2.0 Stack: Rust CLI + Chrome/Chromium via CDP + accessibility-tree snapshots

Why agent-browser over Playwright

| Feature | agent-browser | Playwright | |---------|--------------|------------| | Runtime | Native Rust binary | Node.js | | Browser | Any Chrome/Chromium (auto-detect) | Downloads own browsers | | OS compat | Linux/macOS/Windows native | "Not officially supported" on Pop!_OS | | AI-first | Accessibility tree with @eN refs | Raw DOM selectors | | Skills | Built-in specialized skills | None | | Sessions | Persistent across commands | Per-script | | Electron | VS Code, Slack, Discord, Figma | Limited |

Installation

npm i -g agent-browser
agent-browser install              # Downloads Chrome for Testing
agent-browser install --with-deps  # + Linux system deps

The Core Loop

agent-browser open         # 1. Open a page
agent-browser snapshot -i       # 2. See interactive elements (compact refs)
agent-browser click @e3         # 3. Act on refs
agent-browser snapshot -i       # 4. Re-snapshot after page change

Refs (@e1, @e2, ...) are assigned fresh per snapshot. They go stale after any page change — always re-snapshot before the next interaction.

Key Commands

# Navigation
agent-browser open 
agent-browser close [--all]

# Reading
agent-browser snapshot -i                 # interactive elements only (preferred)
agent-browser snapshot -i -u              # include href URLs on links
agent-browser get text @e1                # visible text of element
agent-browser get title                   # page title
agent-browser get url                     # current URL

# Interaction
agent-browser click @e1
agent-browser fill @e3 "hello@world.com"
agent-browser type @e4 "search query"
agent-browser press Enter
agent-browser select @e5 "option-value"
agent-browser check @e6
agent-browser scroll down 500

# Screenshots
agent-browser screenshot page.png
agent-browser screenshot --full page.png  # full page scroll
agent-browser screenshot --annotate       # numbered element labels

# Semantic locators (no CSS selectors needed)
agent-browser find role button click --name "Submit"
agent-browser find text "Sign In" click
agent-browser find label "Email" fill "test@test.com"

# Wait
agent-browser wait @e1                    # wait for element
agent-browser wait --text "Welcome"       # wait for text
agent-browser wait --load networkidle     # wait for network idle

# JavaScript
agent-browser eval "document.title"

Specialized Skills (load on demand)

The repo provides specialized skills at ~/Documents/github/agent-browser/skill-data/:

| Skill | When to load | Command | |-------|-------------|---------| | core | Always first — workflows, patterns, troubleshooting | agent-browser skills get core | | dogfood | QA, exploratory testing, bug hunts | agent-browser skills get dogfood | | electron | Automate VS Code, Slack, Discord, Figma, Notion | agent-browser skills get electron | | slack | Check unreads, send messages, search conversations | agent-browser skills get slack | | vercel-sandbox | Browser automation inside Vercel microVMs | agent-browser skills get vercel-sandbox | | agentcore | AWS Bedrock cloud browsers | agent-browser skills get agentcore |

To read a skill directly from the local clone:

cat ~/Documents/github/agent-browser/skill-data//SKILL.md

Common Workflows

Screenshot a production site (replace Playwright)

agent-browser open https://www.example.com/
agent-browser screenshot /tmp/example-home.png
agent-browser get title
agent-browser close

Verify multiple pages

for url in "https://site.com/" "https://site.com/about"; do
  agent-browser open "$url"
  agent-browser get title
  agent-browser screenshot "/tmp/$(echo $url | md5sum | cut -c1-8).png"
done
agent-browser close

QA / Dogfood a web app

Load the dogfood skill first:

agent-browser skills get dogfood
# Then follow the structured exploration workflow
agent-browser open https://app-under-test.com
agent-browser snapshot -i
# ... systematic exploration with screenshots as evidence

Test search functionality

agent-browser open https://site.com
agent-browser snapshot -i
agent-browser fill @e3 "search query"
agent-browser press Enter
agent-browser wait --load networkidle
agent-browser snapshot -i     # verify results rendered
agent-browser screenshot /tmp/search-results.png

Troubleshooting

• "No Chrome found" — run agent-browser install
• Stale refs — always re-snapshot after clicks/navigation
• Timeout — add agent-browser wait --load networkidle after navigation
• Element not found — use agent-browser snapshot (full tree) to find it
• Auth required — agent-browser supports session persistence and auth vault

Updating

agent-browser upgrade   # auto-detects install method (npm/brew/cargo)

Or pull latest skill content:

cd ~/Documents/github/agent-browser && git pull

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: CarlosCaPe
• Source: CarlosCaPe/octorato
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://www.dataqbs.com/octorato

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.