web-browse

name	web-browse
description	Browse the web programmatically with ThinkRun — drive a real or cloud browser to navigate, interact, extract, and screenshot, from the CLI or any MCP client. Use when: visit or open a URL, check a webpage, interact with a browser, verify something works live, take screenshots of a page, scrape or extract content, automate a browser task. Do NOT use for structured UX audits with scoring and fix reports — use ux-audit for that.
category	browse
sync	all
tags	["browsing","automation","scraping","testing"]

Web Browse

Drive a browser programmatically with ThinkRun. Two interfaces, same capabilities:

• thinkrun CLI — for shell scripts and terminal use. npm install -g @thinkrun/cli (bin: thinkrun).
• @thinkrun/mcp — for MCP clients (Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf). npx @thinkrun/mcp.

Both support two execution modes:

• Local mode — controls your real Chrome via the ThinkRun extension + native host. Best for sites needing your login/cookies, or visual work on the browser you already have open.
• Cloud mode — provisions an isolated Playwright browser on Fly.io. Best for headless/autonomous scraping, multi-agent work, and anti-detection (stealth).

Mode is auto-detected; override per-command with --mode local|cloud (CLI) or the set_mode tool (MCP).

When to use which

Scenario	Mode	Why
Site needs your login cookies	Local	Uses your real Chrome session
Visual/interactive work on an open tab	Local	Attach to the tab you're looking at
Headless autonomous scraping	Cloud	No Chrome needed, runs detached
Multi-agent / parallel sessions	Cloud	Isolated browser per session
Anti-detection needed	Cloud	Built-in stealth (no navigator.webdriver)

See references/details.md for the full CLI command + MCP tool reference, common patterns, and error codes.

Setup

Install

# CLI (shell use)
npm install -g @thinkrun/cli        # provides the `thinkrun` command

# MCP (Claude Code / Cursor / Cline / Windsurf)
npx @thinkrun/mcp                    # or add to your MCP config (see below)

MCP config:

{ "mcpServers": { "thinkrun": { "command": "npx", "args": ["@thinkrun/mcp"] } } }

Cloud mode

Set an API key (get one at thinkrun.ai):

thinkrun config set-key <api-key>     # or: export THINKRUN_API_KEY=<api-key>

The CLI talks to the ThinkRun API (default host https://api.thinkbrowse.io). THINKBROWSE_API_KEY is still honored as a legacy fallback.

Local mode

thinkrun setup        # installs the native host binary and configures the API key
thinkrun doctor       # verify: endpoint, auth, extension connectivity, native host

Local mode also requires the ThinkRun extension installed in Chrome (Web Store, or load-unpacked from extension/ for dev). thinkrun doctor reports whether the extension is connected.

Quick start (CLI)

# Cloud: start an isolated browser (becomes the active session)
thinkrun cloud start

# Navigate + observe
thinkrun navigate "https://example.com"
thinkrun snapshot                       # accessibility tree — best for LLMs
thinkrun extract "body" --format text   # text content (extract takes a SELECTOR)
thinkrun screenshot --output /tmp/page.png

# Interact
thinkrun click "button.submit"
thinkrun fill "#email" "[e-mail]"
thinkrun type "#search" "query"
thinkrun press Enter
thinkrun scroll --down 600

# Page info + logs
thinkrun url
thinkrun console
thinkrun network

# Cloud cleanup (local mode has no session to stop)
thinkrun cloud stop

Local mode is the same commands, against your real Chrome — attach to a tab first:

thinkrun tabs                 # list open Chromium tabs
thinkrun attach <tabId>       # route subsequent commands to that tab
thinkrun navigate "https://app.example.com"

Quick start (MCP)

Tool names are unprefixed and underscore-style (e.g. navigate, click, type_text, snapshot, screenshot, extract, get_url). Cloud sessions use session_create / session_use / session_delete; local tabs use tab_list / tab_attach. Set mode with set_mode. Full list in references/details.md.

Stateless one-shots (no session)

For a single fetch with no interaction, skip session setup entirely:

thinkrun cache html  "https://example.com"
thinkrun cache text  "https://example.com"
thinkrun cache screenshot "https://example.com" --output /tmp/x.png

Always clean up

In cloud mode, thinkrun cloud stop when done (sessions auto-expire after 30 min). In local mode, thinkrun release frees the working-location lock for the current process/group.