agent-browser

name	agent-browser
description	Browser automation CLI for AI agents. Use when the user needs to interact with websites, including navigating pages, filling forms, clicking buttons, taking screenshots, extracting data, testing web apps, or automating any browser task. Triggers include requests to "open a website", "fill out a form", "click a button", "take a screenshot", "scrape data from a page", "test this web app", "login to a site", "automate browser actions", or any task requiring programmatic web interaction.
allowed-tools	Bash(npx agent-browser:*), Bash(agent-browser:*)
tags	["gsd-2","skills","agent-browser","workflow","testing"]

[accessibility tree]

--- END_AGENT_BROWSER_PAGE_CONTENT nonce= ---

### Domain Allowlist

Restrict navigation to trusted domains. Wildcards like `*.example.com` also match the bare domain `example.com`. Sub-resource requests, WebSocket, and EventSource connections to non-allowed domains are also blocked. Include CDN domains your target pages depend on:

```bash
export AGENT_BROWSER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS="example.com,*.example.com"
agent-browser open https://example.com        # OK
agent-browser open https://malicious.com       # Blocked

Action Policy

Use a policy file to gate destructive actions:

export AGENT_BROWSER_ACTION_POLICY=./policy.json

Example policy.json:

{"default": "deny", "allow": ["navigate", "snapshot", "click", "scroll", "wait", "get"]}

Auth vault operations (auth login, etc.) bypass action policy but domain allowlist still applies.

Output Limits

Prevent context flooding from large pages:

export AGENT_BROWSER_MAX_OUTPUT=50000

Diffing (Verifying Changes)

Use diff snapshot after performing an action to verify it had the intended effect. This compares the current accessibility tree against the last snapshot taken in the session.

# Typical workflow: snapshot -> action -> diff
agent-browser snapshot -i          # Take baseline snapshot
agent-browser click @e2            # Perform action
agent-browser diff snapshot        # See what changed (auto-compares to last snapshot)

For visual regression testing or monitoring:

# Save a baseline screenshot, then compare later
agent-browser screenshot baseline.png
# ... time passes or changes are made ...
agent-browser diff screenshot --baseline baseline.png

# Compare staging vs production
agent-browser diff url https://staging.example.com https://prod.example.com --screenshot

diff snapshot output uses + for additions and - for removals, similar to git diff. diff screenshot produces a diff image with changed pixels highlighted in red, plus a mismatch percentage.

Timeouts and Slow Pages

The default Playwright timeout is 25 seconds for local browsers. This can be overridden with the AGENT_BROWSER_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT environment variable (value in milliseconds). For slow websites or large pages, use explicit waits instead of relying on the default timeout:

# Wait for network activity to settle (best for slow pages)
agent-browser wait --load networkidle

# Wait for a specific element to appear
agent-browser wait "#content"
agent-browser wait @e1

# Wait for a specific URL pattern (useful after redirects)
agent-browser wait --url "**/dashboard"

# Wait for a JavaScript condition
agent-browser wait --fn "document.readyState === 'complete'"

# Wait a fixed duration (milliseconds) as a last resort
agent-browser wait 5000

When dealing with consistently slow websites, use wait --load networkidle after open to ensure the page is fully loaded before taking a snapshot. If a specific element is slow to render, wait for it directly with wait <selector> or wait @ref.

Session Management and Cleanup

When running multiple agents or automations concurrently, always use named sessions to avoid conflicts:

# Each agent gets its own isolated session
agent-browser --session agent1 open site-a.com
agent-browser --session agent2 open site-b.com

# Check active sessions
agent-browser session list

Always close your browser session when done to avoid leaked processes:

agent-browser close                    # Close default session
agent-browser --session agent1 close   # Close specific session

If a previous session was not closed properly, the daemon may still be running. Use agent-browser close to clean it up before starting new work.

Ref Lifecycle (Important)

Refs (@e1, @e2, etc.) are invalidated when the page changes. Always re-snapshot after:

• Clicking links or buttons that navigate
• Form submissions
• Dynamic content loading (dropdowns, modals)

agent-browser click @e5              # Navigates to new page
agent-browser snapshot -i            # MUST re-snapshot
agent-browser click @e1              # Use new refs

Annotated Screenshots (Vision Mode)

Use --annotate to take a screenshot with numbered labels overlaid on interactive elements. Each label [N] maps to ref @eN. This also caches refs, so you can interact with elements immediately without a separate snapshot.

agent-browser screenshot --annotate
# Output includes the image path and a legend:
#   [1] @e1 button "Submit"
#   [2] @e2 link "Home"
#   [3] @e3 textbox "Email"
agent-browser click @e2              # Click using ref from annotated screenshot

Use annotated screenshots when:

• The page has unlabeled icon buttons or visual-only elements
• You need to verify visual layout or styling
• Canvas or chart elements are present (invisible to text snapshots)
• You need spatial reasoning about element positions

Semantic Locators (Alternative to Refs)

When refs are unavailable or unreliable, use semantic locators:

agent-browser find text "Sign In" click
agent-browser find label "Email" fill "[e-mail]"
agent-browser find role button click --name "Submit"
agent-browser find placeholder "Search" type "query"
agent-browser find testid "submit-btn" click

JavaScript Evaluation (eval)

Use eval to run JavaScript in the browser context. Shell quoting can corrupt complex expressions -- use --stdin or -b to avoid issues.

# Simple expressions work with regular quoting
agent-browser eval 'document.title'
agent-browser eval 'document.querySelectorAll("img").length'

# Complex JS: use --stdin with heredoc (RECOMMENDED)
agent-browser eval --stdin <<'EVALEOF'
JSON.stringify(
  Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("img"))
    .filter(i => !i.alt)
    .map(i => ({ src: i.src.split("/").pop(), width: i.width }))
)
EVALEOF

# Alternative: base64 encoding (avoids all shell escaping issues)
agent-browser eval -b "$(echo -n 'Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("a")).map(a => a.href)' | base64)"

Why this matters: When the shell processes your command, inner double quotes, ! characters (history expansion), backticks, and $() can all corrupt the JavaScript before it reaches agent-browser. The --stdin and -b flags bypass shell interpretation entirely.

Rules of thumb:

• Single-line, no nested quotes -> regular eval 'expression' with single quotes is fine
• Nested quotes, arrow functions, template literals, or multiline -> use eval --stdin <<'EVALEOF'
• Programmatic/generated scripts -> use eval -b with base64

Configuration File

Create agent-browser.json in the project root for persistent settings:

{
  "headed": true,
  "proxy": "http://localhost:8080",
  "profile": "./browser-data"
}

Priority (lowest to highest): ~/.agent-browser/config.json < ./agent-browser.json < env vars < CLI flags. Use --config <path> or AGENT_BROWSER_CONFIG env var for a custom config file (exits with error if missing/invalid). All CLI options map to camelCase keys (e.g., --executable-path -> "executablePath"). Boolean flags accept true/false values (e.g., --headed false overrides config). Extensions from user and project configs are merged, not replaced.

Deep-Dive Documentation

Reference	When to Use
references/commands.md	Full command reference with all options
references/snapshot-refs.md	Ref lifecycle, invalidation rules, troubleshooting
references/session-management.md	Parallel sessions, state persistence, concurrent scraping
references/authentication.md	Login flows, OAuth, 2FA handling, state reuse
references/video-recording.md	Recording workflows for debugging and documentation
references/profiling.md	Chrome DevTools profiling for performance analysis
references/proxy-support.md	Proxy configuration, geo-testing, rotating proxies

Experimental: Native Mode

agent-browser has an experimental native Rust daemon that communicates with Chrome directly via CDP, bypassing Node.js and Playwright entirely. It is opt-in and not recommended for production use yet.

# Enable via flag
agent-browser --native open example.com

# Enable via environment variable (avoids passing --native every time)
export AGENT_BROWSER_NATIVE=1
agent-browser open example.com

The native daemon supports Chromium and Safari (via WebDriver). Firefox and WebKit are not yet supported. All core commands (navigate, snapshot, click, fill, screenshot, cookies, storage, tabs, eval, etc.) work identically in native mode. Use agent-browser close before switching between native and default mode within the same session.

Ready-to-Use Templates

Template	Description
templates/form-automation.sh	Form filling with validation
templates/authenticated-session.sh	Login once, reuse state
templates/capture-workflow.sh	Content extraction with screenshots

./templates/form-automation.sh https://example.com/form
./templates/authenticated-session.sh https://app.example.com/login
./templates/capture-workflow.sh https://example.com ./output