| name | browser-harness |
| description | Drive an existing browser through CDP for authenticated, visual, or interactive web automation. |
| category | browser-automation |
| risk | critical |
| source | community |
| source_repo | davidondrej/skills |
| source_type | community |
| date_added | 2026-07-07 |
| author | davidondrej |
| tags | ["browser","cdp","automation","scraping"] |
| tools | ["claude","codex"] |
| license | MIT |
| license_source | https://github.com/davidondrej/skills/blob/main/LICENSE |
browser-harness
When to Use
- Use when a task needs a real logged-in browser, visible interaction, or JS-heavy page control.
- Use when static fetches are insufficient and CDP browser automation is appropriate.
Direct browser control via CDP. For task-specific edits, use agent-workspace/agent_helpers.py. For setup, install, or connection problems, read install.md.
Routing check first: if the task needs no interaction (no clicks, logins, or forms) and you just want page content, use DeepAPI POST /v1/scrape/website instead of driving a browser — see the deepapi skill. Use browser-harness when the task needs a real browser: interaction, JS-heavy flows, logged-in sessions, or visual verification.
Domain skills (community-contributed per-site playbooks under agent-workspace/domain-skills/) are off by default. Set BH_DOMAIN_SKILLS=1 to enable them; see the bottom section.
If BH_DOMAIN_SKILLS=1 and the task is site-specific, read every file in the matching agent-workspace/domain-skills/<site>/ directory before inventing an approach.
Usage
browser-harness -c '
new_tab("https://docs.browser-use.com")
wait_for_load()
print(page_info())
'
- Invoke as browser-harness — it's on $PATH. No cd, no uv run.
- First navigation is new_tab(url), not goto_url(url) — goto runs in the user's active tab and clobbers their work.
Tool call shape
browser-harness -c '
# any python. helpers pre-imported. daemon auto-starts.
'
run.py calls ensure_daemon() before exec — you never start/stop manually unless you want to.
Remote browsers
Use remote for parallel sub-agents (each gets its own isolated browser via a distinct BU_NAME) or on a headless server. BROWSER_USE_API_KEY must be set. start_remote_daemon, list_cloud_profiles, list_local_profiles, sync_local_profile are pre-imported.
When supervising those sub-agents, after each check send the user one very short status line: what they are doing and whether they are on track.
Claude Code cmux note: after Claude finishes, it may prefill a predicted next user message; that draft is Claude, not the user speaking.
browser-harness -c '
start_remote_daemon("work") # default — clean browser, no profile
# start_remote_daemon("work", profileName="my-work") # reuse a cloud profile (already logged in)
# start_remote_daemon("work", profileId="<uuid>") # same, but by UUID
# start_remote_daemon("work", proxyCountryCode="de", timeout=120) # DE proxy, 2-hour timeout
# start_remote_daemon("work", proxyCountryCode=None) # disable the Browser Use proxy
'
BU_NAME=work browser-harness -c
