tauri-browser

name	tauri-browser
description	Automate and inspect Tauri apps via CLI. Ref-based element targeting, DOM snapshots, screenshots, JS execution, Tauri command invocation, and log streaming. Output designed for LLM consumption.

tauri-browser

Automate and inspect Tauri apps via the debug bridge plugin. Same UX as agent-browser — ref-based element targeting, output designed for LLM consumption.

Prerequisites

The target Tauri app must include tauri-plugin-debug-bridge behind a feature flag:

# App's Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
tauri-plugin-debug-bridge = { version = "0.5", optional = true }

[features]
debug-bridge = ["tauri-plugin-debug-bridge"]

// App's lib.rs
#[cfg(feature = "debug-bridge")]
app.plugin(tauri_plugin_debug_bridge::init());

No capability configuration needed on plugin 0.4.1+ — it self-grants debug-bridge:default at runtime. (On 0.4.0 and earlier, eval/invoke silently time out unless the app adds that permission to a capability file; upgrade instead — a capability referencing the feature-gated plugin breaks release builds.)

Run the app with cargo tauri dev --features debug-bridge.

Authentication

The plugin writes a discovery file on startup to /tmp/tauri-debug-bridge/<app-identifier>.json containing the port and auth token. The CLI reads this automatically:

tauri-browser connect               # auto-discovers token and port
tauri-browser snapshot -i           # just works, no token needed

When multiple Tauri apps are running, specify which one:

tauri-browser --app com.example.myapp connect

You can still pass the token explicitly as an override:

tauri-browser --token "a1b2c3d4e5f6..." connect

The /health endpoint does not require auth.

Commands

Connect and inspect

tauri-browser connect                    # Check connection (default port 9229)
tauri-browser -p 9230 connect            # Connect on custom port
tauri-browser windows                    # List open windows and their webviews

Targeting webviews (multiwebview windows)

Commands default to the "main" webview. Windows with child webviews (Window::add_child, e.g. an embedded live web view) list every webview under webviews: in windows output; target one with -w/--window on run-js, screenshot, snapshot, click, fill, and invoke:

tauri-browser run-js -w live-main "document.title"     # child by its own label
tauri-browser screenshot -w main/live-main child.png   # window/webview form
tauri-browser snapshot -i -w live-main

A wrong label returns the addressable targets, e.g. webview 'nope' not found — available: main, main/live-main. Child webviews on remote URLs: screenshot works (native capture), but run-js/snapshot/click/fill time out — Tauri's ACL blocks the result callback for remote origins. Requires plugin 0.5.0+; on older plugins a child webview makes the whole window vanish from the bridge.

DOM interaction (ref-based)

tauri-browser snapshot -i                # Interactive elements with @refs
# Output: button "Submit" [ref=@e1], input "Email" [ref=@e2], ...

tauri-browser click @e1                  # Click by ref
tauri-browser fill @e2 "[e-mail]" # Fill input by ref
tauri-browser click "button.submit"      # Click by CSS selector

Screenshots

tauri-browser screenshot                 # PNG to stdout
tauri-browser screenshot app.png         # Save to file

JavaScript execution

tauri-browser run-js "document.title"    # Run JS, get result
tauri-browser run-js "document.querySelectorAll('li').length"

Tauri backend

tauri-browser invoke get_signals '{"configPath":"config/live.toml"}'
tauri-browser invoke auth_status '{}'
tauri-browser state                      # Dump managed state
tauri-browser commands                   # List registered commands

Events

tauri-browser events emit "refresh" '{"force":true}'
tauri-browser events listen "state-changed"  # Stream events via WebSocket

Console

tauri-browser console                    # Stream JS console output (log/warn/error/info)
tauri-browser errors                     # Stream JS errors (alias for console)

Messages are tagged with their source webview: {"level":"log","message":"...","webview":"live-main"}.

Typical workflow

tauri-browser connect                    # Auto-discovers token
tauri-browser snapshot -i
# See: button "Refresh" [ref=@e1], input "Search" [ref=@e2]
tauri-browser fill @e2 "AAPL"
tauri-browser click @e1
tauri-browser screenshot result.png
tauri-browser console                    # Check for errors
tauri-browser invoke get_positions '{"symbol":"AAPL"}'

Output formats

tauri-browser -f json snapshot           # JSON output
tauri-browser -f text connect            # Human-readable (default)