| name | hydra-node-terminal-browsing |
| description | Use when HYDRA tasks need Node.js-first terminal browsing, deterministic page extraction, and evidence JSON output that can be routed into hydra swarm workflows. |
Hydra Node Terminal Browsing
Overview
Use this skill for fast terminal-first web/repo browsing in HYDRA workflows when you need deterministic, auditable output instead of conversational browsing.
This skill is optimized for the HYDRA 3-gap surfaces:
hydra/browsers.py
hydra/swarm_browser.py
hydra/cli_swarm.py
When To Use
Trigger this skill when the user asks to:
- browse websites from terminal with Node.js
- collect page evidence in JSON for later agent decisions
- run HYDRA swarm tasks with explicit browser/LLM backend flags
- produce reproducible extraction artifacts (title, text excerpt, links, status)
Do not use this skill for deep JavaScript rendering correctness testing. For full rendering, use HYDRA Playwright backend directly.
Quick Start
1) Deterministic terminal browse (Node)
node C:\Users\issda\.codex\skills\hydra-node-terminal-browsing\scripts\hydra_terminal_browse.mjs --url "https://example.com" --out "artifacts\page_evidence.json"
Output is structured JSON with:
url, resolved_url, status
title
text_excerpt
links[]
metrics and fetched_at
2) Run HYDRA swarm browser CLI
python -m hydra.cli_swarm --status
python -m hydra.cli_swarm --dry-run "research SCBE-AETHERMOORE on GitHub"
python -m hydra.cli_swarm --provider local --backend playwright "navigate to example.com and summarize"
python -m hydra.cli_swarm --provider hf --model mistralai/Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.3 "find latest PQC migration notes"
Workflow Decision Tree
- Need simple extraction only:
- Use
hydra_terminal_browse.mjs.
- Need multi-agent action execution (navigate/click/type/verify):
- Use
python -m hydra.cli_swarm ....
- Start with
--dry-run before live browser actions.
- Need repeatable research trail:
- Save extraction JSON with
--out.
- Keep file path in your task notes for traceability.
Output Contract (Recommended)
When using terminal browse for governance/evidence tasks, persist output in this shape:
{
"url": "https://...",
"resolved_url": "https://...",
"status": 200,
"title": "...",
"text_excerpt": "...",
"links": ["https://..."],
"metrics": {
"html_chars": 0,
"text_chars": 0,
"link_count": 0,
"truncated": false
},
"fetched_at": "2026-02-22T00:00:00Z"
}
Safety And Quality Gates
- Default to read-only browsing for discovery.
- For HYDRA swarm runs, prefer
--dry-run first.
- Keep extraction deterministic:
- fixed timeout
- fixed max chars
- deduplicated links
- Never embed secrets/tokens in captured artifacts.
Resources
scripts/
hydra_terminal_browse.mjs: Node CLI for deterministic terminal browsing and evidence JSON export.
references/
hydra-browser-surfaces.md: quick map of HYDRA browser-related modules and test targets.