// Search the web and fetch/read pages via a real headless browser (CDP). Use this instead of curl when sites are JS-heavy or bot-protected. Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
| name | pi-web-browse |
| description | Search the web and fetch/read pages via a real headless browser (CDP). Use this instead of curl when sites are JS-heavy or bot-protected. Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. |
Search the web, then open/fetch pages in a real browser session (headless Chromium via CDP) and extract readable text.
Use this instead of curl when sites are JS-heavy or bot-protected.
Run once before first use:
cd {baseDir}
npm install
The skill auto-detects browsers already installed on your system (Brave, Chrome, Edge, Chromium). On Windows, Edge is pre-installed and works out of the box.
No browser installed? (rare) Run: npx playwright install chromium
Environment variables:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
WEB_BROWSE_BROWSER_BIN | Path to browser binary (auto-detected if not set) |
WEB_BROWSE_USER_AGENT | Override User-Agent string |
WEB_BROWSE_DAEMON_PORT | Daemon port (default: 9377) |
WEB_BROWSE_CDP_PORT | CDP port (default: 9225) |
WEB_BROWSE_DEBUG_DUMP | Set to 1 to save screenshots/HTML on failures |
You can also pass --browser-bin <path> as a CLI argument.
# Search (results are cached for ~10 minutes)
{baseDir}/web-browse.js "your query"
{baseDir}/web-browse.js "your query" -n 10
# Fetch specific cached results by index
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --fetch 1,3,5
# Fetch a specific URL
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --url <url> # truncated (~2000 chars)
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --url <url> --full # full content
Windows note: Use node {baseDir}/web-browse.js instead of {baseDir}/web-browse.js
Direct calls automatically start/use a local daemon that keeps a persistent headless browser+CDP session. This avoids browser startup overhead and helps with bot-protection pages that auto-clear (e.g. Anubis PoW).
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon status
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon start
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon stop
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon restart
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --no-daemon --url https://example.com
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --no-daemon "your query"
--fetch 1,3 opens those results and extracts content{baseDir}/web-browse.js "rust async runtime" # shows results
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --fetch 1,3 # fetches result #1 and #3
The skill auto-detects installed browsers in this order:
Linux: brave, brave-browser, google-chrome, chromium macOS: Brave Browser, Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge (in /Applications) Windows: Brave, Chrome, Edge, Chromium (common install paths)
To use a specific browser, set WEB_BROWSE_BROWSER_BIN or pass --browser-bin <path>.
--full for complete output.~/.config/web-browse-cdp-profile/ (configurable via --cdp-profile).