- name
- browseros
- description
- Use when a task requires interacting with a website beyond just reading it — clicking elements, filling forms, submitting data, navigating through multi-step flows, taking screenshots, or any workflow where the user needs a real browser with actions like click, type, scroll, or select. Also use for managing browser bookmarks, history, or tabs. Trigger whenever the user mentions browseros, browseros-cli, or BrowserOS. Do NOT use when simply fetching or reading page content would suffice — use curl, fetch, or WebFetch for that instead.
- allowed-tools
- Bash(browseros-cli *)
Browser Automation with BrowserOS
Control a real Chromium browser via browseros-cli. Run commands via Bash. Use --json for structured output, -p <pageId> to target specific tabs.
When NOT to Use
- Headless scraping in CI/CD with no display — use Playwright or Puppeteer instead.
- Static page fetching where
curl/wgetsuffices.
Safety Defaults
- Default to read-only first:
snap,text,links,pages,ss. - Avoid
evalunless no simpler command works. - Save screenshots/PDFs only to user-specified or workspace paths.
- Close tabs when done:
browseros-cli close <pageId>.
Setup
# Check if CLI is available
browseros-cli --version
# If not installed:
npm install -g browseros-cli
# If BrowserOS app is not installed:
browseros-cli install
# If BrowserOS is not running:
browseros-cli launch
# Configure connection:
browseros-cli init --auto
# Verify:
browseros-cli healthCore Workflow: snap → act → re-snap
Every interaction follows this loop:
- Open a page → get a page ID.
- Snap → get element IDs like
[10] textbox "Email",[15] button "Submit". - Act on elements by ID (
fill 10 "text",click 15). - Re-snap after ANY click, navigation, or form submit — IDs change after DOM updates.
Critical rules:
open <url>= new tab.nav <url>= navigate current tab.- NEVER reuse element IDs after navigation — always
snapagain. - Use
textfor content extraction,snapfor interaction,ssfor visual verification.
browseros-cli open https://example.com/login # → Page ID: 5
browseros-cli snap -p 5 # → [10] textbox "Email", [11] textbox "Password", [15] button "Sign In"
browseros-cli fill 10 "user@example.com"
browseros-cli fill 11 "password123"
browseros-cli click 15
browseros-cli snap -p 5 # Re-snap! IDs have changed after submit
browseros-cli text -p 5 # Read result page
browseros-cli close 5 # Clean upCommands Quick Reference
| Category | Key Commands |
|---|---|
| Navigate | open <url>, open --hidden, nav <url>, back, forward, reload, pages, active, close [id] |
| Observe | snap, snap -e, text, text --selector <css>, text --links, text --viewport, links, ss -o <path>, ss --full, eval "<js>", dom, dom-search "<q>", wait --text "<txt>" |
| Input | click <id>, click --double, fill <id> "text", clear <id>, key Enter, hover <id>, focus <id>, check <id>, uncheck <id>, select <id> "val", scroll down [amt], drag <id> --to <id>, upload <id> <file>, dialog accept/dismiss |
| Export | pdf <path>, download <id> <dir> |
| Resources | window list/create/close/activate, bookmark list/search/create/remove/update/move, history recent/search/delete, group list/create/update/ungroup/close |
Full flags and options: see references/cli-commands.md or run browseros-cli <command> --help.
Common Patterns
Data extraction
browseros-cli open https://example.com/data
browseros-cli text # full page as markdown
browseros-cli text --selector "table" # scoped to element
browseros-cli text --links # include hyperlinksMulti-tab research
browseros-cli open https://site-a.com # → Page ID: 1
browseros-cli open https://site-b.com # → Page ID: 2
browseros-cli text -p 1 # extract from first
browseros-cli text -p 2 # extract from second
browseros-cli close 1 && browseros-cli close 2Web app testing
browseros-cli open http://localhost:3000
browseros-cli snap # get interactive elements
browseros-cli ss -o test-state.png # visual snapshot
browseros-cli eval "document.querySelectorAll('.error').length"Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
Using CSS selectors (fill --selector "input[type=email]") | Always snap first, then use element IDs (fill 10 "text") |
| Reusing element IDs after a click or navigation | IDs are invalidated by DOM changes — snap again |
Using eval to extract text | Use text or text --selector instead — lower tokens, structured output |
| Forgetting to close tabs | Always close <pageId> when done to avoid resource leaks |
Using nav when you want a new tab | nav replaces the current tab. Use open for a new tab |
Using open when you want to stay in the same tab | open creates a new tab. Use nav to navigate in place |
| Taking screenshots for content extraction | Use text for content — screenshots burn tokens and need vision |
Using dialog --accept (flag syntax) | Correct syntax is dialog accept or dialog dismiss (positional arg) |
Deep-Dive Documentation
| Reference | Description |
|---|---|
| references/cli-commands.md | Full command reference with all flags |