chrome-agent

Turn a web page into records your agent can use, from one 3 MB binary.

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Disclaimer: This is an independent, community-driven project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google or the Chrome team.

You're not the user. Your LLM is.

You don't need to read this README. Your agent does. Install it, run chrome-agent --help, and let the LLM figure it out. The CLI embeds its own usage guide, every error comes with a hint for the next action, and --json gives an agent structured data without you writing an adapter. This page is here because GitHub expects one.

The one thing it does that others don't

Every browser tool can hand a page to a model. The question is what shape it arrives in.

chrome-agent goto news.ycombinator.com
chrome-agent --json extract --limit 30

{"ok":true,"count":30,"pattern":"TR.athing.submission","items":[
  {"title":"PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works",
   "url":"https://nikolays.github.io/PGSimCity/",
   "fields":["PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works (nikolays.github.io)"]},
  ...
]}

No selectors. No model call to find the rows. The pattern is detected structurally, with
MDR/DEPTA-style heuristics that score sibling similarity, content heterogeneity and
text-to-link ratio.

Measured on that page with scripts/measure.sh, which you can run yourself:

All three contain the same 30 stories. Only the first hands them over as records. The
others hand over the page and leave the model to find the stories in it, which you pay for
twice: once in input tokens, again in the reasoning to parse them.

How wide that gap is depends on the page. On a blog archive that is nothing but a list,
extract returns ~12,500 tokens against ~16,100 for the tree, because there is little
surrounding markup to strip. The win comes from pages where the records sit inside a lot of other page furniture.

Every rival makes an agent either write per-site selectors, which break on the next deploy,
or pay a model to read the DOM, which is the recurring cost this tooling exists to avoid.

How is this different from agent-browser?

agent-browser (Vercel) is the closest thing
to this, it is also a Rust CLI built for agents, and it is well ahead: more features, more
users, near-daily releases. If you want a platform, use it. Two honest differences:

Where it is genuinely behind: agent-browser has click-triggered downloads, an encrypted
credential vault, cloud provider integrations and an MCP mode. It also reuses your real
Chrome profile, same as --copy-cookies here, so logged-in access is not a differentiator
for either of us.

Why you shouldn't use chrome-agent

Borrowed from ripgrep, because the fastest way to
waste your afternoon is a README that only lists strengths.

• You need a test framework. Use Playwright. Assertions, retries, trace viewer, a
  test runner, and Microsoft maintaining it.
• You want a supported product. This is one person's project. No SLA, no roadmap
  promises, no enterprise support.
• You need MCP. There is no MCP server here. If your coding agent can't shell out, this is
  the wrong tool.
• You need a browser fleet. No cloud, no proxy pool, no CAPTCHA solving. Browserbase,
  Steel and Browserless do that.
• Your target is behind DataDome or Kasada. --stealth won't get you through. You'll
  need --connect to a real Chrome, and even then, no promises.
• You need Firefox or Safari. This speaks CDP. Chrome only.

What it's built on

• One binary, zero runtime. No Node, no npm, no Playwright download. Linux builds are
  static (musl), so they run on any distro without a glibc version to match.
• Errors are instructions. Every failure carries a hint for the next action:
  {"ok":false,"error":"...","hint":"run inspect"}.
• Stable element IDs. uids come from Chrome's backendNodeId, so n82 still points at
  the same node on the next inspect. They do change after a navigation, and diff will
  tell you when that happened instead of pretending to compare two different pages.
• Sessions persist. Chrome stays alive between calls, so a command costs a connection,
  not a browser launch.
• Parallel agents don't collide. --browser agent1, --browser agent2, separate Chrome
  instances and separate session state.

chrome-agent (3 MB Rust binary)
    | CDP over WebSocket
    v
Chrome (headless, no Node.js, no runtime)

Install

# For AI agents -- installs a SKILL.md your agent reads automatically
npx skills add sderosiaux/chrome-agent

# Or just the binary
npm install -g chrome-agent    # prebuilt
npx chrome-agent --help        # no install
cargo install chrome-agent     # from source

Quick start

# Navigate and see the page
chrome-agent goto https://example.com --inspect

# Click by uid
chrome-agent click n12 --inspect

# Fill a form
chrome-agent fill --uid n20 "[email protected]"

# CSS selectors work too
chrome-agent click --selector "button.submit"
chrome-agent fill --selector "input[name=email]" "[email protected]"

# Article content (Readability -- like Firefox Reader Mode)
chrome-agent read

# Visible text, scoped and capped
chrome-agent text --selector "main" --truncate 500

# Run JS
chrome-agent eval "document.title"

# Screenshot (returns a file path, not binary)
chrome-agent screenshot

Commands

Navigation

Inspection

Interaction

Content extraction

Monitoring

Advanced

Global flags

--browser <name>         Named browser profile (default: "default")
--page <name>            Named tab (default: "default")
--connect [url]          Attach to a running Chrome
--proxy-server <url>     Proxy a managed Chrome (http(s), socks4/5; explicit port required)
--headed                 Show browser window (default: headless)
--stealth                Anti-detection patches (Cloudflare, Turnstile)
--copy-cookies           Use cookies from your real Chrome profile
--timeout <seconds>      Command timeout (default: 30)
--max-depth <N>          Limit inspect depth
--verdict <mode>         auto (default): an action reports what changed. off: report the action only
--budget <chars>         Cap that change report (default 1200; 0 = uncapped)
--ignore-https-errors    Accept self-signed certs
--json                   Structured JSON output
--dialog <mode>          JS dialog policy: accept (default), dismiss, or manual
--dialog-text <text>     Text to submit for prompt() dialogs when --dialog accept

--proxy-server is launch-only and is persisted with the named browser session. Close or purge a
running named browser before changing its proxy. Attached browsers (--connect) must be configured
with their proxy before ChromeAgent attaches. Proxy URLs containing credentials are rejected.

JS dialogs (alert/confirm/prompt/beforeunload) are auto-answered by default (--dialog accept). A native dialog otherwise blocks the page with no DOM signal and the agent's next command hangs. Use --dialog dismiss to cancel them, or --dialog manual to opt out.

The loop: inspect, act

chrome-agent goto https://app.com/login --inspect
# uid=n52 textbox "Email" focusable
# uid=n58 textbox "Password" focusable
# uid=n63 button "Sign In" focusable

chrome-agent fill --uid n52 "[email protected]"
# ~ uid=n52 textbox "Email" focusable value="" -> value="[email protected]"

chrome-agent fill --uid n58 "password123"
chrome-agent click n63
# Page navigated — previous uids are gone. New page:
# uid=n101 heading "Dashboard" level=1

An action says what it changed, so there is no second call to find out whether it landed.
That is the whole point: an agent loop pays for turns, not just for tokens.

UIDs stay the same between inspects as long as the DOM node exists. After a navigation they
are all reassigned, which is why the click above reports the page rather than a diff.

--verdict off restores the older behaviour: the action is reported, the page is not read
back. Faster, quieter, and you find out what happened on your next call.

Content extraction

From least to most tokens:

# Articles (Readability, like Firefox Reader Mode)
chrome-agent read

# Repeating data -- products, search results, feeds. No selectors.
chrome-agent extract
# Uses MDR/DEPTA heuristics. Finds the pattern automatically.

# React SPAs (X.com, etc.) -- uses a11y tree instead of DOM
chrome-agent extract --a11y --scroll --limit 20

# Scoped visible text
chrome-agent text --selector "[role=main]" --truncate 1000

# API responses -- skip the DOM
chrome-agent network --filter "api" --body

Forms: dropdowns, checkboxes, file uploads

# Select dropdown by value or visible text
chrome-agent select --uid n15 "California"

# Idempotent checkbox control
chrome-agent check n20     # no-op if already checked
chrome-agent uncheck n20   # no-op if already unchecked

# File upload
chrome-agent upload --uid n30 /path/to/document.pdf

# Double-click (text selection, special controls)
chrome-agent dblclick n42

Iframes

The frame switch binds eval and inspect to the iframe, but only within one process, so drive it through pipe (or batch), never as separate CLI calls:

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"cmd":"frame","target":"#payment-iframe"}' \
  '{"cmd":"inspect"}' \
  '{"cmd":"fill","uid":"n42","value":"4242424242424242"}' \
  '{"cmd":"frame","target":"main"}' | chrome-agent pipe

• Target the intended iframe precisely (e.g. iframe[src*="checkout"]); a bare iframe matches the first one in DOM order, often an ad about:blank slot.
• frame scopes eval/inspect; it does not scope --selector targeting. Run inspect after the switch to get iframe uids, then act by uid (uids resolve across frames).
• Each standalone chrome-agent <cmd> opens a fresh connection, so chrome-agent frame … followed by a separate chrome-agent inspect loses the switch. Use pipe/batch.

Batch mode

Execute a sequence of commands from stdin without per-command process startup:

echo '[
  {"cmd":"goto","url":"https://example.com"},
  {"cmd":"inspect","filter":"button"},
  {"cmd":"click","uid":"n42"}
]' | chrome-agent batch

Each command produces one JSON line. About 10x faster than spawning a process per command.

Stealth

--stealth patches 7 automation fingerprints via CDP:

• navigator.webdriver set to undefined
• chrome.runtime mocked
• Permissions API fixed
• WebGL renderer masked
• User-Agent cleaned
• Input coordinate leak patched
• Runtime.enable never called

These are CDP-level patches (Page.addScriptToEvaluateOnNewDocument), not Chrome flags.

For sites with heavier protection (DataDome, Kasada) that fingerprint the Chromium binary itself, connect to your real Chrome:

google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 &
chrome-agent --connect http://127.0.0.1:9222 goto https://www.leboncoin.fr --inspect

Logged-in sites

--copy-cookies copies the cookie database from your Chrome profile. Both Chrome instances use the same macOS Keychain, so encrypted cookies just work.

chrome-agent --stealth --copy-cookies goto x.com/home --inspect
# Your timeline. Your DMs. No login flow.

chrome-agent --copy-cookies goto mail.google.com --inspect
chrome-agent --copy-cookies goto github.com/notifications --inspect

Your real Chrome is not affected.

Network capture and blocking

# Resources already loaded (stealth-safe, uses Performance API)
chrome-agent network --filter "api"

# Live traffic with response bodies
chrome-agent network --live 5 --body --filter "graphql"

# Block tracking/ads (uses Fetch domain interception)
chrome-agent network --abort "*tracking*" --live 30

# Console output
chrome-agent console --level error    # errors + exceptions only

Console capture uses an injected interceptor, not Runtime.enable.

Downloads, PDF, and token-safe screenshots

Files are written under ~/.chrome-agent/tmp (or your --out path) with 0600 perms; the path is printed on stdout. Binary bytes never hit stdout.

# Download a file, fetched inside the page so cookies/auth carry over.
# Ideal for login-gated exports (invoices, CSVs, PDFs behind an auth wall).
chrome-agent download https://app.com/reports/2024.csv --out ./2024.csv
# {"ok":true,"path":"./2024.csv","bytes":48213,"mime":"text/csv"}

# Print the current page to PDF.
chrome-agent pdf --filename invoice.pdf --background

# Screenshots that don't blow up your context window.
chrome-agent screenshot --format jpeg --quality 60 --max-width 1024
chrome-agent screenshot --uid n42            # capture a single element (or --selector "css")

download uses an in-page fetch with credentials:'include', so the request inherits the page's session. Click-triggered browser-native downloads are not handled: resolve the target href (inspect --urls) and download it directly.

Waiting for the network to settle

# Resolve once no requests are in flight for 500ms (tunable), bounded by --timeout.
# Replaces fragile fixed sleeps on SPAs / XHR-heavy pages.
chrome-agent wait network-idle
chrome-agent wait network-idle --idle-ms 800 --timeout 20

Opt-in (enables the Network domain), so it stays off the stealth hot path.

Pipe mode

For agents that send many commands in sequence, pipe mode keeps a single connection open:

echo '{"cmd":"goto","url":"https://example.com","inspect":true}
{"cmd":"click","uid":"n12","inspect":true}
{"cmd":"read"}' | chrome-agent pipe

One JSON line per response. About 10x faster than spawning a process per command.

JSON mode

chrome-agent --json goto https://example.com --inspect
# {"ok":true,"url":"...","title":"...","snapshot":"uid=n1 heading..."}

chrome-agent --json eval "1+1"
# {"ok":true,"result":2}

# Errors exit 1 but JSON is still on stdout (parseable):
chrome-agent --json click n99
# {"ok":false,"error":"Element uid=n99 not found.","hint":"Run 'chrome-agent inspect'"}

Inspect with link URLs

When deciding which link to click, the agent often needs the URL, not just the text:

chrome-agent inspect --urls --filter link
# uid=n82 link "Pricing" url="https://example.com/pricing"
# uid=n97 link "Docs" url="https://docs.example.com"

Multi-tab and parallel agents

# Multiple tabs in one browser
chrome-agent --page main goto https://app.com
chrome-agent --page docs goto https://docs.app.com
chrome-agent --page main eval "document.title"   # "App"

# Multiple agents, each with their own Chrome
chrome-agent --browser agent1 goto https://example.com
chrome-agent --browser agent2 goto https://other.com

Using with AI agents

# Install the skill (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.)
npx skills add sderosiaux/chrome-agent

# Or tell your agent to run:
chrome-agent --help
# The help output includes a full LLM usage guide.

Claude Code permissions:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Bash(chrome-agent *)"]
  }
}

Comparison

License

MIT