Browser Automation with agent-browser

Browser Automation with agent-browser

First-time Setup

The CLI is not pre-installed with the app — install it on first use, then download Chromium. Always run this self-check before issuing any agent-browser command in a fresh environment.

Step 1: Verify or install the CLI

# Probe by RUNNING the CLI (not just checking PATH presence). This catches the
# common case of a stale wrapper from a previous app version: it lives at
# ~/.myagents/bin/agent-browser, satisfies `command -v`, but execs a deleted
# bundle path → fails with "cannot find file". `--version` exercises the real
# code path and triggers the install fallback when broken.
agent-browser --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || npm_config_prefix="${MYAGENTS_NPM_GLOBAL_PREFIX:-$HOME/.myagents/npm-global}" npm install -g [email protected]

The install lands in ~/.myagents/npm-global/bin/agent-browser, which sits earlier in PATH than any legacy wrapper. MyAgents exposes MYAGENTS_NPM_GLOBAL_PREFIX for this command-local install instead of setting npm_config_prefix on the whole shell, so nvm-based user shells stay quiet. Subsequent agent-browser … calls find the new binary automatically.

Tell the user once that you're installing the browser tool (~few seconds the first time, instant afterward), then proceed.

If npm install -g fails

If the install fails (network blocked, registry unreachable, EACCES on a locked-down system Node), invoke the CLI via npx inline on every command — Bash aliases do not persist across separate tool calls in this environment, so each command must carry the prefix:

# Use the npx prefix on EVERY command. Do not try to alias — it won't survive.
npx -y [email protected] open https://example.com
npx -y [email protected] snapshot -i
npx -y [email protected] click @e1

This is slower (~1s overhead per call) but works without an install step.

Step 2: Download Chromium (~160MB, one-time)

agent-browser install
# OR if you're on the npx fallback:
# npx -y [email protected] install