Chrome-agent: LLM-native browser automation tool written in Rust

A new open-source tool called chrome-agent, built in Rust, provides an LLM-native browser automation tool that reduces page representation to ~50 tokens using the accessibility tree, compared to ~2,000 tokens from Playwright. The 3 MB binary requires no runtime dependencies and combines action and observation in a single call, aiming to minimize token usage for AI agents. The project is independent and not affiliated with Google or the Chrome team.

Browser automation that speaks LLM. 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 mode outputs structured data an agent can parse without you writing a single adapter. This page is here because GitHub expects one. agent-browser https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser Vercel is a feature-complete browser automation platform: dashboard, cloud providers, annotated screenshots, iOS support, AI chat, auth vault, 40K lines of Rust. It's excellent. chrome-agent is the opposite bet. Instead of adding features, it removes tokens. | chrome-agent | agent-browser | | |---|---|---| Page snapshot | ~50 tokens a11y noise stripped, 66% reduction | ~200 tokens full a11y tree | Element IDs | backendNodeId — stable across inspects | Sequential @e1, @e2 — reassigned every snapshot | Action + observe | click n12 --inspect 1 call | click @e1 then snapshot 2 calls | Stealth | 7 native CDP patches incl. Runtime.enable skip | Delegated to cloud providers | Content extraction | read articles , extract auto-detect lists/tables | None built-in | Binary | 3 MB, zero runtime | 3 MB + Next.js dashboard + cloud SDKs | Codebase | ~8.8K lines | 40K lines | agent-browser gives you a platform with monitoring, cloud browsers, and visual debugging. chrome-agent gives your LLM the smallest possible representation of a webpage and gets out of the way. If your agent needs a dashboard, use agent-browser. If your agent needs to spend tokens on reasoning instead of page parsing, use this. Every token your agent spends understanding a page is a token it doesn't spend reasoning about the task. chrome-agent is built around one idea: minimize the tokens between "what does this page look like?" and "what should I do next?" This means: Accessibility tree over DOM. Playwright returns ~2,000 tokens of raw HTML. chrome-agent returns ~50 tokens of a11y tree with stable element IDs. No CSS selectors to write, no DOM to parse. One binary, zero runtime. 3 MB Rust binary. No Node.js, no npm, no Playwright runtime. npx chrome-agent just works. Linux builds are fully static musl — no glibc dependency, runs on any distro. Action + observation in one call. --inspect on any action command returns the page state after the action. One round-trip instead of two. Errors are instructions. Every error includes a hint field telling the agent what to do next. {"ok":false, "error":"...", "hint":"run inspect"} . Stealth by default intent. 7 CDP patches including the detection vector nobody talks about Runtime.enable . Connect to real Chrome for the hardest protections. Content extraction without selectors. read for articles, extract for repeating data, network for API payloads. The agent never writes CSS selectors. This is not a general-purpose browser testing framework. It's a tool that makes an LLM effective at browsing the web. chrome-agent goto news.ycombinator.com --inspect ~50 tokens instead of ~2,000: uid=n1 RootWebArea "Hacker News" uid=n50 heading "Hacker News" level=1 uid=n82 link "Show HN: A New Browser Tool" uid=n97 link "Rust 2025 Edition Announced" ... Click + see the new page in one call: chrome-agent click n82 --inspect UIDs are based on Chrome's backendNodeId . They don't change between inspects. Click n82 now or five minutes from now. chrome-agent 3 MB Rust binary | CDP over WebSocket v Chrome headless, no Node.js, no runtime | If you've hit this... | chrome-agent does this instead | |---|---| | Playwright snapshots burn 2K tokens | a11y tree: ~50 tokens. 40x less context spent on page state. | | CSS selectors break after every deploy | UIDs from Chrome's backendNodeId . Stable as long as the DOM node exists. | | Click then inspect = 2 round-trips | --inspect on any command. One call, action + observation. | | 200MB of Node + npm + Playwright | 3 MB binary. npx chrome-agent works out of the box. | | Cloudflare blocks your headless Chrome | 7 CDP patches. Runtime.enable never called the detection vector nobody talks about . | | Writing per-site scraping selectors | read for articles, extract for lists/tables/cards, network for API payloads. No selectors. | | Errors are stack traces | {"ok":false, "error":"...", "hint":"run inspect"} -- parseable, actionable. | | Each command launches a fresh browser | Sessions persist. Chrome stays alive between calls. ~10ms startup. | | Agent can't access your logged-in accounts | --copy-cookies grabs cookies from your real Chrome. Works with X.com, Gmail, dashboards. | | Infinite scroll shows 10 items | inspect --scroll --limit 50 scrolls and collects. Tested on X.com: 50 tweets from a live timeline. | | Two agents sharing one browser = chaos | --browser agent1 , --browser agent2 . Separate Chrome instances. | 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 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 "user@test.com" CSS selectors work too chrome-agent click --selector "button.submit" chrome-agent fill --selector "input name=email " "hello@test.com" 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 | Command | What it does | |---|---| goto <url --inspect --max-depth N --header "K: V" | Navigate. Auto-prefixes https:// . --header repeatable sends extra HTTP headers. | back | History back. | forward | History forward. | close --purge | Stop browser. --purge deletes cookies/profile. | | Command | What it does | |---|---| inspect --verbose --max-depth N --uid nN --filter "role,role" --scroll --limit N --urls --max-chars N --offset K | a11y tree with UIDs. --scroll --limit for infinite scroll. --urls resolves href on links. --max-chars / --offset cap and page the output. | diff | What changed since last inspect. | screenshot --filename name --format jpeg|png --quality N --max-width N --uid nN|--selector "css" | Screenshot to file. JPEG/quality/max-width shrink it; --uid / --selector clip to one element. | pdf --filename name --landscape --background | Print the current page to a PDF file. | tabs | List open tabs. | | Command | What it does | |---|---| click <uid --inspect | Click by uid. Falls back to JS .click when no box model. | click --selector "css" --inspect | Click by CSS selector. | click --xy 100,200 | Click by coordinates. | dblclick <uid --inspect | Double-click by uid, --selector , or --xy . | fill --uid <uid <value --inspect | Fill input by uid. | fill --selector "css" <value | Fill by selector. | fill-form <uid=val ... | Batch fill. | select --uid <uid <value | Select dropdown option by value or visible text. | select --selector "css" <value | Select by CSS selector. | check <uid | Ensure checkbox/radio is checked. Idempotent. | uncheck <uid | Ensure checkbox/radio is unchecked. Idempotent. | upload --uid <uid <file ... | Upload file s to a file input. | upload --selector "css" <file ... | Upload by CSS selector. | drag <from-uid <to-uid | Drag element to another element. | type <text --selector "css" | Type into focused element. | press <key | Enter, Tab, Escape, etc. | scroll <down|up|uid | Scroll page or element into view. | hover <uid | Hover. | wait <text|url|selector <pattern | Wait for a condition. | wait network-idle --idle-ms N --timeout N | Wait until the network is quiet for --idle-ms default 500 . Beats fixed sleeps for SPA/XHR settle. | | Command | What it does | |---|---| read --html --truncate N | Article extraction via Mozilla Readability. | text uid --selector "css" --truncate N | Visible text from page or element. | eval <expression --selector "css" | JS in page context. el = matched element. | extract --selector "css" --limit N --scroll --a11y | Auto-detect repeating data. --a11y for React SPAs X.com . | download <url --out path --timeout N | Download a URL fetched in-page, so cookies/auth carry over login-gated files . Returns {path,bytes,mime} . | | Command | What it does | |---|---| network --filter "pattern" --body --live N --abort "pattern" | Network requests and API responses. --abort blocks matching requests. | console --level error --clear | console.log/warn/error + JS exceptions. | | Command | What it does | |---|---| frame <selector|main | Switch eval / inspect into an iframe or back to main . Persists only within a pipe / batch process. | batch | Execute multiple commands from a JSON array on stdin. | pipe | Persistent JSON stdin/stdout connection. | --browser <name Named browser profile default: "default" --page <name Named tab default: "default" --connect url Attach to a running Chrome --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 --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 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. 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 "user@test.com" chrome-agent fill --uid n58 "password123" chrome-agent click n63 --inspect uid=n101 heading "Dashboard" level=1 UIDs stay the same between inspects as long as the DOM node exists. 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 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 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 . 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 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 | Protection | Solution | |---|---| | None | chrome-agent goto ... | | Cloudflare/Turnstile | chrome-agent --stealth goto ... | | Logged-in sites | chrome-agent --stealth --copy-cookies goto ... | | DataDome/Kasada | chrome-agent --connect to real Chrome | --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. 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 . 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. 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. 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. 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'"} 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" 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 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 " } } | chrome-agent | agent-browser Vercel | Playwright MCP | | |---|---|---|---| | Language | Rust | Rust | TypeScript | | Binary | 3 MB, zero runtime | 3 MB CLI + dashboard + cloud providers | Node + Playwright | | Startup | ~10ms session reuse | daemon fast after first | cold start | | Token efficiency | ~50 tokens/page a11y noise filtering | ~200 tokens/page a11y tree | ~2,000 tokens HTML | | UID stability | backendNodeId stable across inspects | sequential @e1, @e2 reassigned per snapshot | N/A selectors | | Action + observe | --inspect flag 1 call | separate snapshot call | separate call | | Stealth | 7 native CDP patches | delegated to cloud providers | none | | Reader mode | read Readability.js | none | none | | Data extraction | extract auto-detect repeating data | none | none | | Link URL resolution | inspect --urls | snapshot -u | N/A | | Dropdowns | select | select | via selectors | | Checkboxes | check / uncheck idempotent | check / uncheck | via selectors | | File upload | upload | upload | via selectors | | Drag and drop | drag | drag | via selectors | | Annotated screenshots | not yet | screenshot --annotate | not yet | | Element/token-safe screenshots | screenshot --uid/--selector , --format jpeg , --max-width | via options | via options | | PDF export | pdf Page.printToPDF | none | none | | File download | download in-page fetch, auth-preserving | download | via events | | Extra request headers | goto --header | yes | via context | | Network-idle wait | wait network-idle | yes | browser wait for | | JS dialog handling | auto --dialog accept/dismiss/manual | yes | browser handle dialog | | Live dashboard | no lean | yes Next.js | no | | Cloud providers | no --connect to anything | 5 built-in | no | | iOS/Safari | no | yes WebDriver | no | | Network blocking | network --abort | network route --abort | no | | Iframe switching | frame | frame | via selectors | | Batch execution | batch JSON stdin | batch JSON or quoted | N/A | | AI chat built-in | no the agent IS the LLM | yes AI Gateway | N/A | | Codebase | ~8.8K lines | ~40K lines | Playwright | | Design goal | minimal tokens, maximal autonomy | feature-complete platform | browser testing | MIT