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Show HN: Drive your already-logged-in Chrome from any AI agent

A new open-source tool called chrome-use lets AI agents control a user's already-logged-in Chrome browser without triggering anti-bot detection, solving the problem of re-login and captchas faced by traditional browser automation tools. The tool uses a browser extension and native messaging to drive the real browser, achieving a 0% bot score on CreepJS.

read14 min views1 publishedJun 25, 2026
Show HN: Drive your already-logged-in Chrome from any AI agent
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chrome-use drives your real, logged-in Chrome from any AI agent — it shares your existing login sessions and is undetectable by anti-bot systems because it is your real browser. Part of the *-use

family (iphone-use drives your real iPhone; chrome-use drives your real Chrome).

Originally based on vercel-labs/agent-browser (Apache-2.0); now a standalone project — the stealth/extension-relay architecture, anti-detection, humanize, multi-agent isolation, and CLI have diverged substantially.

📖

Deep dive:[Letting an agent click into cross-origin iframes — how chrome-use solves the hardest part of browser control]

No fresh Chrome. No re-login. No "are you a robot?" walls.

chrome-use points any agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, your own scripts — at the Chrome you're already signed into everything on. It clicks in your window, so you watch it work and grab the wheel the moment it hits a 2FA prompt or captcha. And because it's literally your real browser (over a one-click extension, native messaging — no debug port), sites read it as 100% human: CreepJS scores it 0% bot.

Why not just use…

Playwright / Puppeteer / browser-use? They boot anemptybrowser — so you redo every login, fight every captcha, and still get flagged as automation. We use the session you already have.Claude's Chrome extension? Great, but it only drives Claude. This drivesanyagent or CLI.A raw(web-access, etc.)? Chrome 136+ pops--remote-debugging-port

"Allow remote debugging?" oneveryconnect. This never does — one-click Store extension, native messaging.

Full feature comparison (the receipts)

| |---|

chrome-use

any agent / CLI (not one app)real, logged-in Chrome**No "Allow remote debugging?" popup****verified 0%**No(rebrowser)²Runtime.enable

CDP leakoff by default****one real Chrome, isolated tab groups³<all_urls>

7, no<all_urls>

¹ All three real-Chrome tools score ~0% on CreepJS (it's a real browser); we've measured ours. ² rebrowser's runtimeEnableLeak — verified clean on our relay path; Claude in Chrome not independently tested (—). ³ web-access can run parallel sub-agents on one browser, but without per-session isolation; each --session here gets its own colored, command-isolated tab group. See

Anti-detectionfor the measured numbers.

Typical browser automation (Playwright, Puppeteer, or a fresh --launch

) opens a brand-new browser with an empty profile. You have to log in again, and websites can tell it's automated.

chrome-use connects to your existing Chrome. Your cookies, sessions, and browser fingerprint are all real — because it IS your real browser.

chrome-use chrome-use
Browser Launches new Chrome Connects to your Chrome
Login state Empty, need to re-login Your existing sessions
Fingerprint Automation markers present Your real fingerprint
User collaboration Separate window Same window, take over anytime
CAPTCHA Agent stuck You solve it, agent continues

Your chrome-use CLI talks to a tiny browser extension over Chrome native messaging — a local inter-process channel, no network socket, no token, no remote server. The extension uses chrome.debugger

to drive the tabs you target in your own, already-logged-in Chrome, then hands results back to the CLI. Everything stays on your machine.

Each --session

gets its own colored Chrome tab group, so multiple agents can share one real browser concurrently without stepping on each other — or your own tabs.

Other local tools drive Chrome over a raw --remote-debugging-port

(CDP). Since Chrome 136, every such connection pops a blocking "Allow remote debugging?" consent dialog — and the port has to be enabled up front. Our extension uses native messaging instead: install once, then zero per-use confirmation.

chrome-use (this extension) | web-access (raw CDP port) | Claude in Chrome (chrome.debugger) | | |---|---|---|---| | Connect method | native messaging — no port, no token | --remote-debugging-port | chrome.debugger | "Allow remote debugging?" popup | never ✅ | every connection 🔴 | no | | Uses your real login | yes | yes | yes | Runtime.enable (CDP) leak¹ | off by default → clean ✅ | domain enabled | n/a | | CreepJS stealth score² | 0% stealth · 0% headless ✅ | real Chrome | real Chrome | | Per-session tab groups / concurrent agents | yes ✅ | no | no | | Built for the chrome-use CLI | yes | a separate proxy | a single-app assistant |

¹ Verified against

[rebrowser-bot-detector]: our relay reportsruntimeEnableLeak: 🟢 No leak

andnavigatorWebdriver: 🟢

. ² Verified against[CreepJS]on the connected real-Chrome path — see[Anti-detection].The consent dialog isn't hypothetical: a raw-port tool pops it on

everyattach (Chrome 136+ security). The extension path never does.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/chrome-use/main/install.sh | sh

Downloads the prebuilt binary for your platform from the latest GitHub Release and installs chrome-use

(+ the abs

alias). No npm, no tokens.

Other ways to install #

Pin a version:AGENT_BROWSER_VERSION=v0.27.0-fork.12 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/chrome-use/main/install.sh | sh

Custom location:AGENT_BROWSER_BIN_DIR=$HOME/bin curl -fsSL … | sh

Windows: downloadchrome-use-win32-x64.tar.gz

from theReleases pageand putchrome-use.exe

on your PATH.npm (legacy):npm install -g chrome-use

— still published, but GitHub Releases is the primary channel now.

The repo ships SKILL.md files for Claude Code, Cursor, etc. Pull them into the current project with skills.sh:

npx skills add leeguooooo/chrome-use

This drops skills/chrome-use

(and the specialized skill-data/{core,electron,slack,dogfood,agentcore,vercel-sandbox}

) into your project so your AI agent gets the right usage patterns and pre-approved bash permissions for chrome-use

, chrome-use

, and abs

.

chrome-use

, chrome-use

, and abs

are the same binaryabs

is just a short alias. There is no separate "stealth executable"; stealth is a runtime behavior (see Anti-detection below), applied automatically based on whether you attach to your real Chrome or --launch

a fresh one.

Recommended — the browser extension (one click, no popups). Install the chrome-use extension from the Chrome Web Store, then register the local bridge once:

chrome-use extension install      # register the native-messaging host (one-time)
chrome-use open https://x.com/home

chrome-use open

then drives your real, logged-in Chrome over native messaging — no debug port, no token, and no "Allow remote debugging?" dialog, ever. The extension auto-updates and survives Chrome restarts, so it stays connected with zero per-use confirmation (ideal for unattended/agent use).

Without the extension, chrome-use attaches over the Chrome DevTools Protocol, which Chrome only exposes when launched with a remote-debugging port (a startup flag — the chrome://inspect

toggle alone is not enough):

open -a "Google Chrome" --args --remote-debugging-port=9222
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Then chrome-use open <url>

auto-discovers the port. On first attach, Chrome 136+ shows an "Allow remote debugging?" dialog — click Allow once (it persists for that Chrome session). The extension above avoids this entirely.

No setup / don't want to touch your real Chrome? Use chrome-use --launch open <url>

to spawn a fresh isolated stealth browser (full anti-detection patches applied; see below). This always works without any port setup and is what CI uses automatically.

chrome-use open https://example.com

chrome-use click "Post"
chrome-use click 449 320            # …or click a raw viewport coordinate
chrome-use fill "Title" "Hello World"
chrome-use screenshot ./page.png

The agent operates in your Chrome — you'll see tabs opening, pages , clicks happening in real time. You can take over at any point (e.g. solve a CAPTCHA), then let the agent continue.

Spawn a separate browser instead of attaching to your running Chrome:

chrome-use --launch open https://example.com

chrome-use --launch --profile auto open https://x.com/home

⚠️ Plain--launch

(no--profile

) uses atemporary empty profile— you will NOT be logged into anything. For logged-in sites use--profile auto

(picks the Chrome profile you used most recently) or--profile <name>

. chrome-use prints a warning when you--launch

without a profile.

In CI environments, standalone mode is used automatically.

Most "read GitHub issues" / "search Reddit" / "get my Bilibili feed" tasks don't need clicking and screenshotting at all — the site already has a JSON API behind its own login. A site adapter is a tiny JS function that calls that API from inside your logged-in tab (your cookies, same-origin fetch

, the site's own modules) and returns clean JSON. The site can't tell it apart from you, because it is you.

chrome-use ships none of these adapters — site update

fetches the community bb-sites pack at runtime (like a package manager pulling a dependency), then runs them over chrome-use's stealth transport:

chrome-use site update                          # fetch the adapter pack (~145 commands)
chrome-use site list                            # github/issues, reddit/search, bilibili/feed, …
chrome-use site info github/issues              # see an adapter's args + domain

chrome-use site github/issues epiral/bb-browser --json
chrome-use site reddit/search "rust async" --json
chrome-use site bilibili/feed --json            # works because it's your logged-in session

Positional args fill the adapter's declared args in order; --key value

overrides by name. Adapters are authored by the bb-sites community and remain their authors' property — chrome-use just runs them.

Auto-sync + auto-suggest. You rarely type site update

yourself: chrome-use syncs the pack on first use and refreshes it weekly in the background (tune with AGENT_BROWSER_SITES_TTL_DAYS

, disable with AGENT_BROWSER_SITES_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1

). And when you open

/snapshot

a page whose domain has adapters, chrome-use surfaces them right in the output — a 💡 site adapters for <domain>

line, plus a siteAdapters

field under --json

— so an agent reaches for the structured-data adapter instead of scraping the DOM:

$ chrome-use open https://github.com
💡 site adapters for github.com — prefer these for structured data:
   github/issues, github/me, github/repo, …
   e.g. chrome-use site github/issues --json
✓ GitHub

Turn the repetitive "open it, click around, check it's right" work into a re-runnable suite — unit tests for the frontend. Write cases in YAML; steps reuse chrome-use's own commands and assertions compile to a single check:

suite: chatgpt smoke
setup:
  - account: chatgpt/huayue          # inject a cookie-use login (optional)
cases:
  - name: home loads logged in
    steps:
      - open: https://chatgpt.com/
      - wait: { load: networkidle }
    assert:
      - url: { contains: chatgpt.com }
      - visible: "#prompt-textarea"
chrome-use test smoke.yaml                     # launches an isolated browser, runs cases
chrome-use test smoke.yaml --session default   # …or against your connected Chrome
suite: chatgpt smoke  (session cu-test)
  ✓ home loads logged in   1.2s
  ✗ composer takes text    0.8s
      assert text "#prompt-textarea" contains "hi" → got ""
      ↳ cu-test-artifacts/composer-takes-text.png
2 cases · 1 passed · 1 failed

Exit code is non-zero if any case fails (drop it into CI), and failed cases save a screenshot. Assertions: url

· visible

· hidden

· text

· count

· eval

. Steps: open

· click

· fill

· type

· press

· wait

· scroll

· eval

. Full guide: chrome-use skills get test

. Found a regression? Add a case — the suite gets more valuable the more you use it.

When connected to your real Chrome, we inject zero JavaScript patches. Your browser's fingerprint is completely genuine. The guiding rule is native CDP/Chrome overrides over JS lies — a re-defined getter is itself detectable; a native override isn't.

navigator.webdriver = false

viaEmulation.setAutomationOverride

(native, undetectable by CreepJS-style lie tests).A liveRuntime.enable

is left OFF by default.Runtime

domain is a detectable CDP signal (the patchright/rebrowser "runtime leak") — even when attached to your real Chrome. We only enable it when you opt into console/error capture (see below).click

,fill

,eval

, etc. work without it.

Test results (connected to real Chrome):

Test site Result

0% stealth · 0% headless(no override traces at all)bot.incolumitas.comoverflowTest

, overrideTest

, puppeteerExtraStealthUsed

, worker consistencybot.sannysoft.comBrowserScanCloudflare Turnstile0% stealth

on CreepJS is the key number: because the connect path patches nothing, there is no override for a lie-detector to catch. (Dashboards that read navigator.languages

order or IP geolocation may show a soft "navigator"/"location" flag — that tracks your real Chrome's language list and network, not an automation tell.)

When using --launch

mode (standalone browser), a full suite of stealth patches is applied instead, and it passes the suite above — with one caveat: CreepJS reports ~20% stealth because the srcdoc-iframe contentWindow

patch trips its hasIframeProxy

probe (the proxy that hides automation is itself a tell). Everything else is clean (0% headless

, sannysoft/browserscan green, Cloudflare passed). Set ** AGENT_BROWSER_DISABLE_IFRAME_PROXY=1** to drop that patch for a clean

0% stealth(trades the niche srcdoc-iframe masking). The

extension-connect path(your real Chrome) injects zero JS and is unaffected — it's the genuine 0% path.

Fingerprint stealth isn't the whole story — the strongest anti-bot vendors (Akamai, PerimeterX, DataDome) also score behaviour. A click that teleports the cursor to an element's exact centre with no approach path and zero press delay is a tell, even though our CDP events are isTrusted.

With humanize on, the cursor moves like a hand: clicks follow a curved, decelerating Bézier path and land on a jittered point inside the element (never the dead centre); typing uses variable inter-keystroke timing; scrolling eases in segments; drags follow a curve. It's adaptive — every navigation is probed for known anti-bot vendors (cookies / scripts / globals) and a guarded page auto-escalates to full human motion, while ordinary sites stay instant (zero overhead).

What the page's own mousemove

stream sees (this is what a behavioural detector analyses):

trajectory
off (default)
straight lines · dead-centre · instant
human
curved trails · slow-in/slow-out · off-centre landings

Control with --humanize off\|fast\|human

or AGENT_BROWSER_HUMANIZE

. Default off

; the adaptive detector escalates per page.

Driving your real Chrome should never interrupt your work. The agent operates entirely in the background: new tabs open un-focused (in their own colored per-session tab group), the agent never force-fronts a tab, and Emulation.setFocusEmulationEnabled

keeps each agent tab rendering and reporting document.hasFocus()

/ visibilityState: 'visible'

. So screenshots still work, pages aren't render-throttled, and "the tab was hidden the whole session" never becomes its own bot tell. You keep working in your active tab; the agent works alongside you, silently. (Surfacing a tab stays available as an explicit command.)

Don't take our word for it — point your connected Chrome at the toughest public detectors and compare:

— the most thorough fingerprint / lie detectorCreepJS— behavioral + fingerprint scoring with a public methodologybot.incolumitas.com— Webdriver / User-Agent / CDP / NavigatorBrowserScan— the classic automation-marker checklistbot.sannysoft.com·pixelscan.net— consistency & identityiphey.com

We deliberately don't ship our own bot detector — the strongest, most honest benchmark is the market's best detectors run against your real browser.

Variable Default Effect
AGENT_BROWSER_CAPTURE_CONSOLE
off Enable Runtime domain so console / errors capture page output. Off keeps the stealthiest profile.
AGENT_BROWSER_HUMANIZE
off Human-like input motion: off (instant), fast (light eased trajectory), human (full curved trajectory + landing jitter + typing cadence + eased scroll/drag). Also --humanize . Default off ; the adaptive detector auto-escalates pages guarded by Akamai/PerimeterX/DataDome to human .
AGENT_BROWSER_TIMEZONE
unset --launch only. An IANA id (e.g. Asia/Tokyo ) sets the timezone natively (Intl + Date follow, no JS lie) to match a proxy; auto derives one from the locale.
AGENT_BROWSER_BLOCK_WEBRTC
auto --launch only. Auto-forces WebRTC through the proxy when one is set (no real-IP leak). 1 hides the local IP without a proxy; 0 opts out.
AGENT_BROWSER_HIDE_CANVAS
off --launch only. Adds session-stable canvas/audio fingerprint noise. Off by default (noise is itself a "lie").
AGENT_BROWSER_ADAPTIVE_REF
on When a saved @ref moves and the role/name re-query fails, relocate it by fingerprint similarity (high score + clear margin required, else it fails loudly). 0 disables.
AGENT_BROWSER_CLICK_MODE
(auto)
Click strategy. Default scrolls the target into view, dispatches a coordinate click, and falls back to a DOM .click() if a floating layer occludes the point. dom always uses .click() (best for autocomplete/menu items that close on blur); coord is strict coordinate-only (hard-fail on occlusion).

Auto-connect is defaultchrome-use open <url>

drives your existing Chrome instead of launching a new oneExtension-relay transport— a one-click Chrome Web Store extension + native messaging, so there's no debug port and no "Allow remote debugging?" dialogCDP-native stealth— anti-detection via Chrome/CDP overrides rather than JS patches; zero patches when attached to your real Chrome, full patches only for--launch

Humanize— human-like cursor trajectories + adaptive anti-bot handling** Multi-agent isolation**— concurrent agents share one real Chrome via per-session tab groups, no cross-talk** Silent operation**— runs in the background; never steals your foreground tab

Originally based on vercel-labs/agent-browser (Apache-2.0); the projects have since diverged substantially.

Built by

leeguooooo— field notes on AI agents, reverse engineering & Cloudflare Workers at· follow on[blog.misonote.com][X @leeguooooo]

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