Chrome

Chrome (and Chromium) is the default browser engine. agent-browser discovers, launches, and manages the Chrome process automatically via the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP).

Binary Discovery

When no --executable-path is provided, agent-browser searches for Chrome in this order:

<table> <thead> <tr><th>Platform</th><th>Locations checked</th></tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>macOS</td> <td> <code>/Applications/Google Chrome.app</code>, <code>/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app</code>, <code>/Applications/Chromium.app</code>, <code>/Applications/Brave Browser.app</code>, Puppeteer cache (<code>~/.cache/puppeteer/chrome/</code> or <code>PUPPETEER_CACHE_DIR</code>), Chrome for Testing cache </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Linux</td> <td> <code>google-chrome</code>, <code>google-chrome-stable</code>, <code>chromium-browser</code>, <code>chromium</code> in PATH, Puppeteer cache (<code>~/.cache/puppeteer/chrome/</code> or <code>PUPPETEER_CACHE_DIR</code>), Chrome for Testing cache </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Windows</td> <td> <code>%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe</code>, <code>C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe</code>, <code>C:\Program Files (x86)\...\chrome.exe</code> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

If Chrome is not found, run agent-browser install to download Chrome from Chrome for Testing.

Usage

Chrome is the default engine -- no --engine flag is needed:

bash

agent-browser open example.com

To be explicit:

bash

agent-browser --engine chrome open example.com

Custom Binary

Point to any Chromium-based browser with --executable-path:

bash

agent-browser --executable-path /path/to/chromium open example.com

Or via environment variable:

bash

export AGENT_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/path/to/chromium
agent-browser open example.com

Chrome-Specific Features

These features are available only with Chrome:

<table> <thead> <tr><th>Feature</th><th>Flag</th></tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr><td>Browser extensions</td><td><code>--extension <path></code></td></tr> <tr><td>Persistent profiles</td><td><code>--profile <path></code> (sets Chrome's <code>--user-data-dir</code>)</td></tr> <tr><td>Storage state</td><td><code>--state <path></code></td></tr> <tr><td>File URL access</td><td><code>--allow-file-access</code></td></tr> <tr><td>Headed mode</td><td><code>--headed</code></td></tr> <tr><td>Custom launch args</td><td><code>--args <args></code></td></tr> </tbody> </table>

Containers and CI

In Docker, CI runners, or other sandboxed environments, Chrome's user namespace sandbox may need to be disabled:

bash

agent-browser --args "--no-sandbox" open example.com

agent-browser automatically adds --no-sandbox when it detects a container environment (Docker, Podman, running as root).