Chrome | agent-browser

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:

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

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:

agent-browser open example.com

To be explicit:

agent-browser --engine chrome open example.com

Custom Binary

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

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

Or via environment variable:

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

Chrome-Specific Features

These features are available only with Chrome:

Feature	Flag
Browser extensions	`--extension <path>`
Persistent profiles	`--profile <path>` (sets Chrome's `--user-data-dir`)
Storage state	`--state <path>`
File URL access	`--allow-file-access`
Headless screenshot scrollbars	`--hide-scrollbars false` keeps native scrollbars visible
Headed mode	`--headed`
Custom launch args	`--args <args>`

Containers and CI

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

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).