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:

PlatformLocations checked
macOS

/Applications/Google Chrome.app, /Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app, /Applications/Chromium.app, Playwright Chromium cache

Linux

google-chrome, google-chrome-stable, chromium-browser, chromium in PATH, Playwright Chromium 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 Chromium via Playwright.

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:

FeatureFlag
Browser extensions--extension <path>
Persistent profiles--profile <path>
Storage state--state <path>
File URL access--allow-file-access
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).