Lightpanda#

Lightpanda is a headless browser engine built from scratch in Zig for machines. It starts instantly, uses 10x less memory than Chrome, and executes 10x faster.

agent-browser manages Lightpanda the same way it manages Chrome -- spawning the process, connecting via CDP, and shutting it down. All downstream commands (snapshot, click, fill, screenshot, etc.) work through the same CDP protocol path.

Installation#

Install the Lightpanda binary before using it with agent-browser:

Platform	Command
macOS (Apple Silicon)	`curl -L -o lightpanda https://github.com/lightpanda-io/browser/releases/download/nightly/lightpanda-aarch64-macos && chmod a+x ./lightpanda`
Linux (x86_64)	`curl -L -o lightpanda https://github.com/lightpanda-io/browser/releases/download/nightly/lightpanda-x86_64-linux && chmod a+x ./lightpanda`

Move the binary somewhere in your PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin/lightpanda or ~/.local/bin/lightpanda).

See the Lightpanda installation docs for more options.

Usage#

Use the --engine flag to select Lightpanda:

agent-browser --engine lightpanda open example.com
agent-browser --engine lightpanda snapshot
agent-browser --engine lightpanda screenshot

Or set it as the default via environment variable:

export AGENT_BROWSER_ENGINE=lightpanda
agent-browser open example.com

Or in your agent-browser.json config:

{
  "engine": "lightpanda"
}

Custom Binary Path#

If the lightpanda binary is not in your PATH, use --executable-path:

agent-browser --engine lightpanda --executable-path /path/to/lightpanda open example.com

Differences from Chrome#

Lightpanda is a purpose-built headless engine. Some Chrome-specific features are not available:

Feature	Status
Extensions (`--extension`)	Not supported
Persistent profiles (`--profile`)	Not supported
Storage state (`--state`)	Not supported
File access (`--allow-file-access`)	Not supported
Headed mode (`--headed`)	Not applicable (headless only)
Screenshots	Depends on Lightpanda CDP support

agent-browser returns a clear error if you combine --engine lightpanda with unsupported flags.

When to Use Lightpanda#

Lightpanda is a good fit for:

Fast web scraping and data extraction
AI agent workflows where speed and low memory matter
CI/CD environments with constrained resources
High-volume parallel automation

Use Chrome when you need full browser fidelity, extensions, or persistent profiles.