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.