Browser Use Automation

Browser-Use Automation Skill

You are an expert in browser automation using browser-use, a powerful CLI tool designed for persistent, multi-session browser automation. When the user asks you to automate complex browser workflows, manage sessions, or perform long-running automation tasks, follow these detailed instructions.

Core Principles

1. Persistent sessions -- Maintain browser state across multiple automation runs.
2. Multi-session support -- Run multiple isolated browser sessions in parallel.
3. Flexible browser modes -- Support for Chromium (headless), Real (headed), and Remote browser instances.
4. Cookie management -- Export, import, and manage cookies for authentication persistence.
5. JavaScript execution -- Execute custom JavaScript in page context for advanced automation.

Installation

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# Install via npm
npm install -g browser-use

# Or use with npx
npx browser-use --version

# Install with Python
pip install browser-use

# Verify installation
browser-use --help

Browser Modes

Chromium Mode (Default Headless)

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# Launch Chromium in headless mode
browser-use start --mode chromium --headless

# With custom user data directory
browser-use start --mode chromium --user-data-dir ./browser-data

# With custom viewport
browser-use start --mode chromium --viewport 1920x1080

Real Browser Mode (Headed)

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# Launch visible Chrome browser
browser-use start --mode real --browser chrome

# Launch Firefox
browser-use start --mode real --browser firefox

# Launch with specific profile
browser-use start --mode real --browser chrome --profile "Profile 1"

Remote Browser Mode

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# Connect to remote Chrome DevTools Protocol
browser-use start --mode remote --cdp-url ws://localhost:9222

# Connect to Selenium Grid
browser-use start --mode remote --selenium-url http://localhost:4444/wd/hub

Session Management

Creating and Managing Sessions

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# Create named session
browser-use session create --name "user-session-1" --persist

# List all sessions
browser-use session list

# Attach to existing session
browser-use session attach --name "user-session-1"

# Delete session
browser-use session delete --name "user-session-1"

# Export session state
browser-use session export --name "user-session-1" --output ./session-state.json

# Import session state
browser-use session import --input ./session-state.json --name "restored-session"

Session List Output:

jsonCopy code
{
  "sessions": [
    {
      "name": "user-session-1",
      "id": "abc123",
      "created": "2024-02-12T10:00:00Z",
      "lastActive": "2024-02-12T10:30:00Z",
      "persistent": true,
      "tabs": 3
    },
    {
      "name": "test-session-2",
      "id": "def456",
      "created": "2024-02-12T11:00:00Z",
      "lastActive": "2024-02-12T11:15:00Z",
      "persistent": false,
      "tabs": 1
    }
  ]
}

Multi-Session Parallel Execution

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# Run multiple sessions in parallel
browser-use parallel --sessions "session-1,session-2,session-3" \
  --command "navigate --url https://example.com"

# Run different commands per session
browser-use parallel \
  --session session-1 --command "navigate --url https://site1.com" \
  --session session-2 --command "navigate --url https://site2.com" \
  --session session-3 --command "navigate --url https://site3.com"

Cookie Management

Export and Import Cookies

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# Export cookies from session
browser-use cookies export --session "user-session-1" --output cookies.json

# Export specific domain cookies
browser-use cookies export --session "user-session-1" --domain "example.com" --output example-cookies.json

# Import cookies into session
browser-use cookies import --session "user-session-1" --input cookies.json

# Import cookies for specific domain
browser-use cookies import --session "user-session-1" --input auth-cookies.json --domain "app.example.com"

# Clear all cookies
browser-use cookies clear --session "user-session-1"

# Clear cookies for specific domain
browser-use cookies clear --session "user-session-1" --domain "example.com"

Cookie Export Format:

jsonCopy code
{
  "cookies": [
    {
      "name": "session_token",
      "value": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...",
      "domain": ".example.com",
      "path": "/",
      "expires": 1707753600,
      "httpOnly": true,
      "secure": true,
      "sameSite": "Lax"
    },
    {
      "name": "user_preferences",
      "value": "theme=dark&lang=en",
      "domain": "app.example.com",
      "path": "/",
      "expires": 1739289600,
      "httpOnly": false,
      "secure": true,
      "sameSite": "Strict"
    }
  ]
}

Cookie-Based Authentication Persistence

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#!/bin/bash
# auth-persist.sh - Login once, reuse session

SESSION_NAME="authenticated-user"

# Check if session exists
if browser-use session list | grep -q "$SESSION_NAME"; then
  echo "Using existing authenticated session"
  browser-use session attach --name "$SESSION_NAME"
else
  echo "Creating new authenticated session"
  browser-use session create --name "$SESSION_NAME" --persist

  # Perform login
  browser-use navigate --url "https://app.example.com/login"
  browser-use type --selector "#email" --text "user@example.com"
  browser-use type --selector "#password" --text "$PASSWORD"
  browser-use click --selector "button[type='submit']"
  browser-use wait --selector ".dashboard" --timeout 10000

  # Export cookies for backup
  browser-use cookies export --session "$SESSION_NAME" --output auth-cookies.json
  echo "Session authenticated and cookies saved"
fi

# Now use authenticated session
browser-use navigate --url "https://app.example.com/dashboard"

JavaScript Execution

Execute JavaScript in Page Context

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# Execute simple JavaScript
browser-use execute --script "return document.title"

# Execute with arguments
browser-use execute --script "return arguments[0] + arguments[1]" --args "[5, 10]"

# Execute and save result
browser-use execute --script "return document.querySelectorAll('.item').length" --output item-count.json

# Execute script from file
browser-use execute --script-file ./custom-script.js

Example Script File (custom-script.js):

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// Extract all product data from page
const products = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('.product-card')).map(card => {
  return {
    name: card.querySelector('.product-name')?.textContent.trim(),
    price: card.querySelector('.product-price')?.textContent.trim(),
    image: card.querySelector('.product-image')?.src,
    rating: card.querySelector('.rating')?.getAttribute('data-rating'),
    available: !card.querySelector('.out-of-stock')
  };
});

return { products, total: products.length };

bashCopy code
# Execute the script
browser-use execute --script-file ./extract-products.js --output products.json

Advanced JavaScript Patterns

bashCopy code
# Wait for dynamic content with custom condition
browser-use execute --script "
  return new Promise(resolve => {
    const check = () => {
      if (document.querySelectorAll('.loaded-item').length >= 10) {
        resolve(true);
      } else {
        setTimeout(check, 100);
      }
    };
    check();
  });
"

# Manipulate page elements
browser-use execute --script "
  document.querySelectorAll('.annoying-popup').forEach(el => el.remove());
  document.body.style.backgroundColor = '#f0f0f0';
  return 'Page modified';
"

# Trigger events
browser-use execute --script "
  const event = new Event('custom-event');
  document.dispatchEvent(event);
  return 'Event triggered';
"

Navigation and Page Interaction

Advanced Navigation

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# Navigate with custom headers
browser-use navigate --url "https://api.example.com" \
  --headers '{"Authorization": "Bearer token123", "X-Custom": "value"}'

# Navigate with POST data
browser-use navigate --url "https://example.com/search" \
  --method POST \
  --data '{"query": "automation", "filters": ["category:tools"]}'

# Navigate with referer
browser-use navigate --url "https://example.com/protected" \
  --referer "https://example.com/home"

# Navigate and wait for specific event
browser-use navigate --url "https://example.com" \
  --wait-for-event "load"

Page Interaction Commands

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# Scroll to element
browser-use scroll --selector ".footer" --behavior smooth

# Scroll by pixels
browser-use scroll --delta "0,500"

# Scroll to top/bottom
browser-use scroll --position top
browser-use scroll --position bottom

# Hover over element
browser-use hover --selector ".dropdown-trigger"

# Focus element
browser-use focus --selector "input#search"

# Select dropdown option
browser-use select --selector "select#country" --value "US"

# Upload file
browser-use upload --selector "input[type='file']" --file ./document.pdf

# Download file
browser-use download --url "https://example.com/file.pdf" --output ./downloaded.pdf

Tab Management

Multi-Tab Operations

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# Open new tab
browser-use tab new --url "https://example.com"

# List all tabs
browser-use tab list

# Switch to tab by index
browser-use tab switch --index 0

# Switch to tab by URL pattern
browser-use tab switch --url-pattern "example.com"

# Close tab
browser-use tab close --index 1

# Close all tabs except current
browser-use tab close --others

# Duplicate tab
browser-use tab duplicate --index 0

Tab List Output:

jsonCopy code
{
  "tabs": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "url": "https://example.com",
      "title": "Example Domain",
      "active": true
    },
    {
      "index": 1,
      "url": "https://google.com",
      "title": "Google",
      "active": false
    }
  ],
  "total": 2
}

Network Monitoring and Interception

Monitor Network Requests

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# Start network monitoring
browser-use network start --filter "*.json"

# Navigate and capture requests
browser-use navigate --url "https://api.example.com"

# Get network log
browser-use network log --output network-requests.json

# Stop monitoring
browser-use network stop

Network Log Format:

jsonCopy code
{
  "requests": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.example.com/users",
      "method": "GET",
      "status": 200,
      "responseTime": 234,
      "size": 1024,
      "timestamp": "2024-02-12T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Request Interception

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# Intercept and modify requests
browser-use intercept --pattern "*/api/*" \
  --modify-headers '{"X-Custom-Header": "value"}' \
  --modify-response-status 200

# Block specific requests
browser-use intercept --pattern "*.jpg" --block

# Mock API responses
browser-use intercept --pattern "*/api/users" \
  --mock-response ./mock-users.json

TypeScript/JavaScript Integration

typescriptCopy code
import { BrowserUse } from 'browser-use';

interface BrowserUseConfig {
  mode: 'chromium' | 'real' | 'remote';
  headless?: boolean;
  viewport?: { width: number; height: number };
  userDataDir?: string;
}

class BrowserAutomation {
  private browser: BrowserUse;
  private sessionName: string;

  constructor(sessionName: string, config: BrowserUseConfig = { mode: 'chromium' }) {
    this.sessionName = sessionName;
    this.browser = new BrowserUse(config);
  }

  async start(): Promise<void> {
    await this.browser.session.create({
      name: this.sessionName,
      persist: true,
    });
  }

  async navigate(url: string, options?: { waitUntil?: string }): Promise<void> {
    await this.browser.navigate({ url, ...options });
  }

  async executeScript<T>(script: string | Function, args: any[] = []): Promise<T> {
    const scriptStr = typeof script === 'function' ? script.toString() : script;
    const result = await this.browser.execute({
      script: scriptStr,
      args,
    });
    return result.value as T;
  }

  async saveAuthCookies(filepath: string): Promise<void> {
    await this.browser.cookies.export({
      session: this.sessionName,
      output: filepath,
    });
  }

  async loadAuthCookies(filepath: string): Promise<void> {
    await this.browser.cookies.import({
      session: this.sessionName,
      input: filepath,
    });
  }

  async cleanup(): Promise<void> {
    await this.browser.session.delete({ name: this.sessionName });
  }
}

// Usage example
async function automateWorkflow() {
  const automation = new BrowserAutomation('my-workflow-session');

  try {
    await automation.start();

    // Check if we have saved auth cookies
    const cookiesExist = await fs.promises.access('./auth-cookies.json')
      .then(() => true)
      .catch(() => false);

    if (cookiesExist) {
      // Restore authenticated session
      await automation.loadAuthCookies('./auth-cookies.json');
      await automation.navigate('https://app.example.com/dashboard');
    } else {
      // Perform fresh login
      await automation.navigate('https://app.example.com/login');
      // ... login steps ...
      await automation.saveAuthCookies('./auth-cookies.json');
    }

    // Execute custom JavaScript
    const itemCount = await automation.executeScript<number>(() => {
      return document.querySelectorAll('.item').length;
    });

    console.log(`Found ${itemCount} items on page`);

  } finally {
    await automation.cleanup();
  }
}

Python Integration

pythonCopy code
import json
from browser_use import BrowserUse

class BrowserAutomation:
    def __init__(self, session_name: str, mode: str = "chromium", headless: bool = True):
        self.session_name = session_name
        self.browser = BrowserUse(mode=mode, headless=headless)

    def start(self):
        self.browser.session.create(name=self.session_name, persist=True)

    def navigate(self, url: str, wait_until: str = "load"):
        self.browser.navigate(url=url, wait_until=wait_until)

    def execute_script(self, script: str, *args):
        return self.browser.execute(script=script, args=list(args))

    def save_cookies(self, filepath: str):
        self.browser.cookies.export(session=self.session_name, output=filepath)

    def load_cookies(self, filepath: str):
        self.browser.cookies.import_(session=self.session_name, input=filepath)

    def cleanup(self):
        self.browser.session.delete(name=self.session_name)

# Usage
def main():
    automation = BrowserAutomation("my-session")

    try:
        automation.start()

        # Try to restore session
        try:
            automation.load_cookies("auth-cookies.json")
            automation.navigate("https://app.example.com/dashboard")
            print("Restored authenticated session")
        except FileNotFoundError:
            # Fresh login
            automation.navigate("https://app.example.com/login")
            # ... perform login ...
            automation.save_cookies("auth-cookies.json")
            print("New session authenticated")

        # Extract data with JavaScript
        data = automation.execute_script("""
            return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('.data-item')).map(el => ({
                id: el.dataset.id,
                text: el.textContent.trim()
            }));
        """)

        print(f"Extracted {len(data)} items")

    finally:
        automation.cleanup()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Advanced Patterns

Long-Running Monitoring

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#!/bin/bash
# monitor-site.sh - Continuous site monitoring

SESSION="monitor-session"
INTERVAL=300  # 5 minutes

browser-use session create --name "$SESSION" --persist
browser-use navigate --url "https://status.example.com"

while true; do
  # Execute monitoring script
  STATUS=$(browser-use execute --script "
    const statusEl = document.querySelector('.status-indicator');
    return {
      status: statusEl.textContent,
      color: getComputedStyle(statusEl).backgroundColor,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
    };
  ")

  echo "$(date): $STATUS" >> monitor.log

  # Check for failures
  if echo "$STATUS" | grep -q "down"; then
    browser-use snapshot --output "failure-$(date +%s).png"
    # Send alert
    curl -X POST https://alerts.example.com/notify -d "$STATUS"
  fi

  sleep $INTERVAL
  browser-use execute --script "location.reload()"
done

Parallel Session Processing

typescriptCopy code
async function processMultipleAccounts(accounts: Array<{ email: string; password: string }>) {
  const sessions = await Promise.all(
    accounts.map(async (account, index) => {
      const sessionName = `account-${index}`;
      const browser = new BrowserAutomation(sessionName);

      await browser.start();
      await browser.navigate('https://app.example.com/login');

      // Login for each account
      await browser.executeScript((email: string, password: string) => {
        (document.querySelector('#email') as HTMLInputElement).value = email;
        (document.querySelector('#password') as HTMLInputElement).value = password;
        (document.querySelector('button[type="submit"]') as HTMLButtonElement).click();
      }, account.email, account.password);

      // Wait for dashboard
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 3000));

      // Save session
      await browser.saveAuthCookies(`./cookies-${index}.json`);

      return browser;
    })
  );

  return sessions;
}

Best Practices

1. Use persistent sessions for workflows requiring authentication state.
2. Export cookies regularly to recover from session failures.
3. Name sessions descriptively to identify purpose when listing sessions.
4. Clean up sessions after completion to avoid resource leaks.
5. Use JavaScript execution for complex data extraction that CLI commands can't handle.
6. Monitor network requests to verify API interactions and troubleshoot issues.
7. Implement retry logic for transient failures in long-running automations.
8. Use multi-session parallelism to process multiple accounts or sites simultaneously.
9. Validate session state before critical operations to ensure authentication persists.
10. Document session requirements for each automation workflow.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

1. Not cleaning up sessions -- Leads to resource exhaustion.
2. Hardcoding credentials -- Use environment variables or secure vaults.
3. Ignoring session expiration -- Implement cookie refresh or re-authentication.
4. Over-reliance on delays -- Use event-based waiting instead of fixed sleeps.
5. Single session for parallel tasks -- Creates race conditions and state conflicts.
6. Not backing up cookies -- Session loss requires re-authentication.
7. Ignoring network errors -- Implement proper error handling and retries.
8. Mixing session contexts -- Keep sessions isolated to avoid state bleeding.
9. Not validating JavaScript results -- Always check return values for expected structure.
10. Running too many parallel sessions -- Respect system resources and rate limits.

Debugging and Troubleshooting

Enable Debug Mode

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# Verbose logging
browser-use --debug navigate --url "https://example.com"

# Save console output
browser-use --console-output ./console.log navigate --url "https://example.com"

# Take screenshot on error
browser-use --screenshot-on-error ./errors/ navigate --url "https://example.com"

# Show DevTools
browser-use start --mode real --devtools

Session Recovery

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# Check session health
browser-use session health --name "my-session"

# Recover corrupted session
browser-use session recover --name "my-session" --backup ./session-backup.json

# Force delete stuck session
browser-use session delete --name "my-session" --force

Integration with CI/CD

yamlCopy code
# .github/workflows/browser-automation.yml
name: Browser Automation Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  automation:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install browser-use
        run: npm install -g browser-use

      - name: Run automation tests
        env:
          APP_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.APP_PASSWORD }}
        run: |
          browser-use session create --name ci-session
          bash ./automation-script.sh
          browser-use session delete --name ci-session

      - name: Upload artifacts
        if: failure()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: failure-screenshots
          path: ./screenshots/

This skill enables powerful, persistent browser automation with session management, making it ideal for long-running workflows, authenticated applications, and complex multi-step automations that AI agents need to orchestrate.