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Browsentic for Windows

An app that installs Browsentic and runs it from a window, the Windows counterpart of the macOS app. It is the same command and the same daemon as npx browsentic setup: the app carries them inside itself, lays them down in %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic, and then drives them, so nothing here needs a terminal.

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Requires Windows 10 or 11, on x64 or ARM64. Windows is still experimental.

Install

In PowerShell:

irm https://browsentic.com/install.ps1 | iex

That downloads the latest release's installer for your computer's architecture, installs it for you alone, and opens the app. It asks for no administrator. $env:BROWSENTIC_VERSION = '0.8.0' pins a release, and $env:BROWSENTIC_NO_OPEN = '1' installs without opening. Read the script first if you like; it is eighty lines.

From the installer instead

Download Browsentic-<version>-x64-setup.exe, or -arm64-setup.exe on an ARM computer, from the latest release and run it. The installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen stops a downloaded copy with “Windows protected your PC”: press More info, then Run anyway. The one-line install avoids that, because a file PowerShell downloads carries no mark for SmartScreen to check.

The app installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Browsentic, adds itself to the Start menu, and uses the WebView2 runtime that Windows 11 ships with (Windows 10 downloads it during the install if it is missing).

The first screen: what your computer already has

The app opens on six checks and runs them on its own:

Check Passes when If it does not
This computer always —
Node.js runtime node 20 or newer is on your PATH Install downloads the current LTS from nodejs.org into %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic\runtime\node, verified against its published SHA-256. No administrator
Browsentic command %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic\cli holds the version this app carries Install copies it there and writes the browsentic.exe launcher to %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic\bin
Browser extension the same version is unpacked at %USERPROFILE%\browsentic\extension\chrome-mv3 Install unpacks it
A Chromium browser Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera or Chromium is installed Get Chrome opens the download page. Advisory: it does not block you
An AI agent One of claude, codex, agy, vibe, grok, cursor-agent, qwen or opencode is on your PATH Install Claude Code runs npm install --global @anthropic-ai/claude-code. Advisory

Set up everything installs the first three in one click. A browser and an agent are yours to choose, so each has a button of its own. When everything required is in place the app moves on by itself.

Claude Code on Windows also needs Git for Windows, which it runs its shell commands through.

The window

The tabs float at the top; Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+7 switch between them. Ctrl+Shift+D turns the daemon on or off, Ctrl+Shift+R restarts it, and Ctrl+Shift+P gets a new pairing code.

Tab What you do there
Overview Turn the daemon on and off with the power button, restart it, see its address, version and whether the extension is connected and in sync. Copy the extension's folder, or open chrome://extensions in your browser with the folder already on the clipboard
Browsers Get a pairing code with a live countdown, see every paired browser, unpair one or all
Agents See which agent CLIs are ready, switch between them, pick a model, install a missing one, or let Browsentic fix what one still needs
Skills Every skill the router can see and which folder it came from
Activity Your standing approvals, forgettable per site, and the downloads agents captured
Logs %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic\daemon.log, followed live
Settings Light, dark or system appearance for this window; whether the daemon starts with the app; the Browser theme and Guardrails every paired browser uses, the same rows as the extension's settings page, kept in step both ways; browsentic in your terminal; the line that registers Browsentic with an MCP client; uninstall

The Browsentic icon in the notification area shows the daemon's state and has the same on, off and restart, and a left click opens the window.

Closing the window does not stop anything. The app stays in the notification area, and the daemon is a background process of its own, so the side panel and any MCP client keep working with the app closed or quit.

Loading the extension

Browsers load an unpacked extension only by hand. Extensions in Google Chrome (or Edge, or Brave) on the Overview tab opens chrome://extensions with the extension's folder on the clipboard. Turn on Developer mode, press Load unpacked, click the folder picker's address bar, paste, and press Enter. Then open the Browsentic popup and paste a pairing code.

browsentic in your terminal

Settings → “browsentic” in your terminal adds %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic\bin to your user PATH. No administrator is asked for, and nothing else in the PATH changes. Terminals that were already open keep the PATH they started with, so open a new one. After that every command in the CLI reference works, against the same install the app manages.

browsentic.exe is a small program, not a .cmd script, so MCP clients start it directly:

claude mcp add browsentic -- browsentic mcp

If you also have npm install --global browsentic, remove it (npm rm -g browsentic) so there is one command, not two that can drift apart. The Settings tab says so when it finds one.

Updating

The app asks GitHub for a newer release when it opens and every few hours after. When one is out, a card appears at the top of Overview (and in Settings) with Update now: it downloads the new installer, checks it carries a signature from Browsentic's release key, runs it, and reopens the app, which replaces the command and the extension and restarts the daemon. Then press ↻ on the Browsentic card at chrome://extensions, which is the one step no installer can do for you. Check for updates on the same card asks again on the spot.

If an update fails nothing is changed, and the card hands you the PowerShell line, which installs the same release.

browsentic update does not replace an install the app made; it says so and points back here.

Uninstall

Settings → Uninstall… runs browsentic uninstall: it unpairs every browser, stops the daemon and removes %USERPROFILE%\.browsentic and %USERPROFILE%\browsentic, optionally keeping your skills. Remove the Browsentic card at chrome://extensions first. Then uninstall the app itself in Settings › Apps › Installed apps.

Uninstalling only the app, from Installed apps, stops the daemon and takes browsentic off your PATH, and leaves your pairing, settings and skills where they are, as dragging the macOS app to the Trash does.

Building it yourself 

yarn win:app        # → src\windows\target\release\bundle\nsis\Browsentic_<version>_<arch>-setup.exe

That needs Node.js, Yarn and the Rust toolchain. yarn win:preview opens the window in your browser against a stand-in daemon, on any computer. The source is a Tauri app in src/windows/; see internals/windows-app.md.