Frequently asked questions

Run one line. On a Mac, curl -fsSL https://browsentic.com/install.sh | sh installs the Mac app; on Windows, irm https://browsentic.com/install.ps1 | iex installs the Windows app (experimental); anywhere with Node.js 20 or newer, run npx browsentic@latest setup. Each installs Browsentic Bridge on your computer, asks which browser you use and opens the extension’s store page there (the signed add-on for Firefox). Add it, click Browsentic in the toolbar and enter the code it shows, once. Both parts update themselves from then on.

No. Browsentic runs on the agent CLI login you already have: Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Cursor CLI, Qwen Code or OpenCode. There is no API client in the repository and nothing to paste into a settings field. Browsentic Bridge starts your CLI locally, as you.

Yes. In the side panel’s Schedules tab, set an instruction or a recording to run once at a set time, on chosen days, or every so often. Each run opens its own background tab, does the job, closes the tab and leaves a one-line result on the page you are looking at. A recording replays without an agent and spends no tokens, unless a step no longer fits the page. Runs need the browser open; one that falls due while it is closed runs once when the browser is back. Anything that needs your approval shows a card on the page you are on.

No. It drives the real tab in front of you, with your sessions, cookies, extensions and two-factor state. Nothing is re-authenticated in a throwaway profile.

Neither on its own. Browsentic is a browser harness with three parts: a side panel where you give your agent work and approve what it does, the extension that carries that panel (from a browser store, or a signed add-on for Firefox), and Browsentic Bridge on your computer, which starts your agent CLI. The Bridge also serves an optional MCP endpoint, so Claude Code, Cursor or Zed can drive the same browser from a terminal. The side panel does not depend on it.

Claude in Chrome puts Anthropic’s agent in a Chrome side panel and needs a paid Claude plan. Browsentic runs whichever agent CLI you already have: Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Cursor CLI, Qwen Code or OpenCode, switched with one click. It runs locally, is Apache 2.0 licensed, and works in any Chromium browser and in Firefox. The full comparison has its own page.

Playwright MCP is a server for MCP clients, and its Chrome extension is a bridge that lets that server reach your existing tabs. You drive it from an IDE or a terminal. Browsentic gives you a side panel to type or speak into, with recordings, site maps, approvals and a guardrail policy, and needs no MCP client. Its MCP endpoint is optional.

For the agent part of Atlas, yes. OpenAI retired Atlas on 9 August 2026 and moved browser-based agentic work into ChatGPT and a Chrome extension. Browsentic replaces the part that acted on the page for you, in the browser you already use, so your profile, logins and extensions stay put. It is not a browser, so it does not replace Atlas’s search or bookmarks.

Comet is a Chromium browser built around Perplexity’s assistant and answer engine, so using it means moving into a second browser and keeping a second profile in step. Browsentic adds an agent to the browser you already use, run by the agent CLI you already have, on your own machine. Comet bundles search and a sidebar in one download; Browsentic keeps your browser and your agent.

Browser Use is a library: you write code that builds an agent, and it drives a Chromium it launches or one in its cloud, with an API key you supply. Browsentic is an application: a side panel that drives the real tab you are already signed in to, on the agent subscription you already have. Browser Use suits automating the web at scale from software; Browsentic suits your own work in your own accounts.

Two gates. Browsentic Bridge classifies every WebSocket peer by its handshake Origin, which the browser sets and a page cannot forge, then still requires a pairing token or an origin-bound session key. A page fails the first gate and never reaches the second.

Yes. The side panel runs on Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Cursor CLI, Qwen Code or OpenCode, picked from the popup with one click. Optionally, Browsentic Bridge also serves MCP over stdio, so Cursor, Zed or Claude Desktop can drive the same browser: run claude mcp add browsentic -- browsentic mcp, or the equivalent in your client.

Yes. Every tab gets its own conversation, bound to the tab it started in, so a session carries on there while you look at something else. Three work at once by default and eight can be open, raised with maxConcurrentRuns. A tab another conversation has claimed answers TAB_IN_USE.

Ordinary browsing work on sites you are already signed in to: negotiating a renewal in a support chat, answering a job application from a resume you attached, taking a cancellation to the step that cannot be undone, redoing Friday’s expense report from a recording. Anything that reaches someone other than you pauses and names itself first.

Yes, once you let it. The Live tool switch starts off, and while it is off the agent is not told the tools exist. Turn it on and it drafts a small toolkit of JavaScript for that page, shown to you in full before a line of it runs. One approval covers every later call into it, bound to the tab and site you approved. An MCP client can neither install one nor call one.

Yes. When a site registers tools for agents through WebMCP (document.modelContext), the page snapshot says so, page_listSiteTools returns their schemas, and page_callSiteTool runs one through the site’s own code. Calls are gated like form submits, because the site decides what a tool does. Sites without WebMCP work exactly as before.

Chrome and every Chromium browser: Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera from the Chrome Web Store, and Edge from Edge Add-ons. Firefox 140 or newer gets a Mozilla-signed add-on. Each updates itself. Browsentic Bridge runs on macOS, Windows and Linux; macOS and Windows have an app that brings its own Node.js, and anywhere else needs Node.js 20 or newer. You also need one agent CLI on your PATH: claude, codex, agy, vibe, grok, cursor-agent, qwen or opencode.

Nothing. It is Apache 2.0 licensed and open source. The only cost is whatever your existing agent subscription already costs you.

The extension updates itself from its store, and the Mac and Windows apps offer each new Browsentic Bridge on their Overview tab. From a terminal, npx browsentic@latest update replaces the Bridge and restarts it, and your browser stays paired; the two do not have to be the same version. To remove it, npx browsentic uninstall shows what it will delete, then stops the Bridge, deletes its directories and clears the npx cache. Remove the extension from your browser yourself: right-click its icon, then Remove.

One module in src/lib/actions/page/ and one line in the registry, which publishes it as an MCP tool at the same time. Four conventions are load-bearing: touch document and window only inside execute(), keep underscores out of action names, describe() every input field, and validate with ActionError inside execute().