Browser - Direct Browser Control

Overview

Direct control of browser interactions. Use for simple, single actions.

When to Use

browser provides low-level, precise control over browser operations:

• When you need explicit control over each action
• When you want to verify results at each step
• As a fallback when browser-use agent fails or gets stuck
• Any browser automation task (navigation, clicking, form filling, etc.)

Note: browser and browser-use are complementary. Both can accomplish the same tasks - browser gives precise step-by-step control, while browser-use provides high-level task automation.

Available Actions

Action	Description
get_browser_state	Get current browser state including tabs, DOM content, and highlighted screenshot
browser.get_element_info	Get element details by index (xpath, position, attributes, visibility)
browser.search	Google search
browser.navigate	Navigate to URL
browser.go_back	Go back
browser.wait	Wait for condition
browser.click	Click element
browser.input	Input text into field
browser.switch	Switch to another tab by tab_id
browser.close	Close a tab by tab_id
browser.extract	LLM extracts structured data from page markdown
browser.scroll	Scroll page
browser.send_keys	Send keyboard keys
browser.find_text	Scroll to and find text
browser.dropdown_options	Get dropdown options
browser.select_dropdown	Select dropdown option
browser.evaluate	Execute JavaScript in browser
browser.hover	Hover on element
browser.download_media	Download media from URL
browser.get_html_content	Get HTML content and save to file
browser.reload_page	Refresh current page
browser.start_console_logging	Start monitoring console logs (console.log/warn/error)
browser.stop_console_logging	Stop console logging and retrieve all logs
browser.start_network_logging	Start monitoring network traffic (requests/responses)
browser.stop_network_logging	Stop network logging and get HAR file

Key Actions

Getting Started

• get_browser_state - Always call first to see current state

Navigation

• browser.navigate - Go to URL
• browser.go_back - Go back
• browser.reload_page - Refresh page

Interaction

• browser.click - Click element
• browser.input - Type text
• browser.send_keys - Send keyboard keys
• browser.hover - Hover on element

Data & Info

• browser.get_element_info - Inspect element details (xpath, position, attributes)
• browser.extract - LLM extracts structured data from page
• browser.get_html_content - Get full HTML
• browser.find_text - Find and scroll to text

Tabs

• browser.switch - Switch to tab by tab_id (last 4 chars of target_id)
• browser.close - Close tab by tab_id

Advanced

• browser.evaluate - Execute custom JavaScript

Debugging & Testing

• browser.start_console_logging - Start monitoring console logs
• browser.stop_console_logging - Stop and retrieve console logs (saved to file)
• browser.start_network_logging - Start monitoring network traffic
• browser.stop_network_logging - Stop and retrieve network logs as HAR file

Use case: Website testing, local frontend/backend debugging, reverse engineering Workflow: Call start_* first, perform actions, then call stop_* to get logs

Relationship with browser-use

browser and browser-use are complementary, not exclusive:

• browser-use: High-level, task-oriented sub-agent (describe goal, agent figures out steps)
• browser: Low-level, precise control (explicit step-by-step operations)

When to prefer browser-use:

• Complex tasks with long workflows
• When describing the goal is easier than specifying steps

When to prefer browser:

• Need precise control over each action
• Want to verify intermediate results
• browser-use failed or got stuck (use as fallback)

Best practice: Try browser-use for complex tasks first, fallback to browser for manual control if needed.

Best Practices

1. Call get_browser_state first to see available elements
2. Use browser.get_element_info to inspect element details (xpath, attributes, etc.)
3. Use element indices/IDs from browser state
4. Tab IDs are last 4 characters of target_id
5. Use browser.extract for LLM-based extraction from page markdown
6. Use browser.evaluate for custom JavaScript operations

Manual Control Pattern (Fallback from browser-use)

🎯 Iterative Control Loop

Use this pattern when browser-use fails or you need precise control:

1. get_browser_state    → See page state, available elements
2. browser.{action}     → Perform action (click, input, navigate...)
3. get_browser_state    → Verify result, plan next step
4. Repeat until complete

This pattern works for any task - form filling, navigation, data extraction, etc. It's the manual alternative to browser-use's autonomous approach.