Quick Start - Browser-act

There are two fast paths:

Use stealth-extract when you only need to read page content.
Use a browser session when you need to click, type, log in, or inspect state between steps.

Path A: Extract content

Use stealth-extract for JS-rendered pages, protected content, and one-off collection.

Path B: Automate a browser

Open a browser session, inspect page state, and interact with elements by index.

Path A: extract content

Use this when basic fetchers cannot handle JavaScript rendering, anti-bot checks, or region restrictions:

browser-act stealth-extract https://example.com

The command opens a stealth browser, waits for the page to render, returns content as Markdown, and closes the browser. You do not need to manage a browser or session. Common options:

# Return HTML instead of Markdown
browser-act stealth-extract https://example.com --content-type html

# Use a dynamic proxy for a specific region
browser-act stealth-extract https://example.com --dynamic-proxy JP

# Save the result to a file
browser-act stealth-extract https://example.com --output ./page.md

Use this path for protected content, batch collection, and information retrieval. See Anti-detection & Blocking.

Path B: automate a browser

Use this path when the task requires interaction.

# 1. List available browsers
browser-act browser list

# 2. Open a browser and start a named session
browser-act --session my-task browser open <browser_id> https://example.com

# 3. Read the current page state
browser-act --session my-task state

# 4. Interact with elements by index
browser-act --session my-task click 4
browser-act --session my-task input 2 "hello@example.com"

# 5. Close the session when finished
browser-act session close my-task

The core loop

Open a page with browser open.
Read state to see the current URL, title, and indexed elements.
Interact with click, input, select, and related commands.
Read state again after the page changes.
Repeat until the task is complete.
Close the session.

Understand `state`

state is the agent’s view of the page. It returns compact text with indexed elements:

url=https://example.com/login
title=Login

*[1]<div id=login-form />
  *[2]<input type=email placeholder=Email address />
  *[3]<input type=password placeholder=Password />
  *[4]<button id=submit />
    Sign In
  *[5]<a />
    Forgot password?

Each [N] is an element index:

browser-act --session login input 2 "user@example.com"
browser-act --session login input 3 "password123"
browser-act --session login click 4

Indexes can change after navigation, page updates, or DOM changes. Call state again before acting on a changed page.

Chain commands carefully

[!TIP] Chain commands only when each step is independent. If the next action depends on page output, run state first and decide from the result.

Use && for independent steps:

browser-act --session s1 input 2 "user" && \
browser-act --session s1 input 3 "pass" && \
browser-act --session s1 click 4

Run commands separately when the next action depends on intermediate output, such as reading state before choosing what to click.

Learn more

Browser Modes

Pick Chrome, chrome-direct, stealth privacy, or stealth fixed identity.

Anti-detection & Blocking

Use stealth, CAPTCHA solving, proxy options, and remote handoff.

Better Headless Browser

Keep browser work headless while preserving stealth and handoff.

Concurrency & Isolation

Separate browsers, sessions, accounts, and one-off jobs.

Command Reference

Open the full CLI command index.

Skill Forge

Turn a successful exploration into a reusable scraping skill.

Documentation Index