CDP —
browser-harness-js
skill
Custom codegen'd CDP SDK (every method from browser_protocol.json + js_protocol.json gets a typed wrapper) plus a tiny HTTP server that holds one persistent CDP
Session
. The
browser-harness-js
CLI auto-starts the server on first use and forwards JS snippets to it.
The SDK lives in the skill's
sdk/
directory. In the rest of this doc,
macOS (Apple Silicon + Homebrew)
command -v browser-harness-js
/dev/null || ln -sf < skill-dir
/sdk/browser-harness-js /opt/homebrew/bin/browser-harness-js
macOS (Intel) / most Linux — may need sudo
command -v browser-harness-js
/dev/null || ln -sf < skill-dir
/sdk/browser-harness-js /usr/local/bin/browser-harness-js
Linux without sudo (ensure ~/.local/bin is on PATH)
command -v browser-harness-js
/dev/null || { mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && ln -sf < skill-dir
/sdk/browser-harness-js ~/.local/bin/browser-harness-js ; } The CLI auto-installs bun on first run if it's missing (the server is Bun-native). Set BROWSER_HARNESS_SKIP_BUN_INSTALL=1 to opt out. How to use Just run browser-harness-js '
' . The first call spawns the server in the background; subsequent calls hit the same process and so reuse the same session , the same WebSocket to Chrome, and any globals you set. browser-harness-js 'await session.connect()' browser-harness-js 'await session.Page.navigate({url:"https://example.com"})' browser-harness-js '(await session.Runtime.evaluate({expression:"document.title",returnByValue:true})).result.value' Output is the raw result content — no {ok,result} envelope. Result type stdout string bare text, no JSON quotes (e.g. Example Domain ) number / boolean 42 , true object / array (non-empty) compact JSON (e.g. {"frameId":"..."} , [1,2,3] ) undefined / null / "" / {} / [] empty (no output) Errors go to stderr , exit code 1 . The CDP error message and JS stack are printed verbatim, e.g.: Error: CDP -32602: invalid params at _call (.../session.ts:117:33) ... Detect failure with if browser-harness-js '...'; then ...; else handle_error; fi or by checking $? . Multi-line snippets via stdin (heredoc). Important: a multi-statement snippet does NOT auto-return the last expression — write return X explicitly. Single-expression snippets passed as the first argument DO auto-return. browser-harness-js << 'EOF' const tabs = await listPageTargets(); globalThis.tid = tabs[0].targetId; await session.use(globalThis.tid); return globalThis.tid; EOF CLI commands Command Behavior browser-harness-js ' ' Auto-start server if needed, eval the JS, print result. browser-harness-js < /DevToolsActivePort directly. { wsUrl } You already have ws://…/devtools/browser/\ (e.g. piped from elsewhere). await session . connect ( { profileDir : '/Users/\ /Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome' } ) await session . connect ( { wsUrl : 'ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/\ ' } ) Profile paths by OS — use these with { profileDir } : macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/\ (e.g. Google/Chrome , Comet , BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser , Arc/User Data ) Linux: ~/.config/\ (e.g. google-chrome , chromium , BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser ) Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\\ \User Data (e.g. Google\Chrome , Microsoft\Edge , BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser ) Per-candidate WS-open timeout defaults to 5s — live browsers answer with open/close within ~100ms, so 5s is already generous. The only case where 5s is too short is when Chrome is showing the Allow popup and waiting on the user to click. If you expect that, pass timeoutMs: 30000 : await session . connect ( { profileDir : '/Users/\ /Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome' , timeoutMs : 30_000 } ) If you see No detected browser accepted a connection — the browsers have DevToolsActivePort files but none are currently serving WS. Most common cause: remote-debugging is enabled but the user hasn't clicked Allow on the prompt yet. Tell them to click Allow, then retry (or bump timeoutMs ). Picking a target (tab) After connect() , call session.use(targetId) once; subsequent page-level calls (Page/DOM/Runtime/Network/etc.) auto-route to that target's sessionId. Browser.* and Target.* calls always hit the browser endpoint. const tabs = await listPageTargets ( ) // no args; uses the connected session const sid = await session . use ( tabs [ 0 ] . targetId ) await session . Page . enable ( ) await session . Page . navigate ( { url : 'https://example.com' } ) listPageTargets() uses CDP's Target.getTargets (not /json ), so it works on Chrome 144+ too. It already filters out chrome:// and devtools:// URLs. Equivalent raw call: const { targetInfos } = await session . Target . getTargets ( { } ) const tabs = targetInfos . filter ( t => t . type === 'page' && ! t . url . startsWith ( 'chrome://' ) && ! t . url . startsWith ( 'devtools://' ) ) To switch tabs: session.use(otherTargetId) . To detach: session.setActiveSession(undefined) . Events // Subscribe (returns an unsubscribe fn) const off = session . onEvent ( ( method , params , sessionId ) => { ... } ) // Or wait for a single matching event with optional predicate + timeout await session . Network . enable ( ) const ev = await session . waitFor ( 'Page.frameNavigated' , ( p ) => p . frame . url . includes ( 'example.com' ) , 10_000 ) Persisting state across calls Each snippet runs inside its own async wrapper, so its let / const declarations vanish when it returns. To carry data forward, attach to globalThis : browser-harness-js '(await listPageTargets()).forEach((t,i)=>globalThis["tab"+i]=t.targetId)' browser-harness-js 'await session.use(globalThis.tab0)' browser-harness-js 'await session.Page.navigate({url:"https://example.com"})' session itself, the active sessionId, and event subscribers are already preserved by the server — globals are only needed for ad-hoc data. Connecting to a running Chrome (chrome://inspect flow) When attaching to the user's already-running browser: Try await session.connect() first (no args) — auto-detect handles every Chromium-based browser via DevToolsActivePort . If it returns, you're done. If auto-detect fails with No running browser with remote debugging detected , the user needs to turn it on. Open the inspect page:
macOS — prefer AppleScript over open -a (reuses current profile, avoids the profile picker)
osascript -e 'open location "chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging"'
Linux
google-chrome 'chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging'
or: chromium, google-chrome-stable
Windows (PowerShell)
Start-Process chrome
'chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging'
Only macOS's AppleScript path avoids the profile picker; Linux/Windows may prompt the user to pick a profile first.
Tick "Discover network targets"
in chrome://inspect, then click
Allow
when Chrome prompts.
If auto-detect picks the wrong browser
(multiple running, you want a specific one): list them with
await detectBrowsers()
, then
await session.connect({ profileDir:
/sdk/generated.ts | head Regenerating the SDK When the upstream protocol JSONs change, replace sdk/browser_protocol.json and/or sdk/js_protocol.json and re-run: cd < skill-dir
/sdk && bun gen.ts browser-harness-js --restart
pick up the new bindings
Files
All paths are relative to