browser-hybrid 0.2.4

Chrome DevTools with accessibility-tree semantics for browser automation

Browser Hybrid

Chrome DevTools with accessibility-tree semantics for browser automation.

Use your authenticated Chrome sessions with agent-browser-like element targeting.

Why?

Tool	Your Sessions	Accessibility Tree	Performance
agent-browser	❌ Fresh browser	✅ Built-in refs	Fast
Playwright	❌ Fresh browser	❌ CSS selectors	Medium
Chrome DevTools	✅ Your Chrome	❌ Raw DOM	Fast
Browser Hybrid	✅ Your Chrome	✅ Accessibility refs	Fast

Installation

pip install browser-hybrid

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/browser-hybrid
cd browser-hybrid
pip install -e .

Automatic Reconnection

Browser Hybrid automatically reconnects when the Chrome WebSocket connection drops (network issues, Chrome restart, etc.).

Configuration

# Default: auto-reconnect enabled
browser = Browser()

# Disable auto-reconnect
browser = Browser(reconnect=False)

# Custom retry settings
browser = Browser(
    reconnect_max_retries=5,
    reconnect_backoff=1.0  # seconds
)

# Monitor reconnection events
def on_reconnect(status):
    print(f"Reconnect: {status}")

browser = Browser(reconnect_callback=on_reconnect)

Handling Errors

If reconnection fails after max retries, ConnectionError is raised. Catch it to handle gracefully:

from browser_hybrid import Browser, ConnectionError

try:
    browser.click("axnode@123")
except ConnectionError:
    print("Connection lost. Restart Chrome?")

Prerequisites

Chrome must be running with remote debugging:

# macOS
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome \
  --remote-debugging-port=9222 \
  --user-data-dir="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome-Debug"

# Or use the provided script
~/scripts/chrome-debug.sh

Async Considerations

While core interactions (click, type_text, evaluate) use asynchronous WebSockets for maximum performance, Tab Management (new_tab, list_tabs, close_tab) uses synchronous HTTP calls to the Chrome DevTools API.

In highly asynchronous environments (e.g., event-driven spiders), these HTTP calls will briefly block the event loop. For most use cases, this is negligible (~10-50ms), but for extreme performance, consider running Browser in a dedicated thread or process.

Quick Start

Python API

from browser_hybrid import Browser

# Connect to your Chrome
browser = Browser()

# Tab management
tab = browser.new_tab("https://gmail.com")  # Your logged-in session!

# Navigation
browser.navigate("https://github.com")

# Accessibility tree (like agent-browser)
tree = browser.accessibility_tree()
print(tree.to_tree_str())
# - heading "Welcome" [ref=1]
# - link "Sign in" [ref=2]
# - textbox "Email" [ref=3]

# Click by accessibility ref
browser.click("2")

# Or click by text
browser.click_by_text("Sign in")

# Fill form
browser.fill_form({
    "Email": "[e-mail]",
    "Password": "secret"
})

# Screenshot
browser.screenshot("/tmp/page.png")

# Execute JavaScript
title = browser.evaluate("document.title")

CLI

# List tabs
browser-hybrid list

# Open new page
browser-hybrid new https://example.com

# Get accessibility snapshot (like agent-browser)
browser-hybrid snapshot
# - heading "Example Domain" [ref=1]
# - link "Learn more" [ref=2]

# Click by text
browser-hybrid click "Learn more"

# Take screenshot
browser-hybrid screenshot /tmp/page.png

# Execute JavaScript
browser-hybrid eval "document.title"

# Close tabs
browser-hybrid close

Features

Feature	Description
Your sessions	Use Gmail, banking, SSO without re-auth
Accessibility refs	Target elements like agent-browser
Click by text	Find elements by visible text
Form filling	Fill multiple fields at once
Screenshots	PNG capture
JavaScript execution	Run arbitrary JS in page context
Zero dependencies	Only Python stdlib + websockets

API Reference

Tab Management

tabs = browser.list_tabs()           # List all open tabs
tab = browser.new_tab(url)           # Open new tab
browser.activate_tab(tab.id)         # Focus tab
browser.close_tab(tab.id)            # Close tab

Navigation

browser.navigate(url)                # Navigate tab
browser.wait_for(text="Sign in")     # Wait for text
browser.wait_for(selector="button")  # Wait for element

Accessibility Tree

tree = browser.accessibility_tree()           # Get full tree
links = tree.find_by_role("link")             # Find by role
headings = tree.find_by_role("heading")        # Find headings
matching = tree.find_by_name("Submit")         # Find by name
node = tree.find("ref_id")                     # Find by ref

print(tree.to_tree_str())              # agent-browser format

Interactions

browser.click(ref)                    # Click by accessibility ref
browser.click_by_text("Sign in")       # Click by visible text
browser.type_text(ref, "hello")        # Type into input
browser.fill_form({"name": "John"})    # Fill form fields

Content

html = browser.get_html()              # Get page HTML
title = browser.evaluate("document.title")  # Execute JS
browser.screenshot("/tmp/page.png")    # Take screenshot

Comparison

Feature	Selenium	Playwright	agent-browser	Browser Hybrid
Uses installed Chrome	❌	❌	❌	✅
Authenticated sessions	❌	❌	❌	✅
Accessibility tree	❌	✅	✅	✅
Ref-based targeting	❌	❌	✅	✅
Python API	✅	✅	❌	✅
CLI	❌	✅	✅	✅
Dependencies	Heavy	Heavy	Rust	Minimal

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            Browser Hybrid                 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Python API    │    CLI                  │
│   browser.py    │    cli.py               │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              CDP Client                   │
│   ┌─────────────┐     ┌───────────────┐   │
│   │ HTTP API    │     │ WebSocket API │   │
│   │ /json/*     │     │ CDP Commands  │   │
│   └─────────────┘     └───────────────┘   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
                    │
                    ▼
        ┌───────────────────┐
        │  Chrome DevTools  │
        │  localhost:9222    │
        │  (Your Chrome)     │
        └───────────────────┘

Development

# Clone and install dev dependencies
git clone https://github.com/your-repo/browser-hybrid
cd browser-hybrid
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Type check
mypy src/browser_hybrid

# Format
ruff format src/

License

MIT