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面向 Agent 的轻量浏览器自动化 —— 直连 CDP,去掉 Playwright,定位更准、更稳。

Python 3.11+ License: MIT PyPI CI Code Style: Ruff GitHub stars

Highlights · Overview · Core Technology · Features · Quick Start · Contents

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Harness Browser is a lightweight browser-use style tool that makes an agent's browser usage more accurate and reliable. Unlike typical stacks that route every action through Playwright, it launches a real Chromium and talks to the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) directly — removing the intermediate layer so element targeting is driven by stable, live DOM refs and rarely misses.

Harness Browser's design goal: give an agent a browser it can act on with confidence — accurate clicks, low token cost, and persistent logins — through a small, well-shaped set of tools and a matching CLI.

Note: the install-browser command may bootstrap Playwright once purely to download a Chromium binary. Playwright is not a runtime dependency — the agent always drives the browser over CDP.

✨ Highlights

Feature Description
Direct CDP Connects straight to Chrome via CDP — no Playwright / intermediate layer
🎯 Ref-based targeting Stable element refs survive layout reflows, so clicks land where intended
🪶 Lightweight DOM Token-efficient multi-level DOM keeps prompts small
🔐 Auth persistence Profile-based logins persist across sessions — no repeated sign-in
🛠️ Agent tools One stateless browser_tool with ~20 actions
💻 CLI Every action available as a first-class command
🎬 Record & replay Capture a workflow, then replay it as skill-guided agentic execution
🤖 MCP server Expose the browser to any MCP-capable agent

📌 Overview

Most browser automation tools sit on top of Playwright, which adds a layer of abstraction between the model and the page. Harness Browser skips that layer: it starts a Chromium process with a remote-debugging port and speaks CDP itself. Because the element references come straight from the live page, the agent acts on the real nodes — and those refs stay valid through reflows and re-renders. The result is higher action accuracy and lower token usage, with a persistent profile so logins don't expire mid-task.

🧠 Core Technology

Layer Technology
Language Python 3.11+
Transport CDP over websockets (hand-rolled async client)
Launcher subprocess Chromium with --remote-debugging-port
DOM Multi-level builder + stable ref system
Tools Stateless browser_tool action set
Recording Injected JS recorder + semantic collapse + skill generator
Interfaces CLI + MCP server
Build / quality hatchling · ruff · mypy · pytest

🤔 Features

Browser tools

browser_tool(action=...) exposes the following actions:

Action Description Action Description
navigate Open a URL select Pick a <select> option
dom_tree Dump the multi-level DOM scroll Scroll the viewport
screenshot Capture a screenshot hover Hover an element
click Click by ref eval_js Run JavaScript
type Type text by ref go_back / go_forward History nav
fill Fill a field by ref reload Reload the page
press Press a key new_tab / close_tab Tab control
wait Wait for a condition switch_tab / list_tabs Tab management
close_session End the session

CDP session

  • BrowserSession.create(profile=...) opens a persistent Chromium session.
  • Stateless helper: browser_tool(action="navigate", url=..., profile="work").

CLI

Every tool is also a CLI command:

harness-browser install-browser     # fetch a Chromium binary (one-time)
harness-browser navigate "https://example.com" --profile work
harness-browser dom-tree --profile work
harness-browser click --ref inp_1 --profile work
harness-browser type "harness" --ref inp_1 --profile work
harness-browser screenshot --profile work
# session: open / close-session / new-tab / switch-tab / close-tab / list-tabs

Record & replay

Harness Browser can record a real browsing session and replay it:

  1. harness-browser record daemon-start — launch the long-lived recording daemon.
  2. harness-browser record start — begin capturing the active tab.
  3. Browse normally. A small injected script captures clicks, typed text, navigations, and submits, with privacy redaction of sensitive fields.
  4. harness-browser record stop — stop capturing.
  5. harness-browser record steps <id> — inspect the semantic steps; record skill <id> emits a draft OpenClaw Skill.
  6. harness-browser replay run <id> — re-execute as skill-guided agentic execution (the model replays intent, not brittle coordinates/refs).

Use record list / record show <id> / record status / record doctor to manage recordings.

MCP server

harness-browser ships an MCP server, so any MCP-capable agent can drive the browser through the same tool set.

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.11+
  • A Chromium / Chrome binary (auto-downloaded by install-browser)

1. Install

pip install harness-browser
harness-browser install-browser    # fetch a Chromium binary once

2. Use as a library

from harness_browser import BrowserSession

async with await BrowserSession.create(profile="default") as session:
    await session.navigate("https://example.com")
    dom = await session.dom_tree()
    await session.click(ref="btn_1")

Or statelessly:

from harness_browser import browser_tool

await browser_tool(action="navigate", url="https://example.com", profile="work")

3. Use as a CLI

harness-browser navigate "https://example.com" --profile work
harness-browser dom-tree --profile work

4. Record a workflow

harness-browser record daemon-start
harness-browser record start
# ... interact with the page ...
harness-browser record stop
harness-browser record skill <recording_id>   # emit an OpenClaw Skill
harness-browser replay run <recording_id>      # replay it

📑 Contents

📖 CLI reference

Command Description
install-browser Download a Chromium binary (one-time bootstrap)
navigate / open Open a URL
dom-tree Print the multi-level DOM
screenshot Capture a screenshot
click / type / fill / press Interact by ref
wait / select / scroll / hover Page control
eval-js Run JavaScript
go-back / go-forward / reload History / reload
new-tab / switch-tab / close-tab / list-tabs Tab management
close-session End the session
record ... doctor, daemon-start, daemon-stop, status, start, stop, list, show, steps, skill
replay run <id> Replay a recorded workflow

🛠️ Development

Prerequisites: Python 3.11+, uv

make install          # pip install -e ".[dev]"
make all              # lint + typecheck + test

🤝 Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Run make all before submitting
  4. Open a Pull Request

🔗 Related projects

Project Description
harness-agent Agent runtime that drives the browser tools
harness-memory Memory system for browser-backed agents
harness-gateway Multi-platform IM channel bridge
Octop The self-hosted assistant that composes the Harness stack

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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