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jev-ra

CI PyPI Python MCP Chrome License

jev-ra: browser use for coding agents, 3-5× faster than browser-use

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jev-ra

A fast browser-use layer for CLI coding agents. Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP client hands jev-ra a goal. TypeSafe Jev, a System One decision model, picks the operation and the target element for every step in one round trip. Your agent plans, supplies the text values, reads what the page says, and takes over when jev-ra escalates. No second LLM runs inside the loop.

jev-ra opening the Gödel incompleteness article in under three seconds

task browser-use 0.13.10 + gemini-3-flash flash_mode jev-ra
Wikipedia: open the Gödel incompleteness article 23,058 ms 2,714 ms 8.50×
Google Flights ZRH→LON one-way, results on screen 66,414 ms 8,888 ms 7.47×
Olive Young category: sort by 신상품순 15,071 ms 3,806 ms 3.96×

Medians over 5 runs each, 2026-09-18, same machine, same dedicated Chrome, both through OpenRouter. Each run was verified against the final page; 25 of 25 passed with no text-model calls. Method, p90, cost and raw rows.

Quick start

Claude Code

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
uvx jev-ra install claude
# then, in Claude Code: "open wikipedia.org and find the Gödel incompleteness article"

Codex

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
uvx jev-ra install codex
# then, in Codex: "use jev-ra to open wikipedia.org and find the Gödel incompleteness article"

Shell

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
uvx jev-ra doctor
uvx jev-ra run https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page "Open the Godel incompleteness article." \
  --value "search_query=Godel incompleteness theorems"

No Python setup? npx -y jev-ra install claude does the same thing through the npm launcher. The npm package is a launcher only: it finds uv, offers to install it, and runs the PyPI package pinned to its own version.

There is no install step either way: uvx runs jev-ra straight from PyPI and registers uvx jev-ra mcp as the server command. For a permanent copy, uv tool install jev-ra. The key is forwarded from the variable you already exported and is never printed.

How it works

  your agent                      jev-ra                              Chrome
 ────────────                ───────────────                      ─────────────
  goal + values  ──────────▶  observe ─────────────────────────▶  snapshot.js
                              │   elements, guards, page marker  ◀──── one eval
                              ▼
                              one request: operation? target?
                              value? prev_ok? goal_achieved?  ──▶  Jev  (~300 ms)
                              │
                              ▼
                              freshness guard ──▶ act ──────────▶  trusted CDP input
                              │                                    (no JS clicks)
                              ▼
                              verify url/title/text/fields
                              │
       Result  ◀──────────────┴── done · blocked · escalate · budget

One decision per step. The only text typed into the page is text you supplied.

MCP tools

tool arguments what it does
browser_open url Open a URL in the shared session and summarise the page.
browser_run goal, values?, max_steps? Pursue a whole goal. Supply values for anything that must be typed.
browser_search query, goal?, max_pages? Search, read the best results in parallel tabs, rank them against the goal.
browser_act instruction, values? Take one decided step towards an instruction.
browser_observe max_elements? List the observed controls and the visible text.
browser_extract mode? Structured page data: text, elements, links, tables, main.
browser_click ref Click one observed element by its ref.
browser_type ref, text Type into one observed field.
browser_select ref, option Select an observed dropdown option.
browser_scroll direction? Scroll one viewport step up or down.
browser_press key Press Enter, Escape or Tab.
browser_wait - Wait a moment and observe again.
browser_screenshot - JPEG of the current viewport.
browser_close - Close the session held by the server.

Every response carries elapsed_ms, and decisions plus cost whenever Jev was called.

CLI

command what it does
run URL "goal" [--value name=text ...] [--max-steps N] pursue a goal from a URL until it is done or escalates
search "query" ["what the page must answer"] [--max-pages 3] search the web and read the best results
open URL open a URL and keep the session for later commands
observe list the controls and text of the open page
extract [--mode text|elements|links|tables|main] pull structured data out of the open page
act "instruction" [--value name=text ...] take one decided step on the open page
click REF click one observed element
type REF TEXT type into one observed field
select REF OPTION select an observed dropdown option
scroll down|up scroll the open page
press Enter|Escape|Tab press Enter, Escape or Tab
wait wait a moment and observe again
screenshot [PATH] save a JPEG of the viewport
close close the session kept by open
mcp run the MCP stdio server
skill print the agent guide, for saving as a skill file
install claude|codex [--scope user|project|local] register jev-ra as an MCP server with a coding agent
doctor check the key, the endpoint, Chrome and one live decision
bench [--live] time the offline fixtures, and the live tasks with --live
corpus run run the real-site corpus

openclose share one browser across invocations through a target id in $XDG_STATE_HOME/jev-ra/session.json. Add --json to any command for the raw payload.

Python

from jev_ra import Agent

with Agent() as agent:
    result = agent.run(
        "Place the order with express shipping.",
        values={"name": "Ada Lovelace", "email": "ada@example.com"},
        url="https://example.com/checkout",
    )
print(result.status, result.elapsed_ms, [step["target_label"] for step in result.steps])

Values

TYPE_TEXT needs a string, and jev-ra will not invent one. Jev picks which of your values belongs in the field it is about to fill, in the same round trip that picks the field. If nothing fits and no text helper is configured, the run stops with needs_value and reports the field's label, role and current value. You supply the value and call again. The default install has no text model.

When it hands control back

Result.status is done, blocked, escalate or budget. When a run stops short, reason is one of needs_value, stuck_loop, unverified_done, stale, invalid_decision, too_many_controls, blocked or budget. budget also names the budget that was hit (steps, decisions, time, or a decision the provider would not answer) in detail. An escalation also carries the top eight operation/target candidates with their probabilities, and up to 3,000 characters of page text — enough to decide what to do without observing again.

Verification is deterministic: after every action jev-ra compares url, title, text and field state, and page_changed comes from a semantic page marker, not from the model.

Benchmarks

Five tasks, five runs each, every run verified against the page it left behind:

task median p90 success decisions cost ratio
Wikipedia article 2,714 ms 3,179 ms 5/5 3 $0.00075 8.50×
Google Flights search 8,888 ms 10,573 ms 5/5 14 $0.00317 7.47×
Olive Young sort 3,806 ms 4,858 ms 5/5 4 $0.00204 3.96×
Search with a citation 2,416 ms 2,571 ms 5/5 4 $0.00035 no baseline
Local checkout form 2,191 ms 2,338 ms 5/5 5 $0.00049 no baseline

Ratios are against browser-use 0.13.10 + gemini-3-flash flash_mode on the same machine and the same Chrome: 23,058 ms, 66,414 ms and 15,071 ms respectively. Text-model calls across all 25 runs: 0. A same-harness re-run of browser-use, five runs per task, was slower still: 9.07×, 8.31× and 7.26×. Our median against browser-use's fastest single run of each task (15,759 ms, 49,914 ms, 17,647 ms) is 5.8×, 5.6× and 4.6×; the headline claim of 3-5× is below that. jev-ra bench --live --runs 5 reproduces this table and prints PASS/FAIL against the v0.1 bar of ≥ 3× on every task with a baseline. Method, the browser-use rows, and how to reproduce them.

jev-ra on the left, browser-use flash_mode on the right, same task, same Chrome, real time:

jev-ra finishes the Google Flights search while browser-use is still opening the trip-type menu

A run that finishes without doing the task counts as a failure, not as a time.

What it will not do

limit what happens
Canvas drawing, games, anything painted rather than marked up blocked: no observed control can advance the goal
File upload blocked: a file input is never offered, and never typed into
CAPTCHA, bot walls, stealth blocked, with the page text, for you to decide
Auth flows needs_value with the field named; jev-ra never guesses a credential
Pop-up windows, multi-tab workflows the run stays on its own target
Cross-origin iframes reported as one opaque element; open shadow roots and same-origin iframes are traversed
More than 250 visible controls omitted is reported, and a stuck run escalates too_many_controls rather than guessing

Each returns an escalation with the page text and the ranked candidates.

FAQ

OpenRouter or a TypeSafe key? Either. jev-ra resolves JEV_RA_API_KEY, then TYPESAFE_API_KEY, then OPENROUTER_API_KEY. A key starting sk-or- selects the OpenRouter route (typesafe/jev-1.13); anything else goes direct (jev-latest). JEV_RA_ENDPOINT and JEV_RA_MODEL override both. OpenRouter is easier to get; direct TypeSafe is roughly 140 ms faster per decision according to the upstream measurements.

What does a task cost? Between $0.00035 (a search, 4 decisions) and $0.00317 (the whole Google Flights flow, 14 decisions). Cost scales with decisions, not with page size, because the state sent is the element table and the visible text, never the HTML.

Does it need its own Chrome? It will find or launch one on its own profile ($XDG_STATE_HOME/jev-ra/chrome-profile) and reuse it. Point BU_CDP_URL at a different Chrome to override. Do not point it at a browser signed into anything you would not let an agent operate.

Why no text model? The host agent already has the context. A second model adds 675-938 ms per field and invents values. You can still configure one with JEV_RA_TEXT_MODEL.

Configuration

variable effect
JEV_RA_API_KEY, TYPESAFE_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY key, in that order of precedence
JEV_RA_ENDPOINT, JEV_RA_MODEL override the route
JEV_RA_CHROME path to the browser binary to launch
BU_CDP_URL an existing Chrome to drive instead of launching one
JEV_RA_VIEWPORT e.g. 1280x900 (the default)
JEV_RA_MAX_STEPS, JEV_RA_MAX_DECISIONS, JEV_RA_TIMEOUT_S budgets (40 / 80 / 120)
JEV_RA_BLOCK_RESOURCES 0 to stop blocking fonts and media
JEV_RA_SEARCH_URL search endpoint template, {query} substituted
JEV_RA_TEXT_MODEL, JEV_RA_TEXT_BASE_URL, JEV_RA_TEXT_API_KEY optional text helper, off by default

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/jev-ra/config.json sets the same keys; the environment wins.

Credits

jev_ra/browser/snapshot.js and the NEXT_ACTION / TARGET instruction texts are adapted from browser-use/jev-ultrafast (MIT), where they were measured. Chrome is driven through browser-harness (MIT). See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

MIT licensed. Contributing · Security · Agent guide · Usage reference · 한국어

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