browser

remoteclaw browser

Manage RemoteClaw’s browser control surface and run browser actions (lifecycle, profiles, tabs, snapshots, screenshots, navigation, input, state emulation, and debugging).

Related:

• Browser tool + API: Browser tool

Common flags

• --url <gatewayWsUrl>: Gateway WebSocket URL (defaults to config).
• --token <token>: Gateway token (if required).
• --timeout <ms>: request timeout (ms).
• --expect-final: wait for a final Gateway response.
• --browser-profile <name>: choose a browser profile (default from config).
• --json: machine-readable output (where supported).

Quick start (local)

remoteclaw browser profiles
remoteclaw browser --browser-profile remoteclaw start
remoteclaw browser --browser-profile remoteclaw open https://example.com
remoteclaw browser --browser-profile remoteclaw snapshot

Lifecycle

remoteclaw browser status
remoteclaw browser start
remoteclaw browser stop
remoteclaw browser --browser-profile remoteclaw reset-profile

Notes:

• For attachOnly and remote CDP profiles, remoteclaw browser stop closes the active control session and clears temporary emulation overrides even when RemoteClaw did not launch the browser process itself.
• For local managed profiles, remoteclaw browser stop stops the spawned browser process.

If the command is missing

If remoteclaw browser is an unknown command, check plugins.allow in ~/.remoteclaw/remoteclaw.json.

When plugins.allow is present, the bundled browser plugin must be listed explicitly:

{
  plugins: {
    allow: ["telegram", "browser"],
  },
}

browser.enabled=true does not restore the CLI subcommand when the plugin allowlist excludes browser.

Related: Browser tool

Profiles

Profiles are named browser routing configs. In practice:

• remoteclaw: launches or attaches to a dedicated RemoteClaw-managed Chrome instance (isolated user data dir).
• user: controls your existing signed-in Chrome session via Chrome DevTools MCP.
• custom CDP profiles: point at a local or remote CDP endpoint.

remoteclaw browser profiles
remoteclaw browser create-profile --name work --color "#FF5A36"
remoteclaw browser create-profile --name chrome-live --driver existing-session
remoteclaw browser create-profile --name remote --cdp-url https://browser-host.example.com
remoteclaw browser delete-profile --name work

Use a specific profile:

remoteclaw browser --browser-profile work tabs

Tabs

remoteclaw browser tabs
remoteclaw browser tab new
remoteclaw browser tab select 2
remoteclaw browser tab close 2
remoteclaw browser open https://docs.remoteclaw.org
remoteclaw browser focus <targetId>
remoteclaw browser close <targetId>

Snapshot / screenshot / actions

Snapshot:

remoteclaw browser snapshot

Screenshot:

remoteclaw browser screenshot
remoteclaw browser screenshot --full-page
remoteclaw browser screenshot --ref e12

Notes:

• --full-page is for page captures only; it cannot be combined with --ref or --element.
• existing-session / user profiles support page screenshots and --ref screenshots from snapshot output, but not CSS --element screenshots.

Navigate/click/type (ref-based UI automation):

remoteclaw browser navigate https://example.com
remoteclaw browser click <ref>
remoteclaw browser type <ref> "hello"
remoteclaw browser press Enter
remoteclaw browser hover <ref>
remoteclaw browser scrollintoview <ref>
remoteclaw browser drag <startRef> <endRef>
remoteclaw browser select <ref> OptionA OptionB
remoteclaw browser fill --fields '[{"ref":"1","value":"Ada"}]'
remoteclaw browser wait --text "Done"
remoteclaw browser evaluate --fn '(el) => el.textContent' --ref <ref>

File + dialog helpers:

remoteclaw browser upload /tmp/remoteclaw/uploads/file.pdf --ref <ref>
remoteclaw browser waitfordownload
remoteclaw browser download <ref> report.pdf
remoteclaw browser dialog --accept

State and storage

Viewport + emulation:

remoteclaw browser resize 1280 720
remoteclaw browser set viewport 1280 720
remoteclaw browser set offline on
remoteclaw browser set media dark
remoteclaw browser set timezone Europe/London
remoteclaw browser set locale en-GB
remoteclaw browser set geo 51.5074 -0.1278 --accuracy 25
remoteclaw browser set device "iPhone 14"
remoteclaw browser set headers '{"x-test":"1"}'
remoteclaw browser set credentials myuser mypass

Cookies + storage:

remoteclaw browser cookies
remoteclaw browser cookies set session abc123 --url https://example.com
remoteclaw browser cookies clear
remoteclaw browser storage local get
remoteclaw browser storage local set token abc123
remoteclaw browser storage session clear

Debugging

remoteclaw browser console --level error
remoteclaw browser pdf
remoteclaw browser responsebody "**/api"
remoteclaw browser highlight <ref>
remoteclaw browser errors --clear
remoteclaw browser requests --filter api
remoteclaw browser trace start
remoteclaw browser trace stop --out trace.zip

Existing Chrome via MCP

Use the built-in user profile, or create your own existing-session profile:

remoteclaw browser --browser-profile user tabs
remoteclaw browser create-profile --name chrome-live --driver existing-session
remoteclaw browser create-profile --name brave-live --driver existing-session --user-data-dir "~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser"
remoteclaw browser --browser-profile chrome-live tabs

This path is host-only. For Docker, headless servers, Browserless, or other remote setups, use a CDP profile instead.

Current existing-session limits:

• snapshot-driven actions use refs, not CSS selectors
• click is left-click only
• type does not support slowly=true
• press does not support delayMs
• hover, scrollintoview, drag, select, fill, and evaluate reject per-call timeout overrides
• select supports one value only
• wait --load networkidle is not supported
• file uploads require --ref / --input-ref, do not support CSS --element, and currently support one file at a time
• dialog hooks do not support --timeout
• screenshots support page captures and --ref, but not CSS --element
• responsebody, download interception, PDF export, and batch actions still require a managed browser or raw CDP profile

Remote browser control (node host proxy)

If the Gateway runs on a different machine than the browser, run a node host on the machine that has Chrome/Brave/Edge/Chromium. The Gateway will proxy browser actions to that node (no separate browser control server required).

Use gateway.nodes.browser.mode to control auto-routing and gateway.nodes.browser.node to pin a specific node if multiple are connected.

Security + remote setup: Browser tool, Remote access, Tailscale, Security