Installation

Install Agent Browser using npm, pnpm, yarn, Homebrew, or from source

Quick Install (Recommended)

The fastest way to get started is to install Agent Browser globally:

npm

npm install -g agent-browser
agent-browser install  # Download Chromium

Global installation gives you the best performance - commands run through the native Rust CLI directly with sub-millisecond parsing overhead.

Installation Methods

Try Without Installing

Run directly with npx if you want to try it without installing globally:

npx agent-browser install   # Download Chromium (first time only)
npx agent-browser open example.com

npx routes through Node.js before reaching the Rust CLI, so it is noticeably slower than a global install. For regular use, install globally.

Project Installation

For projects that want to pin the version in package.json:

npm

npm install agent-browser
npx agent-browser install

Then use via npx or package.json scripts:

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "browser": "agent-browser"
  }
}

Homebrew (macOS)

Install via Homebrew for easy updates:

brew install agent-browser
agent-browser install  # Download Chromium

From Source

Build from source if you want to contribute or use the latest development version:

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser
   cd agent-browser
   
2. Install dependencies

   This project uses pnpm:

   pnpm install
   
3. Build the project

   Build both TypeScript and Rust components:

   pnpm build
   pnpm build:native   # Requires Rust (https://rustup.rs)
   
4. Link globally

   Make agent-browser available globally:

   pnpm link --global
   agent-browser install
   

Building from source requires Rust to be installed for the native CLI component.

Platform-Specific Setup

Linux Dependencies

On Linux, you may need to install system dependencies for Chromium:

agent-browser install --with-deps

This is equivalent to running:

npx playwright install-deps chromium

Windows

Agent Browser works on Windows x64. Install using npm:

npm install -g agent-browser
agent-browser install

Supported Platforms

Agent Browser provides native Rust binaries for:

Platform	Binary	Fallback
macOS ARM64	Native Rust	Node.js
macOS x64	Native Rust	Node.js
Linux ARM64	Native Rust	Node.js
Linux x64	Native Rust	Node.js
Windows x64	Native Rust	Node.js

If the native binary is unavailable for your platform, Agent Browser automatically falls back to the Node.js implementation.

Verify Installation

Verify that Agent Browser is installed correctly:

agent-browser --help

You should see the help output with all available commands.

Check the version:

agent-browser --version

Updating

Update to the latest version:

npm

npm update -g agent-browser

Next Steps

Quickstart

Get to a working example in under 2 minutes.

Core Concepts

Learn the snapshot-ref workflow.