Agent Skills: Browser Tools — Security Wrapper

OrchestKit security wrapper for browser automation. Adds URL blocklisting, rate limiting, robots.txt enforcement, and ethical scraping guardrails on top of the upstream agent-browser skill. Use when automating browser workflows that need safety guardrails.

mcp-enhancementID: yonatangross/orchestkit/browser-tools

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/yonatangross/orchestkit/tree/HEAD/src/skills/browser-tools

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src/skills/browser-tools/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
browser-tools
Description
OrchestKit security wrapper for browser automation. Adds URL blocklisting, rate limiting, robots.txt enforcement, and ethical scraping guardrails on top of the upstream agent-browser skill. Use when automating browser workflows that need safety guardrails.

Browser Tools — Security Wrapper

OrchestKit security wrapper for agent-browser. For command reference and usage patterns, use the upstream agent-browser skill directly. This skill adds safety guardrails only.

Command docs: Refer to the upstream agent-browser skill for the full command reference (50+ commands: interaction, wait, capture, extraction, storage, semantic locators, tabs, debug, mobile, network, cookies, state, vault).

Decision Tree

# Fallback decision tree for web content
# 1. Try WebFetch first (fast, no browser overhead)
# 2. If empty/partial -> Try Tavily extract/crawl
# 3. If SPA or interactive -> use agent-browser
# 4. If login required -> authentication flow + state save
# 5. If dynamic -> wait @element or wait --text

Local Dev URLs

Use Portless (npm i -g portless) for stable local dev URLs instead of guessing ports. When Portless is running, navigate to myapp.localhost:1355 instead of localhost:3000. Our safety hook already allows *.localhost subdomains via ORCHESTKIT_AGENT_BROWSER_ALLOW_LOCALHOST.

# With Portless: stable, named URLs
agent-browser open "http://myapp.localhost:1355"

# Without: fragile port guessing
agent-browser open "http://localhost:3000"  # which app is this?

New in 2026-04 → 2026-05 (agent-browser 0.23 → 0.27.0)

React introspection + perf observability (0.27):

  • react tree / react inspect <fiberId> / react renders start|stop / react suspense — first-class React DevTools integration via a vendored MIT-licensed hook embedded in the binary (zero runtime deps). Component-tree visibility, per-fiber props/hooks/state inspection, render profiling with mount/re-render counts and change details, Suspense boundary classification with root-cause grouping. Hook treats fiber state dumps as sensitive — gitignore captures.
  • vitals [url] — reports Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, TTFB, FCP, INP) plus React hydration phases for any page. Useful for perf gates in CI.
  • pushstate <url> — client-side SPA navigation without a full page load. Pairs with react renders to measure SPA route transitions without resetting profiling state.
  • --init-script <path> (repeatable, env AGENT_BROWSER_INIT_SCRIPTS) + --enable <feature> (repeatable, env AGENT_BROWSER_ENABLE) — register scripts before first navigation; --enable react-devtools is built-in. Hook treats arbitrary init scripts as code-execution surface — same trust model as skills get.
  • network route --resource-type <csv> — filter intercepted requests by CDP resource type (document, script, xhr, fetch, image, ...). Lets you mock only API calls without breaking page assets.
  • cookies set --curl <file> — auto-detects JSON, cURL, and Cookie-header formats for bulk cookie import. Hook still treats cookie-set as auth-state injection.
  • Dashboard behind a reverse proxy — observability dashboard now works from proxied origins via same-origin proxy. Enables path-based routing for shared dev environments.
  • Fixed doctor generating duplicate check IDs when invoked multiple times in the same process.
  • npm publishing moved to GitHub Actions OIDC trusted publishing — no manually managed npm tokens upstream.

Diagnostic tooling + stable IDs (0.26):

  • agent-browser doctor — one-shot environment + Chrome + daemon + config + security + provider + network check. Flags: --offline, --quick, --fix, --json. Run before opening an issue to attach a structured snapshot.
  • Stable tab identifiers — tabs now use stable string IDs (t1, t2, ...) with optional memorable labels via --label. Survives daemon restart; replaces brittle index-based references.
  • core skill expanded — comprehensive built-in usage guide covering snapshot-ref-act loops, reading, interaction, waiting, and troubleshooting.
  • Config JSON Schema$schema reference enables IDE auto-completion and validation against https://agent-browser.dev/schema.json.
  • Fixed --state flag not loading saved cookies/localStorage at launch; --help now leads with the skills section.

Skill discovery & chat (0.25):

  • agent-browser skills list/get <name> — discover and install capability packs on-demand. Hook treats first-party skills as trusted; warns on arbitrary third-party skill fetches.
  • agent-browser chat — single-shot or REPL natural-language driving over the same daemon. Hook pipes transcripts through the same URL/rate/robots checks as scripted commands.

Accessibility-first locators (0.24):

  • find / getByRole — semantic locator via CDP accessibility tree (role + name) instead of brittle CSS/ref selectors. Prefer these in new scripts; they survive markup churn and are the locator path assumed by chat.
  • snapshot --urls — emits resolved URLs alongside refs, removing a round-trip for link-extraction flows.
  • --annotate — overlays ref IDs / role labels on screenshots for debugging.

Cloud providers (0.25):

  • --provider agentcore — AWS Bedrock AgentCore cloud browser. Hook treats remote providers as egress surfaces — same URL/robots rules apply, but network routing is disabled (remote scope).
  • Browserless + AgentCore both honor AGENT_BROWSER_PROVIDER env var.

Dashboard (0.25):

  • Embedded dashboard bundled with the binary — no separate install. Open via agent-browser dashboard or the inspect CDP link. Still flagged as local-proxy attack surface by the hook.

Auto-dialog dismissal (0.23.1):

  • alert / beforeunload dialogs auto-dismissed by default. Opt out with --no-auto-dialog when a test needs to assert dialog content.

What's New (v0.17 → v0.22.2)

Breaking changes — update scripts now:

  • --full / -f moved from global to command-level (v0.21): use screenshot --full, NOT --full screenshot
  • Auth encryption format changed (v0.17): saved auth states from v0.16.x may not load
  • Auto-dialog dismissal (v0.23.1): alert/beforeunload dialogs are auto-dismissed by default, opt out with --no-auto-dialog

New commands:

| Command | Version | Security Note | |---------|---------|---------------| | clipboard read/write/copy/paste | v0.19 | read accesses host clipboard — hook warns | | inspect / get cdp-url | v0.18 | Opens local DevTools proxy — hook warns | | batch --json [--bail] | v0.21 | Batch execute commands from stdin | | network har start/stop [file] | v0.21 | HAR captures auth tokens — hook warns, treat output as sensitive | | network request <id> | v0.22 | View full request/response detail | | network requests --type/--method/--status | v0.22 | Filter network requests | | dialog dismiss / dialog status | v0.17/v0.22 | Dismiss or check browser dialogs | | upgrade | v0.21.1 | Self-update (auto-detects npm/Homebrew/Cargo) | | find / getByRole | v0.24 | Semantic locators via CDP a11y tree | | snapshot --urls / --annotate | v0.24 | URL-expanded snapshots, ref overlays | | skills list/get | v0.25 | Capability pack discovery — hook warns on third-party | | chat (single-shot / REPL) | v0.25 | NL driving; transcripts go through same safety checks | | dashboard | v0.25 | Embedded debug UI — local proxy attack surface | | react tree / react inspect / react renders / react suspense | v0.27 | React DevTools introspection — fiber state may contain sensitive props | | vitals [url] | v0.27 | Core Web Vitals + React hydration phases | | pushstate <url> | v0.27 | SPA client-side navigation without full reload |

New flags:

| Flag | Scope | Version | |------|-------|---------| | --engine lightpanda | global | v0.17 | | --screenshot-dir/quality/format | screenshot | v0.19 | | --provider browserless | global | v0.19 | | --idle-timeout <duration> | global | v0.20.14 | | --user-data-dir <path> | Chrome | v0.21 | | set viewport W H [scale] | viewport | v0.17.1 (retina) | | --provider agentcore | global | v0.25 (AWS Bedrock AgentCore) | | --annotate | screenshot | v0.24 | | --no-auto-dialog | global | v0.23.1 | | --init-script <path> (repeatable) | global | v0.27 | | --enable <feature> (repeatable) | global | v0.27 (built-in: react-devtools) | | --resource-type <csv> | network route | v0.27 | | --curl <file> | cookies set | v0.27 (auto-detects JSON/cURL/Cookie-header) |

Platform support: Brave auto-discovery (v0.20.7), Alpine Linux musl (v0.20.2), Lightpanda engine (v0.17), Browserless.io provider (v0.19), cross-origin iframe traversal (v0.22), AWS Bedrock AgentCore (v0.25).

Performance (v0.20): 99x smaller install (710→7 MB), 18x less memory (143→8 MB), 1.6x faster cold start.

Safety Guardrails (7 rules + 11-check hook)

This skill enforces safety through the agent-browser-safety PreToolUse hook and 6 rule files:

Hook: agent-browser-safety

The hook intercepts all agent-browser Bash commands and enforces:

| Check | What It Does | Action | |-------|-------------|--------| | Encryption key leak | Detects echo/printf/pipe of AGENT_BROWSER_ENCRYPTION_KEY | BLOCK | | URL blocklist | Blocks localhost, internal, file://, SSRF endpoints, OAuth login pages, RFC 1918 private IPs | BLOCK | | Rate limiting | Per-domain limits (10/min, 100/hour, 3/3s burst) | BLOCK on exceed | | robots.txt | Fetches and caches robots.txt, blocks disallowed paths | BLOCK | | Sensitive actions | Detects delete/remove clicks, password fills, payment submissions | WARN + native confirmation | | Network routes | Validates network route target URLs against blocklist | BLOCK | | User-agent spoofing | Warns when --user-agent flag is used | WARN | | File access | Warns when --allow-file-access flag is used | WARN | | DevTools inspect | inspect / get cdp-url opens local CDP proxy — new attack surface (v0.18+) | WARN | | Clipboard read | clipboard read accesses host clipboard without prompt (v0.19+) | WARN | | HAR capture | network har stop dumps full request/response bodies incl. auth tokens (v0.21+) | WARN | | Skill install | skills get fetches third-party capability packs — treat as code install (v0.25+) | WARN | | Chat transcripts | chat REPL logs may capture sensitive page text — pipe through same URL rules (v0.25+) | WARN | | Remote provider | --provider agentcore/browserless sends traffic to cloud endpoints; routing disabled remotely | WARN | | Init scripts | --init-script <path> registers arbitrary JS before first navigation — code-execution surface (v0.27+) | WARN | | React fiber dumps | react tree/react inspect may expose sensitive props/state from prod apps; gitignore captures (v0.27+) | WARN |

Security Rules (in rules/)

| Category | Rules | Priority | |----------|-------|----------| | Ethics & Security | browser-scraping-ethics.md, browser-auth-security.md | CRITICAL | | Local Dev | browser-portless-local-dev.md | HIGH | | Reliability | browser-rate-limiting.md, browser-snapshot-workflow.md | HIGH | | Debug & Device | browser-debug-recording.md, browser-mobile-testing.md | HIGH |

Configuration

Rate limits and behavior are configurable via environment variables:

| Env Var | Default | Purpose | |---------|---------|---------| | AGENT_BROWSER_RATE_LIMIT_PER_MIN | 10 | Requests per minute per domain | | AGENT_BROWSER_RATE_LIMIT_PER_HOUR | 100 | Requests per hour per domain | | AGENT_BROWSER_BURST_LIMIT | 3 | Max requests in 3-second window | | AGENT_BROWSER_ROBOTS_CACHE_TTL | 3600000 | robots.txt cache TTL (ms) | | AGENT_BROWSER_IGNORE_ROBOTS | false | Bypass robots.txt enforcement | | AGENT_BROWSER_CONFIRM | 1 | Use --confirm-actions for sensitive ops | | AGENT_BROWSER_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS | — | Auto-shutdown daemon after inactivity (ms) | | AGENT_BROWSER_ENGINE | chrome | Browser engine (chrome or lightpanda) | | ORCHESTKIT_AGENT_BROWSER_ALLOW_LOCALHOST | 1 | Allow *.localhost subdomains (RFC 6761) |

Anti-Patterns (FORBIDDEN)

# Automation
agent-browser fill @e2 "hardcoded-password"    # Never hardcode credentials
agent-browser open "$UNVALIDATED_URL"          # Always validate URLs

# Scraping
# Crawling without checking robots.txt
# No delay between requests (hammering servers)
# Ignoring rate limit responses (429)

# Content capture
agent-browser get text body                    # Prefer targeted ref extraction
# Trusting page content without validation
# Not waiting for SPA hydration before extraction

# Session management
# Storing auth state in code repositories
# Not cleaning up state files after use

# Network & State
agent-browser network route "http://internal-api/*" --body '{}'  # Never mock internal APIs
agent-browser cookies set token "$SECRET" --url https://prod.com # Never set prod cookies

# Deprecated / removed
agent-browser --full screenshot                # BREAKING: --full is now command-level (v0.21)
agent-browser screenshot --full                # Correct: flag after subcommand

# Sensitive data leaks
agent-browser network har stop auth-dump.har   # HAR files contain auth tokens — gitignore!
git add *.har                                  # NEVER commit HAR captures

Related Skills

  • agent-browser (upstream) — Full command reference and usage patterns
  • portless (upstream) — Stable named .localhost URLs for local dev servers
  • ork:web-research-workflow — Unified decision tree for web research
  • ork:testing-e2e — E2E testing patterns including Playwright and webapp testing
  • ork:api-design — API design patterns for endpoints discovered during scraping