Gbrow

Full-featured headless browser for OpenClaw agents. Navigate, snapshot with accessibility tree (@ref clicks), tabs, JS execution, cookie import. No vision model needed — free, fast, reliable.

Gbrow — The Browser Your AI Agent Actually Needs

A full-featured headless browser powered by Playwright and Bun. Uses the accessibility tree for page reading — not expensive vision models.

Why Gbrow?

Traditional (screenshots + vision)	Gbrow (accessibility tree)
Screenshot → upload to GPT-4o → wait → read	ariaSnapshot() → instant structured text
~$0.01 per page read	Free
3-10 seconds per page	< 100ms
Fails on API key issues	Always works
Click by fragile CSS selector	Click by @ref (@e1, @e2, etc.)

Quick Setup

bash

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/ashish797/Gbrow.git ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/Gbrow
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/Gbrow
bash setup.sh

Or one-liner:

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashish797/Gbrow/main/setup.sh | bash

How It Works

1. Start the server

bash

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/Gbrow
bun run src/server.ts

2. Read the page (accessibility tree)

The snapshot gives you a structured view with clickable refs:

text

@e1 [heading] "Welcome" [level=1]
@e2 [link] "Get Started"
@e3 [button] "Sign in"
@e4 [textbox] "Search"

3. Click by ref

text

click @e2     → clicks "Get Started"
fill @e4 "query"  → types into search box

Commands

Navigation

Command	Description	Example
goto <url>	Navigate to URL	goto https://example.com
back	History back	back
forward	History forward	forward
reload	Reload page	reload
url	Print current URL	url

Reading

Command	Description	Example
snapshot	Accessibility tree with @refs	snapshot -i (interactive only)
text	Cleaned page text	text
html [selector]	Raw HTML	html .article
links	All links as "text → href"	links
forms	Form fields as JSON	forms

Interaction

Command	Description	Example
click <ref>	Click element	click @e3
fill <ref> <text>	Fill input	fill @e4 "hello"
select <ref> <value>	Select dropdown	select @e5 "option1"
type <ref> <text>	Type with keyboard	type @e4 "search term"
press <key>	Press key	press Enter
scroll <direction>	Scroll page	scroll down

Inspection

Command	Description	Example
js <expr>	Run JavaScript	js document.title
css <sel> <prop>	Computed CSS	css .box color
attrs <ref>	Element attributes	attrs @e1
is <prop> <ref>	State check	is visible @e3

Tabs

Command	Description
tabs	List open tabs
tab N	Switch to tab N
newtab	Open new tab
closetab	Close current tab

Visual

Command	Description
screenshot	Take screenshot
responsive <w> <h>	Set viewport size
pdf	Save page as PDF

Snapshot Flags

Flag	Description
-i	Interactive elements only (buttons, links, inputs)
-c	Compact (remove empty structural nodes)
-d N	Limit tree depth
-s <sel>	Scope to CSS selector
-D	Diff against previous snapshot
-a	Annotated screenshot with ref overlays

HTTP API

All commands go through the HTTP API:

bash

# Get port and token from state file
PORT=$(python3 -c "import json; print(json.load(open('.gstack/browse.json'))['port'])")
TOKEN=$(python3 -c "import json; print(json.load(open('.gstack/browse.json'))['token'])")

# Send command
curl -s -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}/command" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"command":"goto","args":["https://example.com"]}'

Architecture

text

┌─────────────┐     HTTP      ┌──────────────────┐
│  OpenClaw   │ ──────────▶  │  Gbrow Server    │
│  Agent      │              │  (Bun + Playwright)│
└─────────────┘              └────────┬─────────┘
                                      │
                                      ▼
                              ┌──────────────────┐
                              │  Chromium         │
                              │  (headless)       │
                              └──────────────────┘
                                      │
                                      ▼
                              ┌──────────────────┐
                              │ Accessibility     │
                              │ Tree (ariaSnapshot)│
                              └──────────────────┘

No vision models. No API calls. Just structured text from the browser's accessibility layer.

Credits

Built on top of gstack by Gary Tan (Y Combinator). Adapted for OpenClaw with permission under MIT license.

License

MIT