Steel Browser

Control cloud browser sessions via Steel.dev for web automation and computer-use agents. Use when you need to browse the web, fill forms, click elements, take screenshots, scrape content, or build browser automation loops. Uses Playwright selectors (CSS/text/aria) instead of pixel coordinates — more reliable than e2b-desktop for pure web tasks. Supports residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving.

Steel Browser Skill

Cloud browser-use via Steel.dev + Playwright Python SDK. Ideal for web automation, scraping, form filling, and AI agent browser loops.

Prerequisites

bash

pip install steel-sdk playwright
export STEEL_API_KEY=your_key_here

Get your API key at https://app.steel.dev → Settings → API Keys (free: 100 browser hours).

Steel API key should be set in OpenClaw config or environment:

bash

openclaw config set env.STEEL_API_KEY "your_key"

State Management

• start_session.sh saves session ID to ~/.steel_state
• All scripts auto-load it from there
• Override anytime with export STEEL_SESSION_ID=<id>
• Sessions persist until release_session.sh or timeout

Scripts

Script	Usage	Description
start_session.sh	[--proxy] [--captcha] [--timeout MS]	Create session; prints SESSION_ID + VIEWER_URL
release_session.sh	[SESSION_ID]	Release session
list_sessions.sh	(none)	List active sessions
navigate.sh	URL [--wait-until networkidle]	Go to URL
screenshot.sh	[OUTPUT.png] [--full-page]	Take screenshot
click.sh	SELECTOR	Click by CSS/text/aria selector
click_coords.sh	X Y [--right] [--double]	Click at pixel coords (fallback)
type.sh	SELECTOR "text"	Fill input field
press_key.sh	KEY	Press key (e.g. Enter, Control+a)
scroll.sh	AMOUNT|--to-bottom|--to-top|SELECTOR	Scroll page
hover.sh	SELECTOR	Hover over element
select.sh	SELECTOR VALUE	Select dropdown option
get_content.sh	[--html] [SELECTOR]	Extract page text or HTML
eval_js.sh	"js expression"	Execute JavaScript, print result
wait_for.sh	SELECTOR [TIMEOUT_MS]	Wait for element to appear
get_url.sh	(none)	Print current URL and page title

Selector Examples

Steel uses Playwright selectors — much more powerful than pixel coords:

bash

# By CSS
click.sh "#submit-button"
click.sh ".nav-link:first-child"

# By text content
click.sh "text=Sign in"
click.sh "button:has-text('Continue')"

# By aria label
click.sh "[aria-label='Search']"
click.sh "[placeholder='Email address']"

# XPath
click.sh "xpath=//button[@type='submit']"

Browser-Use Agent Loop Pattern

bash

SCRIPTS="skills/steel-browser/scripts"

# 1. Start session (add --proxy --captcha for tough sites)
source <($SCRIPTS/start_session.sh)
echo "Session: $SESSION_ID"
echo "Watch at: $VIEWER_URL"

# 2. Navigate
$SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "https://example.com"

# 3. Agent loop
while true; do
  $SCRIPTS/screenshot.sh /tmp/screen.png
  
  # Get page text for LLM context
  CONTENT=$($SCRIPTS/get_content.sh)
  
  # LLM decides action...
  ACTION=$(echo "$CONTENT" | llm_decide /tmp/screen.png)
  
  case "$ACTION_TYPE" in
    click)    $SCRIPTS/click.sh "$SELECTOR" ;;
    type)     $SCRIPTS/type.sh "$SELECTOR" "$TEXT" ;;
    navigate) $SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "$URL" ;;
    done)     break ;;
  esac
done

# 4. Release
$SCRIPTS/release_session.sh

vs E2B Desktop

Feature	Steel Browser	E2B Desktop
Selectors	Playwright CSS/text/aria ✅	Pixel coords only
Proxy support	✅ Residential proxies	❌
CAPTCHA solving	✅ Built-in	❌
Non-browser tasks	❌	✅ Desktop apps, terminal
Session viewer	✅ Live URL	✅ VNC stream

Use Steel for web automation. Use E2B Desktop for desktop apps / full OS control.