Browserbase CLI

Browserbase CLI

Use the official browse CLI for Browserbase platform operations, Functions workflows, and Fetch API calls.

Setup check

Before using the CLI, verify it is installed:

which browse || npm install -g browse
browse --help

For authenticated commands, set the API key:

export BROWSERBASE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• run Browserbase commands through browse
• scaffold, develop, publish, or invoke Browserbase Functions
• inspect or manage Browserbase sessions, projects, contexts, or extensions
• fetch a page through Browserbase without opening a browser session
• search the web through Browserbase without opening a browser session
• browse or scaffold starter templates with browse templates

When not to use this skill

• For interactive browsing, page inspection, screenshots, clicking, typing, or login flows, prefer the browser skill.
• For simple HTTP content retrieval where the user does not care about using the CLI specifically, the dedicated fetch skill is often a better fit.
• Use the top-level driver commands (browse open, browse get, browse click, …) only when the user explicitly wants the CLI path or is already working in a browse-centric workflow.

Command selection

• browse functions for local dev, packaging, publishing, and invocation
• browse cloud sessions, browse cloud projects, browse cloud contexts, browse cloud extensions for Browserbase platform resources
• browse cloud fetch <url> for Fetch API requests
• browse cloud search "<query>" for Search API requests
• browse templates to browse and scaffold starter templates
• browse open, browse get, browse click, etc. for direct local/remote browser driving
• browse skills install to install Browserbase agent skills for Claude Code

For local browser work, browse open <url> --local starts a clean isolated browser. Use browse open <url> --auto-connect only when you need to attach to an existing debuggable Chrome session.

Common workflows

Functions

browse functions init my-function
cd my-function
browse functions dev index.ts
browse functions publish index.ts
browse functions invoke <function_id> --params '{"url":"https://example.com"}'

Use browse functions invoke --check-status <invocation_id> to poll an existing invocation instead of creating a new one.

Platform APIs

browse cloud projects list
browse cloud sessions create --proxies --verified --region us-east-1
browse cloud sessions create --solve-captchas --context-id ctx_abc --persist
browse cloud sessions get <session_id>
browse cloud sessions downloads get <session_id> --output session-artifacts.zip
browse cloud contexts create --body '{"region":"us-west-2"}'
browse cloud extensions upload ./my-extension.zip

Fetch API

browse cloud fetch https://example.com
browse cloud fetch https://example.com --allow-redirects --output page.html

Search API

browse cloud search "browser automation"
browse cloud search "web scraping" --num-results 5
browse cloud search "AI agents" --output results.json

Templates

browse templates list
browse templates list --tag Python --source Browserbase
browse templates clone form-filling --language typescript
browse templates clone amazon-product-scraping --language python ./my-scraper

Best practices

1. Prefer browse --help and subgroup --help before guessing flags.
2. Use dash-case flags exactly as shown in CLI help.
3. Use --output <file> on browse cloud fetch and browse cloud search to save results to a file.
4. Use environment variables for auth unless the user explicitly wants one-off overrides.
5. Pass structured request bodies with JSON strings in --body or --params.
6. Remember that both browse functions ... and browse cloud ... use --base-url for API base URL overrides.

Troubleshooting

• Missing API key: set BROWSERBASE_API_KEY or pass --api-key
• Unknown flag: rerun the relevant command with --help and use the exact dash-case form
• Command not found: re-run npm install -g browse and verify with which browse

For command-by-command reference and more examples, see REFERENCE.md.