# Pi Web Browse

> Search the web and fetch/read pages via a real headless browser (CDP). Use this instead of curl when sites are JS-heavy or bot-protected. Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Use when this capability is needed.

- Skill: `tomevault-io/pi-web-browse` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/pi-web-browse`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/pi-web-browse/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/pi-web-browse

---


# Web Browse

Search the web, then open/fetch pages in a **real browser session** (headless Chromium via CDP) and extract readable text.
Use this instead of `curl` when sites are JS-heavy or bot-protected.

## Setup

Run once before first use:

```bash
cd {baseDir}
npm install
```

The skill auto-detects browsers already installed on your system (Brave, Chrome, Edge, Chromium).
On Windows, Edge is pre-installed and works out of the box.

**No browser installed?** (rare) Run: `npx playwright install chromium`

## Configuration (optional)

Environment variables:

| Variable | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `WEB_BROWSE_BROWSER_BIN` | Path to browser binary (auto-detected if not set) |
| `WEB_BROWSE_USER_AGENT` | Override User-Agent string |
| `WEB_BROWSE_DAEMON_PORT` | Daemon port (default: 9377) |
| `WEB_BROWSE_CDP_PORT` | CDP port (default: 9225) |
| `WEB_BROWSE_DEBUG_DUMP` | Set to `1` to save screenshots/HTML on failures |

You can also pass `--browser-bin <path>` as a CLI argument.

## Usage

```bash
# Search (results are cached for ~10 minutes)
{baseDir}/web-browse.js "your query"
{baseDir}/web-browse.js "your query" -n 10

# Fetch specific cached results by index
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --fetch 1,3,5

# Fetch a specific URL
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --url <url>          # truncated (~2000 chars)
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --url <url> --full   # full content
```

**Windows note:** Use `node {baseDir}/web-browse.js` instead of `{baseDir}/web-browse.js`

## Default behavior: persistent daemon (auto)

Direct calls automatically start/use a local daemon that keeps a **persistent headless browser+CDP session**.
This avoids browser startup overhead and helps with bot-protection pages that auto-clear (e.g. Anubis PoW).

### Daemon controls (optional, for debugging)

```bash
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon status
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon start
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon stop
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --daemon restart
```

### Bypass daemon (one-shot)

```bash
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --no-daemon --url https://example.com
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --no-daemon "your query"
```

## Workflow

1) **Search** → see snippets → decide what to read
2) **Fetch by index** → `--fetch 1,3` opens those results and extracts content

```bash
{baseDir}/web-browse.js "rust async runtime"  # shows results
{baseDir}/web-browse.js --fetch 1,3           # fetches result #1 and #3
```

## Browser Support

The skill auto-detects installed browsers in this order:

**Linux:** brave, brave-browser, google-chrome, chromium
**macOS:** Brave Browser, Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge (in /Applications)
**Windows:** Brave, Chrome, Edge, Chromium (common install paths)

To use a specific browser, set `WEB_BROWSE_BROWSER_BIN` or pass `--browser-bin <path>`.

## Notes

- Content is truncated by default to save tokens; use `--full` for complete output.
- The daemon keeps a warm browser session for faster subsequent requests.
- CDP profile is stored in `~/.config/web-browse-cdp-profile/` (configurable via `--cdp-profile`).

---
> Source: [ogulcancelik/pi-extensions](https://github.com/ogulcancelik/pi-extensions) — distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io).
<!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-06-18 -->