Browser Research Skill

Research web pages using agent-browser CLI and summarize content.

Usage

/browser-research <URL> [research topic or question]

Workflow

1. Read the page (default — no browser)

agent-browser read "<URL>" --max-output 20000

read never launches Chrome. It negotiates Accept: text/markdown, tries the .md variant, looks for the nearest llms.txt, and falls back to readable text extracted from the HTML. The markdown it returns keeps headings, bullet lists, and code blocks, so it is both cheaper and more faithful than scraping rendered text.

Useful variants:

Go to step 2 when read exits non-zero (e.g. Read failed with HTTP 403 — some sites block non-browser clients), returns nothing useful, or the content only appears after JavaScript runs. Interaction (clicking, dismissing banners, following links, tabs) always requires step 2.

2. Fall back to a browser session

A previous session may still be open. Close it before starting to avoid conflicts:

agent-browser close 2>/dev/null || true

Then open the page:

agent-browser open "<URL>" && agent-browser wait --load networkidle --timeout 15000

If open fails: verify the URL is well-formed, retry once. If it fails again, report the error to the user and stop.

If wait times out: proceed anyway — the page may still be usable.

Next, choose the extraction method based on your purpose:

Use snapshot only when you need structure or element refs.

For large pages, append --max-output 10000 to prevent token explosion:

agent-browser eval "document.body.innerText" --max-output 10000

If a cookie consent banner or overlay blocks content, dismiss it first:

agent-browser snapshot -i -c   # find the accept/close button ref
agent-browser click "@ref"     # dismiss the banner

Then proceed with the chosen extraction method.

3. Close when done

Only needed when step 2 opened a session:

agent-browser close

Deeper investigation

Most research finishes with the steps above. Read ${CLAUDESKILLDIR}/reference.md when you need any of these:

• The full read option reference (--raw, --require-md, --llms full, --timeout)
• Text from a specific element, page metadata, or finding elements by role/text/label
• Scrolling to load more content on long pages
• Watching network traffic to locate the JSON endpoint behind a SPA
• Following links, going back, or researching several URLs in tabs
• Saving the page as a PDF
• The full snapshot flag reference and other commands

Critical Rules

• Try read first — only open a browser when read cannot do the job. A Chrome session costs

hundreds of MB of memory; read costs none.

• Always close a session you opened — every open must have a matching close.
• Read-only by default — never submit forms or enter data. Clicking is allowed only for passive navigation: dismissing cookie/consent banners, following links, expanding collapsed sections, or switching tabs. Do not click buttons that trigger writes, purchases, or state changes.
• No guessing — do not fabricate or assume page content; only report what read/snapshot/get/eval return.
• Authentication pages — if a page requires login, report it immediately and stop. Do not attempt to authenticate.
• Minimize tokens — prefer read (or read --filter) over full-page extraction, and use --max-output for large pages.

Output

Lead with the answer to the research question, then the supporting points and the source URLs the reader may want to follow. For a single-URL quick lookup, respond directly in chat; when researching multiple URLs or when the user asks, save results to a file with the Write tool.