Browser profiles

A named, persistent browser identity an agent can drive. Cookies, login state, and extensions stay between runs.

Why profiles exist

A Chrome window is not an identity. Close it, and the next process gets a fresh, unauthenticated browser. Spin up Playwright instead and most sites — Google, LinkedIn, the typical finance dashboard — block the session within seconds because the automation flags are detectable.

A profile fixes both problems. It is a directory on disk that holds cookies, local storage, installed extensions, and the cached auth tokens of every site you have ever signed into through it. Point any agent at the profile and the agent inherits the login. Point a second agent at a different profile and the two run side by side without colliding.

Create one

agents browser profiles create linear-prod --browser chrome

The profile is named linear-prod. The first launch opens a real Chrome window pointed at an isolated user-data directory. Sign into the sites you want the agent to reach — the cookies land in the profile, not your everyday Chrome.

Drive it from an agent

export AGENTS_BROWSER_TASK=$(agents browser start --profile linear-prod --url https://linear.app)
agents browser refs
agents browser click 42
agents browser type 15 --text "auth bug in /signup"
agents browser screenshot
agents browser done

refs returns a numbered list of interactive elements. click and type address them by number, so the agent never has to reason about CSS selectors. screenshot resizes for token efficiency before returning. done closes the task's tabs and releases the profile.

Attach a secrets bundle

For sites the agent should be able to log into from scratch, attach a secrets bundle to the profile. Credentials stay in Keychain; the agent never sees plaintext.

agents browser profiles create bank --browser chrome --secrets bank-creds

See secrets for how to create the bundle.

Multiple agents, multiple profiles

Each profile has its own user-data directory. Two agents can run two profiles in parallel without sharing cookies or stepping on each other's tabs.

agents browser profiles create work-slack --browser chrome
agents browser profiles create personal-gmail --browser chrome

See tabs for how tabs belong to profiles and how to drive several at once.