Local browser access for AI agents

Agent Browser Gateway

Share the tab you choose with an AI coding agent. Nothing else is visible by default, and every local operation is designed to stay inspectable.

Download for macOS Read the privacy policy

Per-tab consent Loopback transport Token-efficient reads Zero telemetry Local audit log

A gateway illustration showing one approved browser tab

Download the signed macOS gateway.

The current macOS distribution is a notarized DMG for Apple Silicon Macs. It includes the menu bar app, the abg CLI, and the bundled agent skill installer.

Download DMG

Chrome Web Store SHA-256

Version 0.3.4 macOS 14+ Apple Silicon

Menu bar app Installs to /Applications and starts after setup.

CLI ready Installs abg and its resource bundle under /usr/local/bin.

Skills included Runs abg install-skill for Claude Code and Codex.

Chrome extension Install from the Chrome Web Store to share tabs with the local gateway.

SHA-256 ae36464ef12a55e677e48526a1b83e2ebc7ac8182064671bfbcb3d5934bb2a47

Why ABG exists.

Browser access is powerful for AI agents because the real work often happens inside pages you are already logged into. That same power becomes risky when the bridge is opaque, global, or tied to a single hosted assistant.

If your AI can see your browser, you should be able to inspect the bridge it uses.

Less ambient access

No tab is shared until you choose it, and sharing is scoped to that tab.

Less platform lock-in

The CLI can be used by Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, or your own scripts.

Less hidden movement

ABG is local-first, avoids product telemetry, and records operations in a local audit log.

The browser remains human-owned.

ABG is built for the moment when you are already looking at the real page and want to hand only that page to a local agent workflow.

No access by default

The agent sees no tabs until you explicitly share one from the extension popup.

One tab at a time

ABG keeps permission scoped to the selected tab instead of exposing the browser.

Automatic revocation

Access is revoked when the tab closes, navigates to another origin, or you revoke it.

Visible operations

Write actions can require a local approval step before they run.

A small local bridge, not another browser cloud.

Agent Browser Gateway combines a Chrome extension, a macOS menu bar gateway, and the abg CLI. The extension has no host permissions, the gateway listens on 127.0.0.1, and the product does not include analytics or telemetry.

Share from Chrome

You choose the active tab from the extension popup.

Use a local CLI

Your agent asks abg for reads, screenshots, console logs, tables, or operations.

Review the audit trail

Local operation records are written to a JSONL audit log on your Mac.

$ abg tabs --compact
[
  {
    "ref": "t1",
    "title": "Issue tracker",
    "origin": "https://example.com"
  }
]

$ abg read t1 --format markdown

Cleaner browser context. Fewer wasted tokens.

Raw browser HTML is noisy: scripts, styles, framework wrappers, hidden UI, and unrelated app chrome all get mixed into the prompt. ABG can return clean Markdown from the shared tab, preserving useful structure while cutting out the page noise.

In a README benchmark on a typical article page, ABG's Markdown read reduced input from roughly 50,000 tokens of raw HTML to roughly 5,900 tokens while keeping headings, links, lists, and article structure.

Raw page HTML ~50k tokens

ABG Markdown ~5.9k tokens

Reduction vs naive full HTML ~88% less prompt noise, with structure preserved

Not a test runner. Not a hosted browser assistant.

ABG is for handing a human-owned, already-open tab to an agent workflow. Playwright remains the better fit when automation should own the whole browser lifecycle.

Option	Best fit	Tradeoff	Where ABG differs
Agent Browser Gateway	AI-assisted work in a tab you are already using	Requires explicit local setup and tab sharing	Per-tab consent, local transport, CLI-first workflow, local audit log
Playwright	Deterministic E2E tests, CI, screenshots, clean browser profiles	Automation owns the browser session	ABG uses your everyday Chrome tab with your current login and context
Claude in Chrome	Provider-integrated browser assistance	Tied to that provider's product surface and data path	ABG is agent-agnostic and designed around local-first browser access
Browser MCP tools	MCP-native browser control and structured snapshots	Often targets a dedicated or broader browser context	ABG keeps the human's selected tab as the permission boundary