BrowserOS is an open-source agentic browser, written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0, that puts AI agents inside a real Chromium browser on the user's own machine so they can work with real logged-in accounts, and it is aimed at people who already use an agent harness such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any MCP agent and want that agent to handle web tasks instead of a sandbox.

What it is

The repository ships two browsers that run side by side. BrowserOS neo is described as "a second browser, just for your AI agents": the user keeps their daily browser, imports logins, bookmarks, and extensions from Chrome in one click, connects an existing agent, and hands off web tasks. Agents run in parallel, each in its own tab, while the user keeps browsing. The second product, BrowserOS, is a Chromium fork with an AI agent built into every new tab, for when the person, not the agent, is the one browsing; it accepts the user's own AI keys or runs entirely locally through Ollama. Both ship from the same repository, and the project's topics cover agent, browser, chromium, llm, lmstudio, ollama, macOS, Windows, and Linux.

The concrete problem it solves is that agents need logged-in web state. Playwright and agent-browser spin up a fresh Chrome subprocess with no logins, which the README calls great for CI and useless for real work such as "read my inbox." Cloud browsers such as browser-use and browserbase run in a datacenter, where logging into personal accounts is a pain and sites like Twitter and LinkedIn block the datacenter IP. Locked-in AI browsers such as Atlas, Comet, and Dia only work with their own AI. BrowserOS neo replaces the headless driver and the cloud browser with a local browser listening on 127.0.0.1 that persists real logins across sessions and works with the agents the user already pays for.

Key capabilities

• One-click Chrome import brings over logins, bookmarks, and extensions, so agents work with real accounts from the first task.
• One-click connect finds Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, OpenClaw, and Hermes on the machine and accepts any MCP agent.
• Parallel agents: several tasks fire at once, each in its own tab.
• Live dashboard on the new tab shows every running agent, which site it is on, what it is doing, and how far along it is.
• Every session is saved as a scrubbable video on disk with a step-by-step action timeline, so any run can be replayed.
• Local-only storage: sessions, screenshots, and history live under ~/.browserclaw/ and never leave the machine.
• Fewer tokens than alternatives such as Claude's Chrome extension or the Codex browser for the same task.

Who uses it and how

• Individuals and small teams already paying for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or a similar harness who want those agents acting against logged-in accounts.
• Social and marketing work: posting to LinkedIn and Twitter/X, queueing posts, and pulling engagement numbers.
• Inbox and admin work: clearing an inbox and unsubscribing from junk email.
• Back-office operations: updating a CRM, filing expenses, and pulling reports from internal tools.
• Teams assessing it at company scale: the README routes enterprises to [email protected] with a subject line asking for company, team size, and what they want to automate.

Getting started

On macOS, install with brew tap browseros-ai/tap followed by brew install --cask browseros-neo; direct downloads are also offered as BrowserOS_neo.dmg for macOS and BrowserOS_neo_installer.exe for Windows.

How it compares

The facts name three groups of neighbours rather than one: headless drivers such as Playwright and agent-browser, cloud browsers such as browser-use and browserbase, and the AI browsers ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet, and Dia. Where the drivers and cloud browsers offer no logged-in state or a datacenter IP, and the branded AI browsers tie the user to their own model, BrowserOS neo runs locally on 127.0.0.1 and connects to whichever agent is already in use and already paid for. It is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, and the code runs on the user's machine rather than a vendor's.

When to use it — and when not to

BrowserOS neo does not supply the AI itself, so a user still needs an agent harness such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, and session recordings, screenshots, and history accumulate on local disk under ~/.browserclaw/. It is explicitly not a Chrome replacement, so anyone wanting one daily browser for everything should not pick it, and anyone wanting a headless setup for CI should stay with the drivers the README rules out. The install instructions cover macOS via Homebrew cask and direct macOS and Windows downloads, while Linux appears only in the topic list, and agents acting with real credentials mean mistakes touch real accounts.

brew tap browseros-ai/tap
brew install --cask browseros-neo