[opensourcedex]

skills is a free, open source data extraction & web scraping project written in Python and released under MIT. It has 5,946 GitHub stars, 295 forks and 7 open issues, and was last pushed 24 days ago. On this registry it ranks #31 of 45 tracked projects in Data Extraction & Web Scraping, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 17 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is skills?

What it is

BrowserAct Skills is a browser automation CLI built for AI agents, distributed as an open-source Python project under the MIT license. It lives in the agent-infrastructure ecosystem, alongside tooling for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and other agent clients, and it is catalogued here under Data Extraction and Web Scraping. The project has gathered roughly 5,900 stars and 293 forks since it was published about a year ago, with a small open-issue count and an active last push.

The concrete problem it solves is that ordinary browser automation assumes a human writes the script and a website cooperates. Agents instead hit anti-bot walls, need a human to intervene mid-run, and contaminate each other when several tasks share one browser. BrowserAct addresses these with progressive block avoidance, cross-platform human handoff, isolated sessions, and an interface shaped for LLM reasoning rather than human-authored selectors.

Key capabilities

  • Three progressive block-breakthrough layers: an environment layer with stealth fingerprint spoofing, TLS rotation, and proxy switching; an execution layer with solve-captcha and stealth-extract; and a human layer through remote-assist.
  • Three browser modes covering real scenarios: chrome for reusing local Chrome login state via profile import or CDP attach, stealth privacy mode for frictionless batch scraping, and stealth fixed identity for logged-in accounts with stable fingerprints and stable IPs.
  • Zero-interference concurrency: cross-browser parallelism with independent cookies, fingerprints, and proxies; same-browser multi-session with shared login state and independent execution; and privacy mode that leaves no residue.
  • Compact text output in an indexed format, described as several times more token-efficient than JSON or HTML.
  • Indexed interaction, where state returns an indexed list and commands such as click 3 or input 2 "..." avoid DOM parsing.
  • Semantic memory, where every browser carries a desc that is matched to tasks by meaning.
  • Confirmation gating for sensitive operations such as browser create or delete, profile import, proxy changes, and security or privacy toggles, enforced at the Skill layer rather than as a configuration toggle.

Who uses it and how

  • Teams that describe a website, filters, and fields, then let BrowserAct build and test a reusable scraping bot in a real cloud browser and run it from the cloud.
  • Agent developers who load the Skill locally, discover browser state with get-skills, and run automation commands from their own environment.
  • Users
project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline
BrowserAct Logo

Discord GitHub Stars License

Website X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube

What can BrowserAct be used for?

BrowserAct enables AI agents and teams to perform real-browser automation, web data extraction, and account-based workflows.

It helps agents get past anti-bot walls, hand off to humans across platforms when stuck, run parallel tasks without cross-contamination, and isolate multiple accounts in independent browsers, backed by stealth fingerprints, TLS rotation, residential proxies, CAPTCHA solving, and stable fingerprint-proxy setups for authenticated sessions.

Two usage modes are available: fully cloud-managed execution, or local browser control driven by your own agent workflow.

Use BrowserAct in the cloud

No agent setup required, with lower operating cost. Describe the website, filters, and fields you need. BrowserAct builds and tests a reusable scraping Bot in a real cloud browser, then runs it from the cloud. Build once. Run reliably. Improve continuously.

Start from BrowserAct Cloud →

Watch demo: Build a Web Scraper from One Prompt | BrowserAct →

Use BrowserAct locally with Skills

Use BrowserAct Skills when you want local browser control, local Chrome login-state reuse, or direct integration into your own AI agent workflow.

Your agent can load the BrowserAct Skill, discover browser state with get-skills, and run browser automation commands directly from your local environment.

Watch demo: BrowserAct: Give AI Agents a Real Browser →

Start from BrowserAct Skills →

Why BrowserAct

The browser an AI agent needs has to reach places standard tools can't, let a human seamlessly take over when the agent is stuck, keep parallel tasks from cross-contaminating, and be designed for LLM reasoning — not human-written scripts. A browser for agents must get four things right.

1. Break through blocks — three progressive layers

  1. Environment layer — stealth fingerprint spoofing, TLS rotation, proxy switching. The vast majority of blocks never trigger.
  2. Execution layer — solve-captcha auto-solves CAPTCHAs; stealth-extract pulls protected pages in one command.
  3. Human layer — remote-assist generates a live URL; the user takes over from any device, and the agent continues seamlessly when done.

2. Three browser modes — by real-world scenario

Mode Scenario Key trait
chrome Reuse local Chrome login state Profile import or CDP attach
stealth privacy mode Frictionless batch scraping without login Fresh fingerprint per session + proxy rotation, zero residue
stealth fixed identity Logged-in accounts · multi-browser parallel Stable fingerprint + stable IP, stable account identity, not flagged as bots

3. Zero-interference concurrency — every agent in its own lane

  • Cross-browser parallel — independent cookies, fingerprints, proxies. Sites cannot correlate them.
  • Same-browser multi-session — shared login state, independent execution, tasks don't block each other.
  • Privacy mode — fresh fingerprint and empty profile per session, zero residue when done.

4. Designed for agent reasoning — not human scripts

  • Compact text output — indexed text format, several times more token-efficient than JSON or HTML.
  • Indexed interaction — state returns an indexed list; click 3 / input 2 "...". No DOM parsing required.
  • Semantic memory — every browser carries a desc, matched to tasks by meaning.
  • Concurrency-safe — session ownership + explicit naming. Multi-agent operation never conflicts.

Security: confirmation gating — sensitive operations (browser create / delete, Profile import, proxy changes, security and privacy toggles) require explicit user approval. Prior approvals do not carry over. Enforced at the Skill layer, not a configuration toggle.

And More

  • Better headless — Default headless without disrupting users; stealth headless that isn't detected.
  • Cross-platform remote handoff — Any device opens the link to take over, and the agent continues seamlessly.

Install

Tell your AI agent:

Install browser-act. Skill source: https://github.com/browser-act/skills/tree/main/browser-act . Verify it works after installation.

Installation details →

Quick Start

# Extract protected page content (zero config)
browser-act stealth-extract https://example.com

# Full browser automation
browser-act --session my-task browser open <id> https://example.com
browser-act --session my-task state          # See clickable elements
browser-act --session my-task click 3        # Click by index
browser-act --session my-task input 2 "hi"   # Type into a field

More examples and workflows →

The agent runs get-skills at the start of each session — gets environment state, browser list, and commands in one call:

browser-act get-skills core --skill-version 2.0.2

How agents discover and use BrowserAct →

Compatibility

OS: Windows, macOS, Linux

Agents: Claude Code · Cursor · VS Code · OpenCode · OpenClaw · Codex · Gemini CLI — works with any agent that can execute shell commands and load Skills.

What's Free

Almost everything is free. Only two features require payment: managed proxies (Dynamic / Static), and stealth browsers beyond the first 5.

Feature Free
(No Signup)		 Free
(Login Only)		 Paid
Browser automation, Chrome / Chrome-direct ✓ ✓ ✓
Stealth browser (≤ 5), stealth-extract, solve-captcha, remote-assist, privacy mode, Skill Forge — ✓ ✓
Stealth browser (> 5), Dynamic / Static proxy — — ✓

Documentation

Full documentation covers anti-blocking, browser modes, sessions and concurrency, headless and remote handoff, agent design, the Skills system, and the complete command reference.

Read the full documentation →

Also From BrowserAct

Skill Forge — Your Personal Scraping Engineer

Need to extract data from the same website repeatedly at scale? Don't write scrapers by hand. Skill Forge explores a site once, discovers its APIs and data patterns, generates a deploy-ready Skill package, then runs reliably without re-exploration — 500 or 5,000 records through the same stable path.

Any website. Any data. One command to start:

Install browser-act-skill-forge. Skill source: https://github.com/browser-act/skills/tree/main/browser-act-skill-forge . Verify it works after installation.

Then tell your agent what you need:

"Forge a Skill that extracts job listings from LinkedIn — title, company, salary, URL. I'll run 300 keywords later."

Skill Forge documentation →

Solutions Catalog

30+ pre-built Skills already generated by Skill Forge, ready to install and run. Covers Amazon, Google Maps, YouTube, Reddit, WeChat, Zhihu, and more.

Browse the full Solutions Catalog →

Build Your Own

Can't find what you need above? Generate a custom Skill for any website in minutes — no coding required. Ju

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is skills free to use?

skills is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does skills do?

Browser automation CLI built for AI agents. Break through anti-bot walls, hand off to humans across platforms when stuck. Parallel multi-task execution, indepen

What is skills written in?

skills is primarily written in Python. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/browser-act/skills, and it has 5,946 GitHub stars.