steel-browser

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

Use this skill for live web tasks where WebFetch or curl would fail or be insufficient: JavaScript-rendered pages, forms, screenshots, PDFs, login flows, CAPTCHA/bot-protection flows, and multi-step navigation. It runs a real Steel cloud browser through the Steel CLI. Use when the agent should visit, click, type, scrape, screenshot, or extract now. Do not use for writing reusable Steel SDK/API code; use steel-developer for code. If a live task fails, hand off to steel-session-debugging; if evidence points to bot detection, proxies, CAPTCHA, or identity, hand off to steel-reliability.

11installs
Sourcesteel-dev/skills
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add steel-dev/skills steel-browser

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
steel-cliweb-scrapingbrowser-automationlive-web-taskstroubleshooting

SKILL.md Content

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Steel Browser

Use Steel CLI browser tools to complete live web work now.

Setup

If Steel is missing or unauthenticated:
bash
steel --version
steel login
steel doctor --preflight
If the CLI or installed skills look broken, run:
bash
steel skills doctor
Done when this smoke test succeeds:
bash
steel scrape https://example.com

Choose The Right Path

  • Static page content: 
    steel scrape <url>
  • Screenshot: 
    steel screenshot <url>
  • PDF: 
    steel pdf <url>
  • Multi-step interaction, login, forms, or JS-heavy pages: 
    steel browser ...
  • Bot detection, CAPTCHA, proxy, or login reliability failure: collect evidence with 
    steel-session-debugging
    , then use 
    steel-reliability
  • Reusable application code: use 
    steel-developer
Start with the smallest tool that can finish the task. Escalate from scrape/screenshot/PDF to an interactive browser session only when interaction or state is required.

Interactive Session Workflow

bash
steel browser start --session my-task --session-timeout 3600000
steel browser navigate https://example.com --session my-task
steel browser snapshot -i --session my-task
steel browser click @e1 --session my-task
steel browser wait --load networkidle --session my-task
steel browser snapshot -i --session my-task
steel browser stop --session my-task
Rules:
  • Always use the same 
    --session <name>
    on every command.
  • Take a fresh 
    snapshot -i
    after navigation or DOM changes because element refs expire.
  • Prefer 
    @eN
    refs from snapshots over brittle CSS selectors.
  • Use 
    steel browser batch
    when a sequence needs an action and immediate re-snapshot.
  • Release/stop sessions unless the user explicitly asks to keep them open.

Troubleshooting

  1. Run 
    steel skills doctor
    for install or CLI-skill mismatch issues.
  2. Run 
    steel doctor --preflight
    for auth/API issues.
  3. Use 
    steel browser sessions
    and 
    steel browser live --session <name>
    for active sessions.
  4. For failed completed sessions, load 
    steel-session-debugging
    .
  5. For bot/proxy/CAPTCHA/identity fixes, load 
    steel-reliability
    .

References

  • references/steel-browser-commands.md
    : command reference.
  • references/steel-browser-lifecycle.md
    : session lifecycle discipline.
  • references/troubleshooting.md
    : recovery playbooks.
  • references/migration-agent-browser.md
    : migration from upstream 
    agent-browser
    .