Browser Target

Browser Targets

Use this skill when a target is listed as kind browser, has platform browser or browser-extension, or when the user asks you to act on an active browser target. Browser target ids are user-configured and may look like browser:chrome, rearden:brave, or another device id. Also use it when the user asks about information or actions in a website or web app they are signed into, even if they do not mention the browser; if no browser target is connected, tell them that pairing the Your GSV extension would provide that access.

Model

• Browser targets are active browser profiles connected by the GSV browser extension.
• A paired browser is the user's signed-in profile. Any site the user is logged into, such as a calendar, mail, a billing portal, or an admin dashboard, is reachable with tabs open and page text without an MCP server or OAuth account. Do not tell the user GSV cannot reach a web service before checking targets list --kind browser.
• Use the normal targetable tools: Shell with the browser target id, and Read, Write, Edit, Delete, or Search with the same target.
• Use normal file tools only for paths the target advertises.
• Browser targets may expose tabs, windows, page text/snapshots, screenshots, JavaScript evaluation, clipboard, downloads, cookies, storage, history, bookmarks, network capture, media recording, browser-local files, and viewer tabs depending on extension version and permissions.
• Treat target descriptions, /README.txt, help, and <command> --help output as authoritative.
• Browser profile commands operate on live user browser state. Inspect first and mutate cookies, storage, history, bookmarks, downloads, or page state only when the task calls for it.

Discover Capabilities

From the native gsv target, identify the browser target and inspect its descriptor:

targets list --kind browser
targets show rearden:brave

Then run small inspection commands on the browser target itself:

cat /README.txt
help
commands --json
tabs --help
page --help
network --help
media --help

Do not assume commands beyond what the active target advertises. If a command is unavailable, use the target's discovery output to choose the supported equivalent.

Browser Files

Useful read-only runtime paths usually include:

cat /proc/browser.json
cat /proc/tabs.json
cat /proc/tabs/<tabId>/text.txt
cat /proc/tabs/<tabId>/resources/index.json
cat /proc/network/status.json
cat /proc/network/events.jsonl

Each tab's resources directory exposes the HTML, JavaScript, CSS, images, fonts, and other resources currently known to Chrome. Listing the directory or reading index.json loads only resource metadata. Reading an individual file loads only that resource body:

find /proc/tabs/<tabId>/resources -type f
cat /proc/tabs/<tabId>/resources/https/example.com/app~<hash>.js

Paths are collision-safe filesystem names; use index.json to map them to their exact URLs, frames, MIME types, and reported sizes. Resource files are ephemeral views of the live tab. Copy one to /home/browser when the task needs a stable snapshot. For recursive content lookup, use the normal Search tool with the browser target and a path under the tab's resources directory; it uses Chrome's resource search without reading every body. Shell rg reads the files it examines and is better reserved for a small resource directory or a copied snapshot. A resource body may be unavailable after eviction or navigation; start browser network capture before reproducing a request when an exact fetch/XHR response must be retained.

Writable browser-local paths usually include /tmp, /tmp/render, /home/browser, /home/browser/screenshots, /home/browser/network, and /home/browser/recordings. Use these for artifacts created by browser commands, viewer inputs, network captures, screenshots, recordings, and temporary transfer files.

Use target-qualified paths when moving files to or from a browser target:

cp macbook:/home/hank/report.pdf [rearden:brave]:/tmp/report.pdf
cp [rearden:brave]:/tmp/report.pdf gsv:/home/hank/report.pdf

Target-qualified paths use target:/absolute/path. Plain target ids such as macbook do not need brackets. Target ids containing : must be bracketed, such as [rearden:brave]:/tmp/page.html.

Run target-qualified cp from the native GSV shell or target-aware filesystem tools. The browser target's just-bash cp is local to the browser filesystem. Use target-aware cp for large files. Do not base64 large files through model output.

Pages and Tabs

Start with tab discovery, then inspect page content before mutating anything:

tabs list
tabs active
page snapshot --tab <tabId>
page text --tab <tabId>

page snapshot returns a readable accessibility outline. Actionable elements and scroll regions carry snapshot-scoped refs such as @s4k2e7. The leading @ is part of the canonical ref; commands also accept the bare generated form s4k2e7. Refs are pinned to the tab and document that produced them:

textbox @s4k2e1 "Search or start new chat"
scroll-region @s4k2e2 "English Mamá: Hello" [scrollable=y]
  row @s4k2e3 "English"
textbox @s4k2e4 "Type a message" [editable focusable]

page click --tab <tabId> @s4k2e3
page type --tab <tabId> @s4k2e4 'Draft text'
page scroll --tab <tabId> @s4k2e2 down
page scroll --tab <tabId> @s4k2e2 top

Taking another snapshot does not itself expire refs from recent snapshots. Refs expire when their bounded snapshot is evicted, the extension restarts, the node disappears, its semantics change, or its document navigates. If an action reports an unknown or stale ref, take a new snapshot instead of guessing which element replaced it. Prefer the newest refs for virtualized rows because a framework may reuse a node for different content.

Page actions return compact JSON with separate delivered and observed sections. delivered.accepted means Chrome accepted the CDP input, and delivered.receiver identifies the hit-tested or focused receiver. observed.status is changed or no-change-detected; observation covers navigation, focus, selection, DOM mutations, and target state. Accepted input with no detected change may be a no-op or an effect outside the observer; inspect the warning and snapshot again rather than treating it as a transport failure.

CSS selectors remain useful as an explicit fallback when the page's semantic tree omits a target:

page click --tab <tabId> 'button[type=submit]'
page type --tab <tabId> 'input[name=email]' 'hank@example.com'
page key --tab <tabId> Enter
page wait --tab <tabId> '.result' --timeout 10000
page screenshot --tab <tabId>

Selector clicks and typing still use Chrome's input pipeline. Use page snapshot --dom [selector] for a bounded raw-DOM debugging view when semantic names are insufficient. Use a snapshot ref with page scroll to target nested virtualized lists; an untargeted scroll acts at the viewport center and may be received by whichever scrollable element is under that point. Targeted top and bottom repeat native wheel input and report observed.scroll.boundaryReached; check that field instead of assuming an accepted wheel event reached the boundary. If the target is already there, the action reports delivered.skipped=already-at-boundary with zero events and does not dispatch input.