Open source plugin for Claude Code

Give Claude a browser.
Keep your chat light.

A helper opens the web for Claude, reads the pages, and hands back a short note. Your chat stays small and cheap.

Read the source on GitHub

$ claude plugin marketplace add SirCharan/claude-browse && claude plugin install claude-browse

MIT licence
No API key
macOS and Linux

A real example

Ask about Y Combinator's news page. Get 9 lines back.

Y Combinator's news page as the helper saw it on 30 Sep 2026, with the top story at number 1. — **What the helper read** · about 6,400 tokens

you /browse "top story on Hacker News, with points"

RESULT: The current top story on Hacker News is "Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?", with 561 points and 239 comments.
KEY DATA:
- Title: Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?
- Points: 561
- Comments: 239
- Linked URL: https://github.com/ninjahawk/livenerf
SOURCES: https://news.ycombinator.com
ARTIFACTS: none
SESSION: ab-hn-top (ab, closed) | BLOCKERS: none

What your chat got · about 90 tokens, unedited

71xThe note your chat gets is about 71 times smaller than the whole page.

Getting started

Your first two minutes. Here is what you see.

01
Paste the install line
Run it once in your terminal. Claude Code adds the plugin.
claude plugin marketplace add SirCharan/claude-browse && claude plugin install claude-browse
02
Ask with /browse
Type your question in Claude Code, the way you would ask a person.
you /browse "top story on Hacker News, with points"

The helper goes to work

A Sonnet helper opens a hidden browser and reads the page. Your chat sees none of this.

- cell "1." [ref=e10]
- link [ref=e261]
- cell "Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet? (github.com/ninjahawk)" [ref=e11]
  - link "Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?" [ref=e111]
…

Read the short reply

About 11 seconds later, a note of about 90 tokens lands in your chat.

RESULT: The current top story on Hacker News is "Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?", with 561 points and 239 comments.
SESSION: ab-hn-top (ab, closed) | BLOCKERS: none

The story

Web pages are heavy. Your chat should not carry them.

Chapter 01

Your chat fills up with pages.

One news page is about 6,400 tokens, and every later message sends it again.

Chapter 02

A helper goes out instead.

A second, smaller Claude opens the page in its own browser. Your chat never sees it.

Chapter 03

It comes back with a short note.

At most 12 lines, about 90 tokens. The pages stay behind.

Side by side

A helper reads the page. Your chat gets the answer.

Without

You ask a question that needs the web
Claude opens the page itself
The whole page lands in your chat6,400 tokens
It is re-sent with every later message

The page becomes part of the chat for good.

With Claude Browse

You ask with /browse
A helper (a Sonnet sub-agent) opens a browser
It reads and clicks. The pages stay with it.
It sends back 12 lines at most
Your chat keeps only the reply90 tokens

The page never enters your chat. Only the short reply does.

Every reply has the same 5 parts

RESULTthe answer
KEY DATAthe facts and numbers
SOURCESwhere it looked
ARTIFACTSfiles it saved
SESSION | BLOCKERSwhich window, and what got in the way

One real run, start to finish

Only the start and end times were measured. The steps show order, not length.

How it works

One question, one trip, one short note.

01YouType /browse and a question
02ClaudePasses the job to a helper
Outside your chat
1. 03The helperA second, smaller Claude (Sonnet)
2. 04A browserPrivate and hidden, or your own Chrome
3. 05The pageRead and clicked, never copied back

A note of 12 lines or less comes back to your chat. Nothing else does.

Two ways to browse

Private browserdefault

A hidden browser that starts clean. It sees none of your logins.

Your own Chrome

The Chrome you already use, signed in. Pick it for sites that need your account.

Question	Private browser	Your own Chrome
Where it runs	A hidden browser just for the helper	The Chrome you already have open
Sees your logins	No. It starts clean	Yes. Whatever you are signed in to
How it reads pages	A structured map of the page, not pixels	Talks to Chrome directly
Sites it can visit	Only the ones you allow	Any, with a warning
Best for	Public pages, checks, research	Sites that need your account

Proof

One real page, weighed three ways.

Measured on 30 Sep 2026.

The whole pagewhat Claude would read by itself

6,400tokens

The clickable partsthe page map the helper read

3,350tokens

The notewhat your chat received

90tokens

Measured on 30 Sep 2026 with agent-browser 0.38.1, one visit to Y Combinator's news page. The whole run took 11 seconds.

Why a small note matters later

A page in your chat is paid for again on every message.

Illustrative

Each later message sends the whole chat again. This counts only the page part, 6,400 or 90 tokens a time, over 10 messages.

Trust

You can see every window, and close it.

Chapter 04

Every browser window has a name tag.

A ledger, which is a simple record, tracks each browser window. It notes the purpose, the owner, which browser it uses, the allowed sites and the last use. Type browse ls to see them all. Nothing runs where you cannot see it.

Chapter 05

Idle windows get swept away.

Type browse reap to close the windows nobody is using. Add --dry-run first, and it only shows what it would close. Windows still at work stay open. In the real run below, it found 4 windows from an older version.

Only the sites you name

Name the sites when you start. Any other site is refused (exit code 3) before the browser moves.

A fingerprint, not the words

The log keeps a short fingerprint of each page. It never stores what the page said.

Real output from browse ls and browse reap

$ browse ls
NAME        STACK          PURPOSE           OWNER     AGE      IDLE     PID    STATE
default     agent-browser  legacy (unknown)  6e2be8ee  7d 16h   7d 16h   74432  version-mismatch
ey-book     agent-browser  legacy (unknown)  6e2be8ee  10d 15h  10d 15h  81395  version-mismatch
kayak       agent-browser  legacy (unknown)  6e2be8ee  10d 15h  10d 15h  81228  version-mismatch
etihad-bcn  agent-browser  legacy (unknown)  6e2be8ee  10d 15h  10d 15h  80833  version-mismatch

$ browse reap --dry-run --restart-mismatch
would close default (version mismatch)
would close etihad-bcn (version mismatch)
would close ey-book (version mismatch)
would close kayak (version mismatch)
reap: closed 4, orphans removed 0, flagged 4, dry-run

Start

Two steps to your first answer.

01
Add the plugin
claude plugin marketplace add SirCharan/claude-browse && claude plugin install claude-browse
02
Ask your first question
/browse "top story on Hacker News, with points"

Questions

Is it free?

Yes. It is open source under the MIT licence and needs no extra API key. It runs inside the Claude Code you already use.

Which browser does it use?

By default a private, hidden browser that starts clean. If a site needs your account, it can use your own Chrome instead.

Can it see my passwords or logins?

Only in the "your own Chrome" mode, and only what that Chrome is already signed in to. The private browser sees nothing of yours.

What if a window gets left open?

Run browse ls to see every window and browse reap to close the idle ones. Add --dry-run to see the list before anything closes.

Can I keep it to certain sites?

Yes. Name the sites when you start. Anything else is refused before the browser moves.

Keep your chat light.
Give Claude a browser.

Copy the install line, then ask your first question.