SkillHub

steel-browser

v1.0.0

Control cloud browser sessions via Steel.dev for web automation and computer-use agents. Use when you need to browse the web, fill forms, click elements, take screenshots, scrape content, or build browser automation loops. Uses Playwright selectors (CSS/text/aria) instead of pixel coordinates — more...

Sourced from ClawHub, Authored by EYHN

Installation

Please help me install the skill `steel-browser` from SkillHub official store. npx skills add EYHN/steel-browser

Steel Browser Skill

Cloud browser-use via Steel.dev + Playwright Python SDK. Ideal for web automation, scraping, form filling, and AI agent browser loops.

Prerequisites

pip install steel-sdk playwright
export STEEL_API_KEY=your_key_here

Get your API key at https://app.steel.dev → Settings → API Keys (free: 100 browser hours).

Steel API key should be set in OpenClaw config or environment:

openclaw config set env.STEEL_API_KEY "your_key"

State Management

  • start_session.sh saves session ID to ~/.steel_state
  • All scripts auto-load it from there
  • Override anytime with export STEEL_SESSION_ID=<id>
  • Sessions persist until release_session.sh or timeout

Scripts

Script Usage Description
start_session.sh [--proxy] [--captcha] [--timeout MS] Create session; prints SESSION_ID + VIEWER_URL
release_session.sh [SESSION_ID] Release session
list_sessions.sh (none) List active sessions
navigate.sh URL [--wait-until networkidle] Go to URL
screenshot.sh [OUTPUT.png] [--full-page] Take screenshot
click.sh SELECTOR Click by CSS/text/aria selector
click_coords.sh X Y [--right] [--double] Click at pixel coords (fallback)
type.sh SELECTOR "text" Fill input field
press_key.sh KEY Press key (e.g. Enter, Control+a)
scroll.sh AMOUNT|--to-bottom|--to-top|SELECTOR Scroll page
hover.sh SELECTOR Hover over element
select.sh SELECTOR VALUE Select dropdown option
get_content.sh [--html] [SELECTOR] Extract page text or HTML
eval_js.sh "js expression" Execute JavaScript, print result
wait_for.sh SELECTOR [TIMEOUT_MS] Wait for element to appear
get_url.sh (none) Print current URL and page title

Selector Examples

Steel uses Playwright selectors — much more powerful than pixel coords:

# By CSS
click.sh "#submit-button"
click.sh ".nav-link:first-child"

# By text content
click.sh "text=Sign in"
click.sh "button:has-text('Continue')"

# By aria label
click.sh "[aria-label='Search']"
click.sh "[placeholder='Email address']"

# XPath
click.sh "xpath=//button[@type='submit']"

Browser-Use Agent Loop Pattern

SCRIPTS="skills/steel-browser/scripts"

# 1. Start session (add --proxy --captcha for tough sites)
source <($SCRIPTS/start_session.sh)
echo "Session: $SESSION_ID"
echo "Watch at: $VIEWER_URL"

# 2. Navigate
$SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "https://example.com"

# 3. Agent loop
while true; do
  $SCRIPTS/screenshot.sh /tmp/screen.png

  # Get page text for LLM context
  CONTENT=$($SCRIPTS/get_content.sh)

  # LLM decides action...
  ACTION=$(echo "$CONTENT" | llm_decide /tmp/screen.png)

  case "$ACTION_TYPE" in
    click)    $SCRIPTS/click.sh "$SELECTOR" ;;
    type)     $SCRIPTS/type.sh "$SELECTOR" "$TEXT" ;;
    navigate) $SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "$URL" ;;
    done)     break ;;
  esac
done

# 4. Release
$SCRIPTS/release_session.sh

vs E2B Desktop

Feature Steel Browser E2B Desktop
Selectors Playwright CSS/text/aria ✅ Pixel coords only
Proxy support ✅ Residential proxies ❌
CAPTCHA solving ✅ Built-in ❌
Non-browser tasks ❌ ✅ Desktop apps, terminal
Session viewer ✅ Live URL ✅ VNC stream

Use Steel for web automation. Use E2B Desktop for desktop apps / full OS control.