browser-use on corp laptop — playwright-cli fallback

decision Sat Jul 04 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) browser-automationbrowser-useplaywrightcorp-machinecorp-vdicross-machine-parityagent-skills

browser-use on corp laptop — playwright-cli fallback

Locked

Both machines run browser-use skill (registered at 7 agent paths). Runtime split:

Machine	Browser automation tool	Reason
Corp laptop (Windows 11, this one)	`playwright-cli` (corp-signed)	Chrome CDP socket bind blocked at OS level (Defender/EPM policy)
Personal laptop	`browser-use` native	No corp policy — CDP works out of the box

Skill file at ~/.claude/skills/browser-use/SKILL.md present on both. On corp machine, agent reads skill but MUST substitute playwright-cli commands.

Evidence gathered 2026-07-04

Verified 3 CDP mechanisms all fail on corp machine:

Chrome launched with --remote-debugging-port=9222 → DevToolsActivePort file written but zero LISTENING sockets on any Chrome PID (netstat -ano | Select-String ':9222')
Runtime toggle at chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging → same — port shown in UI but no socket
Pipe transport → not supported by browser-use

Playwright's Chromium 1228 binary at ~/.local/ms-playwright/chromium-1228/ launches cleanly (signed by Microsoft, allowlisted through Defender). playwright-cli open <url> + playwright-cli snapshot verified working.

How to use on corp laptop

playwright-cli open https://github.com/chirag127
playwright-cli snapshot          # capture page state + get element refs
playwright-cli click <ref>       # click by snapshot ref
playwright-cli fill <ref> "text" # fill input
playwright-cli close             # end session

Sessions persist across CLI calls via .playwright-cli/ dir in cwd. Pass -s=<name> for named sessions (parallel browser instances).

How to use on personal laptop

Standard browser-use flow per its SKILL.md:

browser-use <<'PY'
ensure_real_tab()
page_info()
PY

Installation state (this corp laptop)

uv tool install --python 3.12 --force browser-use — installed at ~/AppData/Roaming/uv/tools/browser-use/
Cannot invoke via .exe shim (C:\Users\C5420321\.local\bin\browser-use.exe Access Denied — Defender/EPM blocks new .exe files under user profile)
MUST invoke as: & "$env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Roaming\uv\tools\browser-use\Scripts\python.exe" -c "from browser_use.cli import main; main()" <args>
--no-install flag mandatory on skill re-install to skip the exe-reinstall path

Cross-refs

corp-vs-personal-laptop-split-2026-06-29 — the broader corp/personal split rationale
playwright-persistent-sessions — Playwright signed-binary constraint
cross-machine-parity-via-sync — enables both machines to be primary