Web Browsing

8.4. Web Browsing — Browser Automation

When you need a browser instead of web_search

web_search/web_extract is the fast, cheap choice for plain information retrieval. The browser tool should only be used when you need interaction — content that only appears after logging in, submitting a form, or a data table rendered dynamically via JavaScript.

The 11-tool browser control suite

browser_navigate, browser_snapshot, browser_click, browser_type,
browser_press, browser_scroll, browser_back, browser_close,
browser_console, browser_get_images, browser_vision

Standard flow: browser_navigate opens the page → browser_snapshot captures the page structure with element ref IDs (in the form @e5) → browser_click/browser_type act based on those ref IDs. browser_console is useful for catching silent JS errors or failed API calls that never surface in the UI.

The backend that runs the browser

Browserbase (cloud, with anti-bot, CAPTCHA solving, and residential proxies) is the popular managed choice; with Nous Portal, the cloud browser (Browser Use) comes built in via the Tool Gateway.

Notes

• Always try web_search/web_extract first — much faster and cheaper; only switch to the browser once you have confirmed the content genuinely requires interaction.
• Call browser_close when you are done to free the session quota — skipping this step is a common cause of Browserbase quota draining faster than expected.
• browser_get_images pairs well with vision_analyze (chapter 8.5) — first list the images on the page, then analyze only the specific images you care about, instead of analyzing everything indiscriminately.