opera-browser-cli

The most agent-ergonomic browser automation

Important

This package has moved to opera-devtools-mcp. opera-browser-cli is no longer developed here; the CLI now ships inside opera-devtools-mcp, still as the opera-browser-cli command.

npm install -g opera-browser-cli    # or: npm update -g opera-browser-cli

That installs the compatibility launcher (0.1.56): the same package name and the same command, delegating to the new implementation inside opera-devtools-mcp. No uninstall, no --force, no changes to your scripts, and your ~/.opera-browser-cli/config is reused. Add the MCP server as its own global install if you want it too: npm install -g opera-devtools-mcp.

When you want to drop the launcher and keep a single global package:

npm install -g opera-devtools-mcp@0.9.0 opera-browser-cli@0.2.0
npm rm -g opera-browser-cli       # optional: drops the inert tombstone

Existing 0.1.x installs keep working; they are simply no longer maintained. Run opera-browser-cli doctor for the same instructions on the installed CLI.

opera-browser-cli is a fork of chrome-devtools-axi. It wraps opera-devtools-mcp with an AXI-compliant CLI.

Token-efficient — compact page snapshots cut token usage up to 80% vs raw MCP; TOON encoding reduces metadata overhead further (opera-compact in benchmarks)
Combined operations — one command navigates, captures, and suggests next steps
Contextual suggestions — every response includes actionable next-step hints

Quick Start

npm install -g opera-browser-cli    # installs the launcher that delivers the new implementation
opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

That is the whole setup. The first command detects your Opera installation, writes ~/.opera-browser-cli/config, and gets on with it. Run opera-browser-cli setup only when you want to change what it chose.

Once installed, open navigates to a URL and returns a structured snapshot you can act on:

$ opera-browser-cli open https://example.com
page: {title: "Example Domain", url: "https://example.com", refs: 1}
snapshot:
RootWebArea "Example Domain"
  heading "Example Domain"
  paragraph "This domain is for use in illustrative examples..."
  uid=1 link "More information..."
help[1]:
  Run `opera-browser-cli click @1` to click the "More information..." link

$ opera-browser-cli click @1
page: {title: "IANA — IANA-Managed Reserved Domains", refs: 12}
snapshot:
...

Opera AI features

With any Opera browser, you can use the built-in AI chat:

opera-browser-cli chat "summarise this page"       # ask the built-in AI about the current page

Opera Neon additionally unlocks three advanced AI commands:

opera-browser-cli invoke-do "book a table for 2"   # let the AI perform a multi-step browsing task
opera-browser-cli make "a todo app in vanilla JS"  # generate and open a webpage or mini-app
opera-browser-cli research "solid-state batteries" # in-depth research across multiple sources

Add --open-fulltab-view to any AI command to open the created tab in the foreground (default: background). Not available in headless mode.

Run opera-browser-cli setup to get started, or opera-browser-cli doctor to check your configuration.

Install

Prerequisites: Node.js >= 20, Opera browser (Opera Neon recommended for AI features).

npm (recommended)

npm install -g opera-browser-cli

Development has moved to opera-devtools-mcp, which ships this CLI as the opera-browser-cli command; this package name installs the compatibility launcher that delivers it. See the notice at the top of this file.

No setup step is required. The first command you run detects your Opera installation, writes ~/.opera-browser-cli/config, and continues:

opera-browser-cli --version
opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

setup exists for when you want to change that choice — pick a different browser or profile, or install the agent skill files:

opera-browser-cli setup             # interactive wizard
opera-browser-cli setup -y          # detect and accept, no prompts
opera-browser-cli setup --executable "/Applications/Opera Neon.app/Contents/MacOS/Opera" \
                        --profile skip --headless

It saves to ~/.opera-browser-cli/config and installs the skill to ~/.claude/skills/opera-browser-cli/SKILL.md (Claude Code) and ~/.agents/skills/opera-browser-cli/SKILL.md (generic cross-agent path used by Codex and other agents). The non-interactive form needs no terminal, so agents and provisioning scripts can run it too.

From source

# in this repo
npm install && npm run build && npm link

Then just run a command — configuration happens on first use.

Usage examples

# Basic navigation
opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

# Use Opera as the browser
OPERA_CLI_EXECUTABLE_PATH="/Applications/Opera.app/Contents/MacOS/Opera" \
  opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

# Headed mode (visible browser window)
OPERA_CLI_HEADED=1 opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

# Persistent profile (stay logged in across sessions)
OPERA_CLI_USER_DATA_DIR=~/.opera-profile opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

# Connect to already-running browser
OPERA_CLI_BROWSER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:9222 opera-browser-cli open https://example.com

How It Works

┌───────────────────────┐
│  opera-browser-cli    │  CLI — parse args, format output
└──────────┬────────────┘
           │ HTTP (localhost:9225)
           ▼
┌───────────────────────┐
│     Bridge Server     │  Persistent process, manages MCP session
└──────────┬────────────┘
           │ stdio
           ▼
┌───────────────────────┐
│  opera-devtools-mcp   │  Headless Chrome via DevTools Protocol
└───────────────────────┘

Persistent bridge — a detached process keeps the MCP session alive across commands, so Chrome doesn't restart every invocation
Auto-lifecycle — the bridge starts on first command, writes a PID file to ~/.opera-browser-cli/bridge.pid, and restarts itself on version skew or a dropped connection
Snapshot parsing — accessibility tree snapshots are extracted and analyzed for interactive elements (uid= refs)
TOON encoding — structured metadata uses TOON format for compact, token-efficient output

CLI Reference

Navigation

Command	Description
`open <url>`	Navigate to URL and snapshot
`snapshot`	Capture current page state
`screenshot <p>`	Save a screenshot to a file
`scroll <dir>`	Scroll: up, down, top, bottom
`back`	Navigate back
`wait <ms\|text>`	Wait for time or text to appear
`eval <js>`	Evaluate a JavaScript expression or function
`run`	Execute a multi-step script from stdin

eval wraps plain input as () => (<expr>) before sending it to DevTools. For multi-statement logic, pass an arrow function, function, or IIFE yourself.

opera-browser-cli eval "document.title"
opera-browser-cli eval "(() => { const rows = [...document.querySelectorAll('tr')]; return rows.map((row) => row.textContent) })()"

Interaction

Command	Description
`click @<uid>`	Click an element by ref
`fill @<uid> <text>`	Fill a form field
`type <text>`	Type text at current focus
`press <key>`	Press a keyboard key
`hover @<uid>`	Hover over an element
`drag @<from> @<to>`	Drag an element onto another
`fillform @<uid>=<val>...`	Fill multiple form fields
`dialog <accept\|dismiss>`	Handle a browser dialog
`upload @<uid> <path>`	Upload a file through an input

Page Management

Command	Description
`pages`	List all open tabs
`newpage <url>`	Open a new tab
`selectpage <id>`	Switch to a tab by ID
`closepage <id>`	Close a tab by ID
`resize <w> <h>`	Resize the browser viewport

Emulation

Command	Description
`emulate`	Emulate device/network/viewport

DevTools Debugging

Command	Description
`console`	List console messages
`console-get <id>`	Get a specific console message
`network`	List network requests
`network-get [id]`	Get a specific network request

Performance

Command	Description
`lighthouse`	Run a Lighthouse audit
`perf-start`	Start a performance trace
`perf-stop`	Stop the performance trace
`perf-insight <set> <name>`	Analyze a performance insight
`heap <path>`	Capture a heap snapshot

MCP Hub

Command	Description	Requires
`mcp-servers`	List MCP servers registered in the browser	Opera Neon
`mcp-tools --server <name>`	List tools exposed by a specific MCP server	Opera Neon
`mcp-call --server <name> --tool <name>`	Execute a tool on an MCP server	Opera Neon

Opera AI

Command	Description	Requires
`chat <prompt>`	Send a chat message to Opera's built-in AI	Any Opera
`invoke-do <prompt>`	Ask the AI to perform a complex browsing task	Opera Neon
`make <prompt>`	Ask the AI to build a webpage or app	Opera Neon
`research <prompt>`	Ask the AI to research a topic in depth	Opera Neon

All four AI commands accept --open-fulltab-view to open the created tab in the foreground (default: background). Not available in headless mode. research accepts --type local (default), --type one-minute, or --type deep.

Configuration

Command	Description
`setup`	Interactive first-time setup (browser path, etc)
`doctor`	Check configuration and environment
`doctor --fix`	Repair what can be repaired mechanically
`login`	Sign in to your Opera account (needed for AI)
`logs`	Show bridge server logs

Using your real Opera profile

By default the CLI launches its own browser. To drive your Opera — with your logins, your session — the browser has to have been started with a debugging port. That flag cannot be added to a browser that is already open, so there are two ways in:

opera-browser-cli launch-args   # prints the command to start Opera with a port

Start Opera that way once, and every later command finds it automatically — the port is recorded in DevToolsActivePort inside the profile, so nothing needs configuring. Or let the CLI do it for you:

opera-browser-cli open example.com    # detects the conflict, offers to restart Opera
opera-browser-cli open example.com --takeover   # skip the prompt (scripts, agents)

If Opera is already running on the configured profile and has no debugging port, the CLI asks whether to restart it (tabs are restored). Without a terminal to ask in, it quietly uses a separate profile instead — an agent will never quit your browser on its own. Restarting is always SIGTERM, never SIGKILL: a forced kill risks a corrupted profile.

opera-browser-cli attach --port 9222   # connect to a specific endpoint
opera-browser-cli attach --clear       # go back to a CLI-launched browser

Note: a debugging port has no authentication of its own — the CLI's bearer token protects the bridge, not the browser. Any local process can drive a browser with an open port, and this one is signed into everything you are. The CLI lets the browser pick a random port rather than a predictable 9222, binds it to loopback, and never passes --remote-allow-origins, which is what stops a web page from driving it. Close the browser when you are done.

Bridge

Command	Description
`start`	Start the bridge server
`stop`	Stop the bridge server (escalates to SIGKILL; clears a stale PID)
`restart`	Stop and start again — forces a clean state
`status`	Report bridge pid, port, and running version without starting one

You should rarely need any of these. The bridge starts on first use, and repairs itself without being asked:

Upgraded package — a bridge running pre-upgrade code is detected by version and replaced on the next command.
Crashed or killed bridge — the next command restarts it and retries. Opera AI commands are the exception: they are never silently re-run, since they may already have acted on the page.
Port in use — the next port in the range is used instead of failing.
Several commands at once — a start lock means exactly one bridge comes up.
Stale PID file — cleared automatically, and never signalled if the PID could belong to an unrelated process from before a reboot.

Exit codes

Scripts and agents can branch on why a command failed without parsing messages:

Code	Meaning	Caller action
0	Success	—
1	Unknown / internal	Report
2	Bad arguments, or unsupported on this browser	Fix the command
3	Environment not ready after auto-recovery	Run `doctor`
4	Sign-in, subscription, or consent required	Ask the user
5	Timed out	Retry
6	Stale element ref or closed page	Re-snapshot, then retry

Running with no command shows the CLI home view. It prepends bin and description metadata, then includes the current snapshot when a browser session is active or the no-session status/help block when one is not.

Flags

Flag	Description
`--help`	Show usage information
`-v`, `-V`, `--version`	Show the installed CLI version
`--full`	Show complete output without truncation
`--background`	Open new page in background (newpage)
`--uid @<uid>`	Target a specific element (screenshot)
`--full-page`	Capture entire scrollable page (screenshot)
`--format <fmt>`	Image format: png, jpeg, webp (screenshot)
`--viewport <spec>`	Viewport like "390x844x3,mobile" (emulate)
`--color-scheme <value>`	dark, light, or auto (emulate)
`--network <condition>`	Network throttle: Slow 3G, etc. (emulate)
`--cpu <rate>`	CPU throttling rate 1-20 (emulate)
`--geolocation <lat>x<lon>`	Set geolocation (emulate)
`--user-agent <string>`	Custom user agent (emulate)
`--type <type>`	Filter by type (console, network)
`--limit <n>`	Max items to return (console, network)
`--page <n>`	Pagination (console, network)
`--device <device>`	desktop or mobile (lighthouse)
`--mode <mode>`	navigation or snapshot (lighthouse)
`--output-dir <path>`	Directory for reports (lighthouse)
`--no-reload`	Skip page reload (perf-start)
`--no-auto-stop`	Disable auto-stop (perf-start)
`--file <path>`	Save trace data to file (perf-start/stop)
`--response-file <path>`	Save response body (network-get)
`--request-file <path>`	Save request body (network-get)

Configuration

Variable	Default	Purpose
`OPERA_CLI_PORT`	`9225`	Base bridge port; the next 9 are tried if it is occupied
`OPERA_CLI_MCP_BIN`	(bundled `opera-devtools-mcp`)	Override the MCP server binary
`OPERA_CLI_EXECUTABLE_PATH`	(system Chrome)	Custom browser binary
`OPERA_CLI_BROWSER_URL`	—	Connect to an existing browser instance instead of launching one
`OPERA_CLI_USER_DATA_DIR`	—	Persistent Chrome profile directory (skips isolated mode)
`OPERA_CLI_HEADED`	`1` when an Opera binary is configured	`1` headed, `0` headless. Opera AI needs a window to sign in
`OPERA_CLI_CHROME_ARGS`	—	Extra Chrome flags, space-separated
`OPERA_CLI_MCP_ARGS`	—	Extra MCP server flags, space-separated
`OPERA_CLI_ENABLE_HOOKS`	—	Set to `1` to auto-install session hooks on startup
`OPERA_CLI_TAKEOVER`	—	Set to `1` to restart a running Opera without asking

OPERA_CLI_MCP_ARGS values are raw server arguments, forwarded verbatim after the bridge's own flags: a misspelled or unknown flag goes straight to the MCP server and can fail bridge startup, and a valid one can override bridge-managed flags such as --isolated, --headless, or --userDataDir. OPERA_CLI_CHROME_ARGS is namespaced (--chrome-arg=…), so it only affects the browser launch.

State is stored in ~/.opera-browser-cli/:

File	Purpose
`bridge.pid`	PID and port of the running bridge

Session Hooks

Session hooks are opt-in. Set OPERA_CLI_ENABLE_HOOKS=1 to have the packaged CLI auto-install a SessionStart hook in ~/.claude/settings.json and ~/.codex/hooks.json (and enable codex_hooks in ~/.codex/config.toml) on supported agents.

Development entrypoints such as npm run dev and bin/opera-browser-cli.ts do not modify those hook files.

Docker / OpenClaw

A ready-made Docker setup runs opera-browser-cli as a tool inside an OpenClaw agent gateway, with a headless Chrome sidecar handling the browser. No local browser or Node.js install is required on the host — Docker is the only prerequisite. The skill is registered automatically so OpenClaw agents can invoke opera-browser-cli commands directly.

The docker/ directory ships with the npm package:

cd "$(npm root -g)/opera-browser-cli/openclaw"

See openclaw/README.md for the full setup guide.

Local Setup (Full Stack)

Both opera-devtools-mcp and opera-browser-cli need to be built and linked so they're available in PATH.

1. Build and link opera-devtools-mcp:

# in the opera-devtools-mcp repo
npm install
npm run build
npm link

2. Build and link opera-browser-cli:

# in this repo
npm install
npm run build
npm link

3. Set the browser executable path:

export OPERA_CLI_EXECUTABLE_PATH="/Applications/Opera Neon.app/Contents/MacOS/Opera"

Tip: Set OPERA_CLI_MCP_BIN to point to the locally linked opera-devtools-mcp:

export OPERA_CLI_MCP_BIN=opera-devtools-mcp

Tip: Set OPERA_CLI_HEADED=1 to launch the browser in headed (visible) mode — useful during development to watch what's happening:

export OPERA_CLI_HEADED=1

Benchmarks

Page Snapshot

Runs snapshot command on 50 static pages (Wikipedia, GitHub, MDN, Python docs, RFC Editor) and counts output tokens via tiktoken. No LLM involved — purely mechanical measurement.

Results (50 runs each):

Condition	Avg tokens	Median tokens	p95 tokens
`opera-compact`	60.6k	24.3k	256.1k
`opera-raw`	94.9k	45.1k	381.4k
`axi`	98.5k	46.6k	396.9k
`mcp-raw`	94.7k	45.0k	391.3k

--full variants (no char limit) are also measured; see the detailed README and results report.

Agentic Use

An LLM agent completes 7 browser tasks (adapted from the axi bench-browser benchmark) across 4 conditions. Each run is graded pass/fail by an LLM judge. Captures input tokens, snapshot size, wall time, and tool call count. The agent was selecting each tool with or without --full flag, depending on the context.

Results (35 runs each, 5 repeats × 7 tasks):

Condition	Pass [%]	Avg input length [tokens]	Avg snapshot length [chars]	Avg task time [seconds]	Avg tool calls
`opera-compact`	100%	36.3k	83.1k	6.8	1.4
`opera-raw`	100%	107.5k	198.1k	8.5	1.6
`axi`	100%	102.2k	203.9k	9.8	1.5
`mcp-raw`	100%	179.2k	218.7k	9.4	2.1

opera-compact saves 80% total tokens vs mcp-raw baseline.

See the detailed README and results report.

Development

npm run build      # Compile TypeScript to dist/
npm run dev        # Run CLI directly with tsx
npm test           # Run tests with vitest
npm run test:watch # Run tests in watch mode

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.airlock		.airlock
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
benchmarks		benchmarks
bin		bin
docs		docs
launcher		launcher
openclaw		openclaw
specs		specs
src		src
test		test
tombstone		tombstone
.gitignore		.gitignore
.release-please-manifest.json		.release-please-manifest.json
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SKILL.md		SKILL.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
release-please-config.json		release-please-config.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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opera-browser-cli

The most agent-ergonomic browser automation

Quick Start

Opera AI features

Install

npm (recommended)

From source

Usage examples

How It Works

CLI Reference

Navigation

Interaction

Page Management

Emulation

DevTools Debugging

Performance

MCP Hub

Opera AI

Configuration

Using your real Opera profile

Bridge

Exit codes

Flags

Configuration

Session Hooks

Docker / OpenClaw

Local Setup (Full Stack)

Benchmarks

Page Snapshot

Agentic Use

Development

About

Releases

Packages

Contributors

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Repository files navigation

opera-browser-cli

The most agent-ergonomic browser automation

Quick Start

Opera AI features

Install

npm (recommended)

From source

Usage examples

How It Works

CLI Reference

Navigation

Interaction

Page Management

Emulation

DevTools Debugging

Performance

MCP Hub

Opera AI

Configuration

Using your real Opera profile

Bridge

Exit codes

Flags

Configuration

Session Hooks

Docker / OpenClaw

Local Setup (Full Stack)

Benchmarks

Page Snapshot

Agentic Use

Development

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