hive.browser-automation

--- name: hive.browser-automation description: Required before any hive-browser CLI command. The browser is driven from the terminal by running `hive-browser <command> ... --json` via terminal_exec — not via MCP tools. Teaches the browser lifecycle rules (the bridge attaches to the USER'S running Chrome — never kill or launch browser processes; timeouts are transport issues, not crashes), the screenshot + coordinate workflow (hive-browser interact with a fractional coordinate) that reaches shadow-DOM inputs selectors can't see, the viewport-fraction coordinate rule (not pixels), rich-text editor quirks ("send button stays disabled" failures), and CSP gotchas. Covers Chrome via CDP through the GCU Beeline extension. metadata: author: hive type: default-skill version: "2.2" ---

# GCU Browser Automation

All GCU browser automation drives a real Chrome instance through the Beeline extension and Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). You drive it **from the terminal**: every command is `hive-browser <command> ... --json`, run through `terminal_exec`. Always pass `--json` so the result is machine-readable. That means clicks, keystrokes, and screenshots are processed by the actual browser's native hit testing, focus, and layout engines — **not** a synthetic event layer. Understanding this unlocks strategies that make hard sites easy.

## Browser lifecycle & recovery — read this before "fixing" anything

The bridge attaches to the **user's already-running Chrome** via the extension. The browser is not yours: it holds the user's logged-in sessions and other agents' work, and the runtime — not you — owns the connection to it. Consequences:

- **There is nothing to "start."** If no browser is connected, `hive-browser setup --json` tells you and gives the user install steps. Launching Chrome yourself (any `google-chrome`/`chromium` command, `--remote-debugging-port`, `--user-data-dir`, headless flags) is forbidden and blocked — it opens a browser the bridge can't see, often under the wrong profile. - **There is no situation where killing the browser helps.** Never use terminal tools to `kill`/`pkill`/`killall` Chrome, the bridge, or gcu processes. These commands are blocked, and attempting them breaks every agent sharing the connection. The same applies to the Hive desktop app and `bridge_host`. - **A timeout is NOT a stuck browser.** All `hive-browser` commands share one transport across all agents; one slow call (a heavy `hive-browser evaluate` on a big page) can make YOUR calls time out while the browser is perfectly healthy. The timeout message tells you whether the server passed its liveness check and whether recovery is already running — believe it. - **Allowed recovery, in order:** (1) wait ~30s and retry ONCE, with a smaller/simpler request — e.g. split a page-wide `hive-browser evaluate` sweep into chunked queries; (2) close YOUR OWN tabs with `hive-browser tab close <T> --json` and reopen; (3) report the failure (`report_to_parent` or your reporting channel) and move on to work that doesn't need the browser. Escalate to the user; never to the process table. - Keep heavy `hive-browser evaluate` scripts cheap: avoid `innerText` over thousands of nodes (each read forces layout). Prefer `textContent`, scope the selector, and paginate the sweep.

## Targeting a specific Chrome profile / account

If your machine has more than one Chrome profile connected (different logged-in accounts), **say which one to act in** — if you omit it, the bridge falls back to the first-connected profile, which may be the wrong account. Pass `--browser-profile <label>` to `hive-browser open` (and `hive-browser navigate` / `hive-browser script`):

- **See every connected profile** in `hive-browser status --json` / `hive-browser setup --json` — both return a `connected_profiles` list of `{label, is_default, starred}` for ALL connected Chrome profiles (not just the one you're using). That's how you discover the labels. (`hive-browser status` reflects ALL connections; don't conclude "only one profile" from the single profile label of your own context.) - The label is a **connected profile label** — the name shown in that profile's Hive extension side panel (or its auto 3-word id). If your task assigns you a profile (e.g. *"your profile is `acct-jpn`"*), pass exactly that. - Every command's JSON echoes the profile it **actually** used. Check it: if it doesn't match what you intended, you opened the wrong account. Stop and fix the label (don't proceed). - A label that isn't connected fails fast with the list of connected labels — bind to one of those. - With one profile connected (or one starred default), you can omit it. With several connected and no star, omitting it uses the **first-connected** profile — fine for single-account work, risky for multi-account, so pass the label when the account matters.

## Working on LinkedIn?

For ANY LinkedIn flow, load `hive.linkedin-core` first — it owns the auth check, rate limits, stop protocol, reply-text policy, and DOM gotchas every LinkedIn script depends on. Then load the capability skill for the task: `hive.linkedin-discovery` (scans / People search), `hive.linkedin-messaging` (`lk_send_to_message_url`, `reply`, inbox), `hive.linkedin-connect` (`lk_send_invite`, post comments), or `hive.linkedin-sales-navigator` (premium search + InMail).

## Coordinates

Every `hive-browser interact` action that takes a `--coordinate` — and every command that returns one — operates in **fractions of the viewport (0..1 for both axes)**. Read a target's proportional position off `hive-browser screenshot` — "this button is about 35% from the left and 20% from the top" → pass `--coordinate 0.35,0.20`. Rect-returning commands (`hive-browser page shadow-query` and the `rect` inside `focused_element`) also return fractions. The CLI converts to CSS pixels internally before dispatching to Chrome.

``` hive-browser screenshot --json → image + cssWidth/cssHeight in meta hive-browser interact --action left_click --coordinate x,y --json → x, y are fractions 0..1 hive-browser interact --action hover --coordinate x,y --json → fractions hive-browser interact --action key --coordinate x,y --text k --json → fractions hive-browser page shadow-query "<selector>" --json → rect → rect.cx / rect.cy are fractions ```

**Exception for zoomed elements:** pages that use `zoom` or `transform: scale()` on a container (LinkedIn's `#interop-outlet`, some embedded iframes) render in a scaled local coordinate space. `getBoundingClientRect` there may not match CDP's hit space. Prefer `hive-browser page shadow-query` (which handles the math and returns fractions) or visually pick coordinates from a screenshot. Avoid raw `hive-browser evaluate` + `getBoundingClientRect()` for coord lookup — that returns CSS px and will be wrong when fed to a `--coordinate`.

## Screenshot + coordinates is shadow-agnostic — prefer it on shadow-heavy sites

Start with `hive-browser page snapshot` when you need to inspect the page structure or find ordinary controls. If the snapshot does not show the thing you need, shows stale or misleading refs, or cannot prove where a visible target is, take `hive-browser screenshot` and use the screenshot + coordinate path. This is especially useful on sites that use Shadow DOM heavily.

Why:

- **CDP hit testing walks shadow roots natively.** `hive-browser interact --action left_click --coordinate x,y --json` routes through Chrome's native hit tester, which traverses open shadow roots automatically. You don't need to know the shadow structure. - **Keyboard dispatch follows focus** into shadow roots. After a click focuses an input (even one three shadow levels deep), `hive-browser interact --action key ... --json` with no `--selector` dispatches keys to `document.activeElement`'s computed focus target. - **Screenshots render the real layout** regardless of DOM implementation.

Whereas `wait_for_selector` and a `selector`-targeted `left_click` / `type` all use `document.querySelector` under the hood, which **stops at shadow boundaries**. They cannot see elements inside shadow roots. For shadow-DOM inputs, use a `type` action with no selector after focusing via a `coordinate` click.

### Recommended workflow on shadow-heavy sites

1. `hive-browser screenshot --json` → JPEG. **The image is attached to your context automatically on your next turn — do NOT `attach_file` / read the `saved_to` path; that is redundant and wasteful.** The result JSON carries a `saved_to` path (read it ONLY if, in a later turn, no image actually appeared); meta includes `cssWidth`/`cssHeight` for reference. 2. Identify the target visually → estimate its proportional position `[fx, fy]` where each is in `0..1`. 3. `hive-browser interact --action left_click --coordinate fx,fy --json` → the CLI converts to CSS px and dispatches; CDP native hit testing focuses the element. **The result includes `focused_element: {tag, id, role, contenteditable, rect, inFrame?, ...}`** — use it to verify you actually focused what you intended. `rect` is in fractions (same space as your input). When focus is inside a same-origin iframe, the descriptor reports the inner element and adds `inFrame: [...]` breadcrumbs. 4. `hive-browser interact --action type --text "..." --json` with no `--selector` → inserts text into `document.activeElement` (traverses into same-origin iframes automatically). Shadow roots, iframes, Lexical, Draft.js, ProseMirror all just work. Pass `--selector` instead when you have a reliable CSS selector for a light-DOM element. 5. Verify via `hive-browser screenshot` OR `hive-browser evaluate` reading a known-reachable marker (e.g. check that the Send button's `aria-disabled` flipped to `false`).

### The click→type loop (canonical pattern)

1. Run `hive-browser interact --action left_click --coordinate x,y --json` to click the target element. 2. Check the `focused_element` field in the result — it tells you what actually received focus (tag, id, role, contenteditable, rect). 3. If the focused element is editable, run `hive-browser interact --action type --text "..." --json` to insert text. Verify the text took effect — prefer checking the underlying `.value` / `innerText` via `hive-browser evaluate` or confirming the submit button enabled. A screenshot alone can mislead: narrow input boxes visually clip long text, so only a portion may appear on screen even though the full string was accepted. 4. If it is NOT editable, your click landed on the wrong thing — refine coordinates and retry. Do NOT reach for `hive-browser evaluate` + `execCommand('insertText')` or shadow-root traversals. The problem is the click target, not the typing method.

A `--selector`-based `left_click` also returns `focused_element`, so the same check works whether you clicked by selector or coordinate.

### Empirically verified (2026-04-11)

Tested against `https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/` whose search input lives at:

``` document > reddit-search-large [shadow] > faceplate-search-input#search-input [shadow] > input[name="q"] ```

### Shadow-piercing selectors

When you DO want a selector-based approach and know the shadow structure, `hive-browser page shadow-query` supports `>>>` shadow-piercing syntax:

``` hive-browser page shadow-query "reddit-search-large >>> #search-input" --json hive-browser page shadow-query "#interop-outlet >>> #ember37 >>> p" --json ```

Returns the element's rect as **fractions of the viewport** (feed `rect.cx` / `rect.cy` straight into a `--coordinate`). Remember: a `type` action's `--selector` and `--wait-for-selector` do **not** support `>>>` — only `page shadow-query` does.

## Navigation and waiting

### The basics

``` hive-browser navigate <url> --wait-until load --json # load | domcontentloaded | networkidle hive-browser interact --action wait --wait-for-selector "h1" --timeout-ms 2000 --json hive-browser interact --action wait --wait