In-App Browser

The browser pane previews your running services inside the app.

Open a Browser Tab

• Press ⌘⇧B to open a new browser tab
• Click the external link icon on any detected port in the sidebar to open it in the browser

Navigation

The address bar has:

• Back, forward, and reload buttons
• URL autocomplete based on your browsing history
• Favicon display for visited sites

Browsing History

URLs you visit are saved locally and appear as autocomplete suggestions. To clear your history:

1. Click the overflow menu (⋯) in the browser toolbar
2. Select Clear Browsing History

DevTools

Open the DevTools pane next to any browser tab to inspect and debug the page.

Design Mode

Click Design in the browser toolbar to arm an element picker inside the page. Click any element and a prompt card opens under it: describe the change, pick an agent, and send. The agent receives the element's DOM, computed styles, React component metadata, and a cropped screenshot along with your note, in an existing agent terminal or a fresh session.

• Press esc to pick a different element; esc again (or the banner's ✕) exits design mode
• Works on any page the pane can load, including your local dev server

Extensions

Browser panes run Chrome extensions, so password managers, passkeys, and content blockers work in the pane.

• Install: open an extension's page on the Chrome Web Store inside a pane and click the add button. Paradev lists the extension's permission warnings and asks before it installs.
• Pin: open the puzzle-piece menu in the browser toolbar to pin an extension to the toolbar. Right-click a pinned extension to unpin it.
• Remove: use the same menu. Removing asks first and deletes the extension's data.
• Content blockers: extensions that use declarativeNetRequest, such as uBlock Origin Lite, block requests in the pane.
• Native messaging: an extension that declares nativeMessaging can talk to its desktop app, for example a password manager. The desktop app must trust Paradev as a browser; 1Password lists it under Settings → Browser → Add Browser.

When Paradev has signed Chrome Web Store hashes for an extension, it checks the extension's files against them at every start. Extensions installed before this check existed are recorded on first use and checked from then on. If a file changed, the extension is turned off and shows as greyed out in the menu. Reinstall it to keep its data, or remove it.

Extensions run in your own browser session. Panes that agents open run in a separate session with none of your extensions and none of your logins unless you import them. Agents can manage extensions with superset browser extensions, and every install and removal still asks you in the app.

Ports Integration

When Paradev detects a port in use (e.g. localhost:3000), clicking its external link icon opens it in an in-app browser tab instead of the system browser.

For workspaces on a remote host, the desktop app forwards detected ports while that workspace is selected. See Remote Access for requirements and port conflicts.

Drive it from the CLI and agents

The superset browser commands let an agent open, read, screenshot, and interact with a page in the pane you are watching.

# Open a page and get its pane id back
superset browser open --workspace <id> --url http://localhost:3000 --target new-tab

# Read, screenshot, and evaluate in the pane
superset browser eval --workspace <id> --pane <paneId> --code "document.title"
superset browser screenshot --workspace <id> --pane <paneId> --out shot.png
superset browser console --workspace <id> --pane <paneId>

For clicking, typing, scrolling, and form flows, superset browser cdp prints a raw Chrome DevTools Protocol WebSocket endpoint for a browser-use or Playwright-class client. The endpoint drives only that pane's page (never the Paradev app itself), and pane operations are scoped to their workspace.

Agents use this through the superset:browser skill. A pane you open runs in your logged-in browser session. Panes that agents open use a separate session with none of your logins unless you import them. Agents are instructed to confirm before consequential actions.

Pane or standalone browser?

The superset:browser skill defaults to the in-app pane. When a page is or can be open in a workspace pane (previewing a dev server, verifying UI, clicking through a flow), agents use the superset browser commands above.

For targets a pane cannot reach (a real Chrome window outside Paradev, a host without the desktop app attached, or an isolated or cloud browser), the skill uses Browser Use 3.0 as a second engine.

Browser Use 3.0

Browser Use 3.0 is a CLI that lets agents run Python against a browser over the Chrome DevTools Protocol. Paradev does not bundle it; agents check for it and ask before installing. To install it yourself (requires uv):

uv tool install browser-use
browser-use --help

You can also run uvx --from 'browser-use[cli]' browser-use …. This does not add browser-use to your PATH, so each call needs the full prefix.

By default it attaches to your running Chrome (your real, signed-in profile), so the skill needs your explicit consent first. Otherwise agents use a scratch browser or a Browser Use cloud browser (which bills until stopped, so they ask first and stop it after). browser-use --doctor diagnoses connection problems, and browser-use skill prints the engine's own usage reference.

Browser Use can also drive an in-app pane: set BU_CDP_WS to the endpoint from superset browser cdp, and the pane appears as a single page target. The superset browser commands are the simpler default for panes.