steel-browser - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: steel-browser

description: Control cloud browser sessions via Steel.dev for web automation and computer-use agents. Use when you need to browse the web, fill forms, click elements, take screenshots, scrape content, or build browser automation loops. Uses Playwright selectors (CSS/text/aria) instead of pixel coordinates — more reliable than e2b-desktop for pure web tasks. Supports residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving.

Steel Browser Skill

Cloud browser-use via Steel.dev + Playwright Python SDK.

Ideal for web automation, scraping, form filling, and AI agent browser loops.

Prerequisites


pip install steel-sdk playwright

export STEEL_API_KEY=your_key_here

Get your API key at https://app.steel.dev → Settings → API Keys (free: 100 browser hours).

Steel API key should be set in OpenClaw config or environment:


openclaw config set env.STEEL_API_KEY "your_key"

State Management

start_session.sh saves session ID to ~/.steel_state
All scripts auto-load it from there
Override anytime with export STEEL_SESSION_ID=<id>
Sessions persist until release_session.sh or timeout

Scripts

| Script | Usage | Description |

|---|---|---|

| start_session.sh | [--proxy] [--captcha] [--timeout MS] | Create session; prints SESSION_ID + VIEWER_URL |

| release_session.sh | [SESSION_ID] | Release session |

| list_sessions.sh | (none) | List active sessions |

| navigate.sh | URL [--wait-until networkidle] | Go to URL |

| screenshot.sh | [OUTPUT.png] [--full-page] | Take screenshot |

| click.sh | SELECTOR | Click by CSS/text/aria selector |

| click_coords.sh | X Y [--right] [--double] | Click at pixel coords (fallback) |

| type.sh | SELECTOR "text" | Fill input field |

| press_key.sh | KEY | Press key (e.g. Enter, Control+a) |

| hover.sh | SELECTOR | Hover over element |

| select.sh | SELECTOR VALUE | Select dropdown option |

| get_content.sh | [--html] [SELECTOR] | Extract page text or HTML |

| eval_js.sh | "js expression" | Execute JavaScript, print result |

| wait_for.sh | SELECTOR [TIMEOUT_MS] | Wait for element to appear |

| get_url.sh | (none) | Print current URL and page title |

Selector Examples

Steel uses Playwright selectors — much more powerful than pixel coords:


# By CSS

click.sh "#submit-button"

click.sh ".nav-link:first-child"



# By text content

click.sh "text=Sign in"

click.sh "button:has-text('Continue')"



# By aria label

click.sh "[aria-label='Search']"

click.sh "[placeholder='Email address']"



# XPath

click.sh "xpath=//button[@type='submit']"

Browser-Use Agent Loop Pattern


SCRIPTS="skills/steel-browser/scripts"



# 1. Start session (add --proxy --captcha for tough sites)

source <($SCRIPTS/start_session.sh)

echo "Session: $SESSION_ID"

echo "Watch at: $VIEWER_URL"



# 2. Navigate

$SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "https://example.com"



# 3. Agent loop

while true; do

  $SCRIPTS/screenshot.sh /tmp/screen.png

  

  # Get page text for LLM context

  CONTENT=$($SCRIPTS/get_content.sh)

  

  # LLM decides action...

  ACTION=$(echo "$CONTENT" | llm_decide /tmp/screen.png)

  

  case "$ACTION_TYPE" in

    click)    $SCRIPTS/click.sh "$SELECTOR" ;;

    type)     $SCRIPTS/type.sh "$SELECTOR" "$TEXT" ;;

    navigate) $SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "$URL" ;;

    done)     break ;;

  esac

done



# 4. Release

$SCRIPTS/release_session.sh

vs E2B Desktop

| Feature | Steel Browser | E2B Desktop |

|---|---|---|

| Selectors | Playwright CSS/text/aria ✅ | Pixel coords only |

| Proxy support | ✅ Residential proxies | ❌ |

| CAPTCHA solving | ✅ Built-in | ❌ |

| Non-browser tasks | ❌ | ✅ Desktop apps, terminal |

| Session viewer | ✅ Live URL | ✅ VNC stream |

Use Steel for web automation. Use E2B Desktop for desktop apps / full OS control.