Asked before installing.
Plain answers, including the ones that are not flattering. If something here is out of date, the source is the repository.
Does HailBrowser use my real Chrome profile?
Yes. It drives your normal tabs through chrome.debugger, so the sites you are signed into already work. There is no separate profile, no --remote-debugging-port and nothing to install in the browser beyond the extension.
Do I need an API key to use it?
The side panel needs a model key from whichever provider you choose: Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Gemini, Together AI, Groq, DeepSeek, Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Keys live in chrome.storage.local and go only to that provider.
Can my coding agent use my logged-in browser?
That is the point of the MCP server. Claude Code, OpenCode, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Gemini CLI and Claude Desktop all speak MCP, so each can call read_page, click, type and the rest through the local hub on 127.0.0.1:12306. The side panel header turns green when an agent is connected.
Which browsers does it support?
Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium desktop browsers version 116 or newer. It is a Manifest V3 extension written in plain ES modules, with no build step.
Is it free?
HailBrowser is MIT licensed. You pay only your model provider, and only when a step calls it.
What can it not do yet?
Shadow DOM, cross-origin iframes, canvas apps, file uploads and pop-up windows are not fully supported. Research cannot read PDFs. Scheduled jobs only run while Chrome is open, and one run happens at a time. chrome:// pages and the Chrome Web Store cannot be automated at all because Chrome blocks it.
How is this different from a cloud browser agent?
Nothing runs in a remote browser. HailBrowser uses the browser you are already signed into, on your machine, and shows the work: an animated border, an agent cursor, a status pill with Stop, and every step in the side panel.
Does my data leave my machine?
Your keys stay in the extension, the MCP hub listens on 127.0.0.1 only, and page content goes to the model provider you configured. The project has no telemetry and no account to create.