The Browser Use CLI became the default browser backend, but nothing
provisioned it: users without uv/uvx (field report from DongyangHe on
macOS) silently fell back to the built-in browser tools with no notice.
- install_cli() in tools/browser_use_cli.py: uv tool install browser-use
via the managed uv (bootstrapped on demand), linked into
$HERMES_HOME/bin (UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR)
- _find_cli() now also probes $HERMES_HOME/bin for browser-use/uvx —
Hermes' managed uv is not on the user's PATH
- hermes tools post_setup actually installs (Camofox standard) instead
of printing instructions
- install.sh / install.ps1 provision the CLI at install time
(best-effort, non-fatal, honors --skip-browser)
- CLI startup shows a one-line notice (24h rate-limited) when the
default backend downgraded to the built-in tools
An unset browser.backend ("") now resolves to Browser Use mode whenever
the browser-use CLI is runnable (installed binary or uvx); otherwise the
built-in browser tools are kept so browsing never silently breaks.
Camofox setups always keep the built-in tools (no CDP surface), and
backend: off (including YAML 1.1 bare off -> False) forces the built-in
stack. hermes tools row highlighting follows the same effective-mode
resolution, and tests/tools/ pins CLI discovery off so host uvx installs
can't flip built-in-browser tests.
Reframe (per review): browser.backend: browser-use is now a DRIVER over
whatever browser source is configured, not a competing backend choice.
- browser_exec resolves its CDP endpoint through the same chain the
built-in tools use: BU_* env override > BROWSER_CDP_URL/browser.cdp_url
(/browser connect) > the configured cloud provider via browser_tool's
_get_session_info() — sharing the per-task session cache, expiry
replacement, inactivity reaper, and atexit cleanup instead of
duplicating them. Live-validated against Browserbase (session created,
driven, reaped) and gateway-provisioned Browser Use cloud browsers.
- Direct-API Browser Use configs skip provider resolution (the CLI talks
to their cloud natively via BU_AUTOSPAWN); the Nous-gateway variant
resolves through the provider, so subscribers get CLI mode without a
raw BROWSER_USE_API_KEY.
- Camofox: only true fallback — Firefox-based, custom HTTP API, no CDP
surface (its own health probes fail on CDP-schema calls). Active
Camofox setups keep the built-in browser tools even with
backend: browser-use set.
- hermes tools picker: provider rows and the Browser Use row are no
longer mutually exclusive; selecting a provider keeps the driver
choice, and both rows highlight when composed.
- Docs updated for driver-over-source semantics.
Camofox is selected via CAMOFOX_URL env var, not browser.cloud_provider —
so a Camofox user with a stray BROWSER_USE_API_KEY in .env matched the
legacy-migration predicate (cloud_provider unset + key present) and got
silently flipped into CLI mode, losing browser_* / Camofox entirely
(browser_exec cannot drive Camofox: its HTTP API exposes no CDP endpoint,
and the browser-use harness is CDP-only against Chromium).
is_legacy_browser_use_cloud_config() now defers to is_camofox_mode().
Follow-ups on the salvaged Browser Use CLI integration (PR #66476):
- browser_exec runs model-written Python on the host. Strip it at
tool-definition time for sessions whose resolved toolsets exclude
'terminal' so terminal-less surfaces (locked-down messaging configs)
don't silently regain host code execution through the browser toolset.
Session-level gate in model_tools, not a check_fn (check_fn results are
TTL-cached process-wide across sessions).
- Replace the live 'browser-use skill' schema fetch with a pinned helpers
digest: no third-party version-drifting text in the prompt, byte-stable
schema across machines. A/B benchmarked (108 runs, opus-4.8 + kimi-k3,
6 multi-step web tasks x 3 arms x 3 reps): pinned digest matches the
full skill dump 36/36 vs 36/36 at ~equal tokens; both cut total task
tokens ~60% vs the legacy browser_* toolset.
- Docs note for the terminal gate; contributor mapping for salvage.
MagMueller
Teknium
Laith Weinberger