browser-gateway

Reliable, scalable browser infrastructure for AI agents and automation.

Route, pool, and failover across any browser provider. Built-in MCP server for AI agents.

What It Does

                         ┌─────────────────────┐
                         │   browser-gateway    │
                         │                      │
                         │  routing / failover  │
                         │  load balancing      │
                         │  health monitoring   │
                         │  request queuing     │
                         └──────────┬───────────┘
                                    │
                 ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
                 │                  │                   │
          ┌──────┴──────┐   ┌──────┴──────┐   ┌───────┴──────┐
          │ Provider A  │   │ Provider B  │   │ Provider C   │
          │ Cloud CDP   │   │ Playwright  │   │ Local Chrome │
          │ priority: 1 │   │ Docker :4000│   │ Docker :9222 │
          └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └──────────────┘

One endpoint. Multiple providers. Automatic failover if one goes down.

Your app connects to ws://gateway:9500/v1/connect. The gateway picks the best available provider based on health, capacity, and your routing strategy. Providers can be cloud CDP services, Docker containers, or local Chrome instances.

Related MCP server: Playwright MCP

Core Features

Routing & Reliability

• Automatic Failover - Provider down? Next one picks up instantly. Zero client changes.

• 5 Load Balancing Strategies - Priority chain, round-robin, least-connections, latency-optimized, weighted

• Per-Provider Concurrency Limits - Set maxConcurrent per provider, gateway enforces it

• Request Queue - All providers busy? Connections wait instead of failing

• Cooldown System - Skip failing providers automatically, recover after TTL

• Health Checks - Periodic connectivity probes detect unhealthy providers

• Graceful Shutdown - Active sessions drain cleanly on SIGTERM/SIGINT

• Session Reconnect - If a client drops, reconnect with the same session ID and the gateway routes you back to the same provider. The browser there is still alive (as long as the provider keeps it running), so cookies, localStorage, and page state are intact. Works best with raw Chrome and providers that don't kill the browser on disconnect.

• Webhooks - Get notified when providers go down, recover, or queue overflows

REST API

• Screenshot - POST /v1/screenshot — capture any page as PNG or JPEG

• Content Extraction - POST /v1/content — get page content as markdown, text, HTML, or cleaned article

• Scrape - POST /v1/scrape — extract data with CSS selectors or get full-page content

• Session Pool - Browser connections are reused across requests (like a database connection pool)

• Auto-Retry - Failed requests automatically retry with a fresh browser page

MCP Server for AI Agents

• 8 Browser Tools - navigate, snapshot, screenshot, viewport, interact, evaluate, close, status

• Zero Config - Auto-detects Chrome, launches on first tool use

• Concurrent Sessions - Multiple agents get separate browsers, no conflicts

• Raw CDP - Lightweight, no Playwright or Puppeteer dependency

• Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client

Management

• Web Dashboard - Manage providers, view sessions, edit config from the browser

• Provider CRUD - Add, edit, delete, and test providers from the dashboard or API

• Config Editor - Edit gateway.yml with syntax highlighting and validation

• Auth - Token-based with secure HttpOnly cookie for the dashboard

• Protocol Agnostic - Works with Playwright, Puppeteer, any WebSocket protocol

Quick Start

As a WebSocket Proxy (for applications)

npm install -g browser-gateway

Create gateway.yml:

version: 1

providers:
  primary:
    url: wss://provider.example.com?token=${PROVIDER_TOKEN}
    limits:
      maxConcurrent: 5
    priority: 1

  fallback:
    url: ws://my-playwright-server:4000
    limits:
      maxConcurrent: 10
    priority: 2

browser-gateway serve

Connect from your app:

// For CDP providers
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP('ws://localhost:9500/v1/connect');

// For Playwright run-server providers
const browser = await chromium.connect('ws://localhost:9500/v1/connect');

Or use the REST API — no WebSocket management needed:

# Screenshot
curl -X POST http://localhost:9500/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}' --output screenshot.png

# Extract content as markdown
curl -X POST http://localhost:9500/v1/content \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown"]}'

Dashboard at http://localhost:9500/web.

As an MCP Server (for AI agents)

Add to your Claude Code or Cursor config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browser-gateway": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["browser-gateway", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

No config files needed. The agent can now browse websites, take screenshots, fill forms, and extract data.

See the MCP documentation for all options.

Dashboard

Built-in web dashboard at http://localhost:9500/web. Served from the same port as the gateway.

If BG_TOKEN is set, the dashboard requires authentication via a secure HttpOnly cookie.

See Dashboard Guide for details.

Authentication

Set BG_TOKEN to require a token (or put it in a .env file):

BG_TOKEN=my-secret-token browser-gateway serve

• WebSocket clients pass the token as ?token= query param

• API clients use Authorization: Bearer <token> header

• Dashboard shows a login form, sets a secure HttpOnly cookie

• Health endpoint (/health) is always public

CLI

# Proxy server
browser-gateway serve                    # Start the gateway + dashboard
browser-gateway serve --port 8080        # Custom port
browser-gateway serve --config path.yml  # Custom config

# MCP server for AI agents
browser-gateway mcp                      # Auto-detect Chrome, zero config
browser-gateway mcp --headless           # Headless mode (for CI/Docker)
browser-gateway mcp --cdp-endpoint ws:// # Connect to existing browser
browser-gateway mcp --config gateway.yml # Multi-provider with failover

# Utilities
browser-gateway check                    # Test provider connectivity
browser-gateway version                  # Print version
browser-gateway help                     # Show help

API

Docker

docker run -d \
  -p 9500:9500 \
  -v ./gateway.yml:/app/gateway.yml:ro \
  -e PROVIDER_TOKEN=xxx \
  ghcr.io/browser-gateway/server:latest

How It Works

1. Client connects to ws://gateway:9500/v1/connect

2. Gateway selects a provider using your routing strategy

3. Gateway opens a raw TCP connection to the provider

4. HTTP upgrade forwarded, provider responds with 101 Switching Protocols

5. Bidirectional TCP pipe: client <-> gateway <-> provider

6. All WebSocket messages forwarded transparently (never parsed or modified)

7. On disconnect: session cleaned up, slot released, metrics updated

8. If all providers full: connection waits in a queue until a slot opens

Works With

browser-gateway is compatible with existing browser tools. Just pass the gateway URL — it auto-resolves via /json/version.

AI Agent Frameworks:

# browser-use (Python) — HTTP URL auto-resolves
BrowserSession(cdp_url="http://localhost:9500")

// Stagehand (TypeScript)
new Stagehand({ env: "LOCAL", localBrowserLaunchOptions: { cdpUrl: "http://localhost:9500" } })

Playwright MCP (all 70 Playwright tools through gateway routing):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest", "--cdp-endpoint", "http://localhost:9500"]
    }
  }
}

Puppeteer / Playwright:

// Playwright — HTTP or WebSocket
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP("http://localhost:9500");

// Puppeteer — WebSocket
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({ browserWSEndpoint: "ws://localhost:9500/v1/connect" });

Documentation

• MCP Server for AI Agents - Setup, tools, options

• Integrations - Playwright, Puppeteer, browser-use, Stagehand, Playwright MCP

• Getting Started

• Configuration Reference

• How Failover Works

• Load Balancing Strategies

• Request Queue

• Webhooks

• Web Dashboard

• Supported Providers

• Session Lifecycle

• CLI Reference

• Docker Deployment

Contributing

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.

Links

• browsergateway.io

• GitHub

• npm