Browse and automate web pages

Browser: on by default Browser Use: off by default

Glean Tau can work with the web in two ways: Browser panel and Browser Use.

The Browser panel is Glean Tau's in-app browser, with its own signed-in profile. It opens web pages, local files, and generated HTML beside your chat, and the agent can drive it with the in_app_browser_* tools.

Browser Use instead controls your existing signed-in Chrome through the Glean Browser Operator Chrome extension, so pages you're already authenticated don't need a second sign-in.

Choose between the Browser panel and Browser Use

Use the Browser panel for:

• Previewing a local web app, docs, or an HTML artifact next to your chat
• Reading a page and adding selected text to the conversation with its source
• Automation on public or separately signed-in pages

Use Browser Use for:

• Tasks on sites where you're already signed in to Chrome
• Work spanning several existing tabs or windows
• Pages that need your real browser profile, extensions, or history

The two use separate identities. The Browser panel has its own profile, so you sign in there separately or import cookies. Browser Use is the option that reuses your existing Chrome session.

Use the Browser panel

• Open Browser beside Chat, or let an action open a page for you. Closing the last tab dismisses a temporary reveal.
• On the side panel's start page, type an address in Search or enter a URL and press Enter to open it in a Browser tab. Text that isn't an address searches Google, and go/ links open through Glean.
• Use tabs, back, forward, and reload. Attach a screenshot, select an element, or add selected page text to chat with its source.
• In the main window, web links open in Browser by default. Cmd-click (Ctrl-click on Windows) opens them in your default browser. Turning off Open web links in-app by default reverses both.
• To automate browser usage, describe the goal in chat. Glean Tau can navigate, read the page, click, type, scroll, press keys, hover, drag, find text, screenshot, wait for a condition, and manage tabs. The page boundary stays visibly marked while automation runs.

Understand tabs

Browser tabs belong to the chat you open them in. When you switch chats, you see that chat's tabs. When you delete a chat, its tabs go with it.

Each chat holds up to 12 tabs. At the limit, Glean Tau warns you and closes nothing.

Right-click a tab for Close, Close others, Close tabs to the right, and Close all.

Glean Tau releases an inactive tab's page after about 10 minutes to save memory, and reloads it when you return.

Use the Browser menu

The menu beside the URL bar holds the panel's page and profile actions:

Item	What it does
Open in external browser	Opens the current page in your default browser.
Import cookies from…	Copies cookies from another browser so you stay signed in.
Clear browsing data…	Removes cookies, site data, and cached content. This signs you out of websites.

When the panel is too narrow to show every toolbar button, the hidden ones move to the top of this menu, so Go home, Reload, Attach screenshot to chat, and Select element to attach can appear there too.

Import cookies

The Browser panel has its own profile, so you start signed out of everything. Rather than signing in again, import your cookies from a browser you already use. Cookie import is available on macOS only and reads only each browser's last-used profile.

Choose Import cookies from…, then pick a source. Glean Tau shows only the browsers it finds installed, asks you to confirm, then copies all cookies from that browser's last-used profile and reloads the page. It reports how many cookies it imported.

warning

You can't choose individual sites to import cookies from, so importing can sign you in to more sites than you intended.

You can also reach this from the Bring your sign-ins to the in-app browser prompt, which offers Import cookies and Open links externally by default. If you dismiss the prompt, it stays hidden for 30 days.

If your administrator turns off cookie import, Import cookies from… doesn't appear.

Use Browser Use

1

Enable the extension

Turn on Settings → Extensions → Browser Use, which is off by default. In the Enable Browser Use? dialog, select Enable.

2

Install Browser Operator

Select Install Browser Operator in the dialog, or View extension in the extension's Setup section. Either control opens the Glean Browser Operator listing in the Chrome Web Store in your default browser. Add the extension to Chrome, and reload it if it was already open. When the extension connects, the Setup section shows Installed.

3

Ask for the task

Ask for the task in a chat. Browser Operator targets the page and owns its own approval prompts. Glean Tau notifies you and waits up to 60 seconds for your response.

4

Diagnose missing tools

If tools don't appear, ask Glean Tau to run the Browser Operator health check.

Troubleshoot the Browser Operator install

Installing Browser Operator usually fails for one of three reasons: the listing opened in the wrong browser, the listing isn't the official one, or your organization manages your Chrome profile.

The Browser panel can't install Chrome extensions. Links you select in a chat open there by default, so a Chrome Web Store link from a chat message lands in the wrong place.

Open the listing from Settings → Extensions → Browser Use instead. View extension in the Setup section always opens in your default browser. If your default browser isn't Chrome, copy the listing's address into Chrome. To open a single chat link in your default browser, Cmd-click it (Ctrl-click on Windows).

Use only the listing that Glean Tau opens from Settings. The official extension is Glean Browser Operator, and its Chrome Web Store ID is mndikgjdceficogpnfofglpgimokifio. Don't install similarly named extensions from search results or from links an agent suggests.

If the listing reports that the item isn't available, check that you opened it in Chrome while signed in to your work profile. If it's still unavailable, your administrator might restrict which extensions your profile can see. Ask them to allow the extension ID above.

On a company-managed Chrome profile, an administrator can install Browser Operator for you without turning it on. The Chrome Web Store then treats the extension as installed and greys out Add to Chrome, while Glean Tau still shows View extension because the extension never connects.

To fix it:

1. In Chrome, open chrome://extensions and look for Glean Browser Operator. If it's listed and turned off, turn it on.
2. In Glean Tau, go to Settings → Extensions, turn Browser Use off, then on again. In the Enable Browser Use? dialog, select Install Browser Operator to reopen the listing in your default browser, then select Enable.
3. Reload the extension in Chrome, then check that the Setup section shows Installed.

If Chrome shows that your organization blocks the extension, ask your administrator to allow mndikgjdceficogpnfofglpgimokifio in your Chrome policy.

Configure the Browser extension

Open Settings → Extensions → Browser for the panel's own settings. The extension is on by default and you can turn it off here.

Setting	Default	What it does
New tab URL	Blank	The page new tabs open. Leave it blank for an empty tab. Accepts an HTTP, HTTPS, or file URL.
Open web links in-app by default	On	Whether links you select in a chat open in the Browser panel instead of your external browser.

Control what the agent can do in the browser

Under Agent browser controls, two independent switches decide which browser tool families the agent and your automations can use. Both are on by default.

Setting	Default	What it allows
Allow visible in-app Browser control	On	Tools that drive the visible Browser panel and its tabs, so you watch each step happen.
Allow headless Browser control	On	Hidden offscreen browser tools for background and saved automation tasks. Nothing appears on screen.

The two families are separate, and the agent can't substitute one for the other. Turning off visible control still leaves headless browsing available, and turning off headless control still lets the agent drive the panel you can see. Turn off both to stop the agent from browsing entirely.

These switches fail closed. If Glean Tau can't read your saved preference, it treats the family as turned off rather than assuming permission.

Understand visible compared with headless control

The visible panel belongs to one chat at a time, which decides which mode the agent can use.

• In the chat you're looking at, the agent uses the visible panel. You see each navigation, click, and form entry as it happens.
• In any other chat, visible browser tools refuse to run and report that the Browser panel is visible only for the active chat. The agent asks you to switch back to that chat rather than acting on a panel you aren't watching.

This is why headless control matters. Headless tools run in a hidden offscreen browser with no panel at all, so they work regardless of which chat you have open.

note

An automation runs in its own chat, which usually isn't the one on your screen. Headless control is what lets a scheduled automation read a web page. With headless control off, an automation that needs the web fails when it can't reach the visible panel.

What an automation can do is also bounded by its own Access mode, which is separate from these settings. See Create an automation.

Limitations

• JavaScript execution is the last resort. Running arbitrary page JavaScript is the highest-risk browser action and can read or change anything on the active origin. Prefer the specific read, click, type, scroll, tab, and screenshot tools.
• Approvals expire. Glean Tau waits at most 60 seconds for a Browser Operator approval, then reports the operation as unresolved. Cancelling a run propagates to the browser.
• File upload is constrained. Uploads need an explicit tab, a valid target domain, and 1–16 files, which Glean Tau stages as read-only copies. If the browser can't attest the same tab and origin, the result is reported as unknown and isn't retried automatically.
• Local HTML is restricted. Local pages keep their file:// URL but run under a restrictive preview policy, so scripts outside the approved set are blocked.

See also

• Computer Use — operate desktop applications when no browser or CLI path exists
• Extensions — the full list of extensions and their default states