Browse Now

browse-now is the browser automation CLI bundled with the Nowledge Mem desktop app.

Use it when an agent needs your real browser, not a generic fetch: authenticated websites, dynamic pages, form filling, screenshots, or content that only appears after the page has fully rendered.

It works together with the Nowledge Mem Exchange browser extension. The extension provides the live browser bridge, and browse-now gives agents a CLI they can actually call.

If you use AI Now, there is also a built-in Browse Now skill toggle in AI Now → Plugins → Skills. Turn that on when you want AI Now itself to proactively use the browser bridge during a task.

What It Is For

Use browse-now when:

• the site depends on your login session or cookies
• the task needs clicking, typing, scrolling, or navigation
• the page is dynamic enough that plain web fetches miss the real state
• the agent needs a screenshot or rendered-page text

Do not use it for simple public pages that ordinary web search can answer faster.

Requirements

You need all of these:

• the Nowledge Mem desktop app installed
• the bundled browse-now CLI available on your machine
• the Nowledge Mem Exchange extension installed in Chrome, Edge, Arc, or another supported Chromium browser
• at least one connected browser with the extension active

If the app is installed, browse-now is usually auto-installed for you. Check with:

browse-now status
browse-now --help

The First Useful Flow

Start with one real page you already use:

1. open the site with browse-now open <url>
2. inspect the interactive elements with browse-now snapshot -i
3. click or fill by ref
4. confirm navigation with browse-now get url
5. re-run snapshot -i after the page changes

That is the core loop.

browse-now open https://example.com
browse-now snapshot -i
browse-now click @e5
browse-now wait 2
browse-now get url
browse-now snapshot -i

Refs First

The preferred interaction order is:

1. snapshot -i
2. click @eN or fill @eN ...
3. get url or get title
4. snapshot -i again after navigation or major DOM changes

If the page has weak accessibility data, fall back to:

• browse-now find "query"
• browse-now click -T "visible text"
• browse-now screenshot /tmp/page.png

Key Commands

browse-now open https://example.com
browse-now snapshot -i
browse-now find "search button"
browse-now click @e12
browse-now fill @e3 "Nowledge Mem" --submit
browse-now get page-text --max-chars 4000
browse-now screenshot /tmp/page.png

Reliability Notes

• Refs from snapshot -i are the most reliable click targets.
• Refs reset after navigation, so re-snapshot after page changes.
• A successful click does not bypass login walls, paywalls, or anti-bot behavior.
• Always verify where you landed before assuming the action failed.

Install The Agent Skill

There are two common ways to make an agent use browse-now:

• in AI Now, enable the built-in Browse Now skill toggle
• in external agents, install the reusable npx skills package below

If you want supported agents to learn when and how to use browse-now, install the reusable skill package from community:

npx skills add nowledge-co/community/nowledge-mem-browse-now-npx-skills

That package teaches the agent to:

• prefer browse-now for authenticated or interactive browser work
• use refs from snapshot -i as the main interaction surface
• re-snapshot after navigation
• verify results with get url and get title

How It Fits With Mem

browse-now is not a replacement for memory retrieval. It is the browser-control side of the system.

A strong combined setup looks like this:

• use Nowledge Mem skills or integrations to recall context
• use browse-now when the task needs the user's real browser
• save durable insights back into Mem when the browser task reveals something worth keeping

PyPI And Remote Use

browse-now is also published on PyPI. That is for cases where you want the CLI or Python API outside the desktop bundle.

It does not mean browser automation becomes a remote-access feature. Even with the PyPI package, the browser bridge still stays on the local machine for security reasons.

Related Guides

• Browser Extension
• Integrations
• Nowledge Mem CLI