Browse Now
Let AI Now and Mem agents use your real local browser for logged-in, dynamic, and interactive web tasks.
Browse Now lets Mem use the browser you already use.
When a page needs your login session, live JavaScript, clicks, forms, or a screenshot, ordinary web fetches are not enough. Browse Now gives AI Now and supported agents a safe local path into your real Chrome, Edge, Arc, or Chromium browser, with the context you already have there.
This is the browser side of Mem. It helps AI Now browse, helps Feed and Timeline agents inspect URLs, and helps the Library learn pages that need a rendered browser instead of a plain download.
Local by design
Browse Now only controls a browser connected to the same machine as the Mem app or server. Access Anywhere does not expose your browser bridge, and a remote client cannot make the server control the browser on your laptop or phone.
The First Useful Task
If you use AI Now, start with one page that only works in your browser:
- Open AI Now.
- Go to Plugins → Skills and enable Browse Now.
- Ask a task that needs the live page:
Open my logged-in project dashboard and summarize what changed this week.
You know it is working when the browser opens locally, the agent reads the rendered page, and the answer reflects what is actually visible in that browser session.
If the page is public and static, Mem may use normal web search or URL fetching instead. That is expected. Browse Now is for the cases where a real browser changes the result.
Where You Will See It
| Place | How Browse Now helps |
|---|---|
| AI Now | Lets the agent browse logged-in or dynamic pages during a task. |
| Feed / Timeline agent | Gives background agents a way to inspect a URL when page rendering matters. |
| Library URL learning | Helps Mem learn pages that require a browser session instead of a plain file download. |
| External agents | Provides a CLI and reusable skill so supported agents can operate the browser deliberately. |
Browse Now is not a replacement for memory search. It is the capability Mem uses when the task needs the live web page in front of you.
Requirements
You need all of these:
- the Nowledge Mem desktop app installed
- the Nowledge Mem Exchange extension installed in Chrome, Edge, Arc, or another supported Chromium browser
- at least one connected browser with the extension active
- for AI Now usage, the Browse Now skill enabled in AI Now → Plugins → Skills
Remote and mobile clients
If you connect to Mem through Access Anywhere, Browse Now still runs only on the machine hosting the Mem server and its connected browser extension. It does not control the browser on the remote client device.
For normal AI Now, Feed, Timeline, and Library usage, you do not need to run the CLI manually.
The CLI
The desktop app also bundles a command-line tool named browse-now. Agents use this CLI under the hood, and power users can run it directly.
If the app is installed, the CLI is usually auto-installed for you. Check it with:
browse-now status
browse-now --helpThe core loop is:
- open a page
- inspect the interactive elements
- click or fill by reference
- verify where you landed
- inspect again after the page changes
Refs such as @e5 come from snapshot -i. They are usually more reliable than guessing a selector or coordinate.
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 -iIf the page has weak accessibility data, the CLI also supports text search, text clicks, screenshots, scrolling, key presses, and page-text extraction:
browse-now find "query"browse-now click -T "visible text"browse-now screenshot /tmp/page.png
Useful 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.pngWhat To Ignore At First
- You do not need Browse Now for simple public webpages. Normal search or URL learning is faster.
- You do not need the CLI for everyday AI Now usage. Enable the skill and let the agent call it when needed.
- You should not expect it to bypass paywalls, permission prompts, anti-bot checks, or pages your browser itself cannot access.
External Agent Skill
There are two common ways to make an agent use browse-now:
- in AI Now, enable the built-in Browse Now skill
- in external agents, install the reusable
npx skillspackage 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-skillsThat package teaches the agent to:
- prefer
browse-nowfor authenticated or interactive browser work - use refs from
snapshot -ias the main interaction path - re-snapshot after navigation
- verify results with
get urlandget title
How It Fits With Mem
A strong combined setup looks like this:
- use
Nowledge Memskills or integrations to recall context - use
browse-nowwhen 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.