Blog
Thoughts on AI browser agents, browser automation, and building dassi.
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Headless Browser Agents vs. the Chrome You're Already Signed Into
Almost every AI automation stack drives a headless Chrome on a server. That browser has never met you, and real sites treat it accordingly. What it costs.
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Apple's Evidence Is a List of Copies. Your AI Workflow Makes Them Too.
Apple's case against a former employee accused of taking data to OpenAI runs on export events. Every paste into a chat window creates the same kind of record.
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Circleback Went Free. The Bot in Your Calendar Still Wants OAuth.
Circleback's free tier pushes AI note-takers toward default. Each one wants calendar OAuth and a bot seat, then hands the last mile back to you in tabs.
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An $8,000 AI Automation Suite vs. the Chrome Tab You're Already Logged Into
A $8K 4-in-1 FastAPI automation suite still needs an API key for every service it touches. A browser agent runs in your logged-in Chrome with zero wiring.
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An Anthropic Researcher Previewed Self-Improving AI. It Still Opens a Tab Where You're Nobody.
Anthropic previewed self-improving AI. A smarter model still starts every session logged out of your Gmail, CRM, and admin panel. Context is the real bottleneck.
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Meta's CTO Says Spend the AI Gains. Most of Them Never Reach Your Tabs.
Andrew Bosworth wants AI productivity converted into more output. Fine. But the gains die in a chat window, far from the logged-in tabs where work happens.
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Google's AI Mode Books Hotels as a Stranger
Google's AI Mode can track flight prices and help book hotels. The session it does it from has none of your loyalty numbers, saved travelers, or corporate portal.
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Claude Cowork Added Memory. It Still Can't See the Tab You're Logged Into.
Cowork now remembers what you typed in chat. That's app memory, not browser context — and the tab you're authenticated into is where the work actually finishes.
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Instinct's Assistant Wants Your Whole Account. A Browser Agent Wants the Tab You're On.
Instinct's AI assistant needs deep account access and ships your data to its servers. A browser agent reads the tab you're already logged into instead.
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Running a Browser Agent on a VPS to Drive Your Local Chrome
The SSH tunnel, the CDP handshake, the 403 nobody warns you about, and why the connection dies on navigation. A walkthrough of what hosting a browser agent costs.
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The API Needs Approval. Your Logged-In Tab Doesn't.
Gated APIs, approval queues, enterprise-only endpoints. A browser agent running in your real Chrome reads what your account can already see — no access request.
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Nvidia Says the Harness Beats the Model. For Browser Agents, the Harness Is Your Chrome.
Nvidia's harness argument lands hardest in the browser. Two agents on identical weights diverge completely depending on login state, DOM access, and session context.
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DOM, Screenshot, or Accessibility Tree: How Browser Agents Actually Read a Page
Three browser agents and a leaderboard hit HN today. None explain the page-perception layer that decides whether the run succeeds or clicks the wrong button.
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Google's New AI Study Tools Stop at the Login Screen
Google's new AI study tools only read public pages. Real coursework sits behind Canvas, library proxies, and paywalls your browser is already logged into.
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What --remote-debugging-port Actually Opens
Every browser agent quickstart tells you to relaunch Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222. That flag opens an unauthenticated CDP endpoint to every session you're logged into.
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Relay Shut Down and Its Team Joined Chrome. Read That Again.
Relay's AI automation platform shut down and its team joined Google Chrome. The signal: automation belongs in your logged-in browser, not a connector backend.
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Stripe Is Buying OpenRouter. Ask Where Your Prompts Actually Go.
Stripe is reportedly paying $7B+ for OpenRouter, the gateway most AI tools quietly route through. What BYOK means when the key lives in your browser instead.
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SpaceX Closed the Cursor Deal. Your AI Tools Keep Changing Owners.
SpaceX just closed its Cursor acquisition. Every handover resets a roadmap, a pricing page, and a privacy policy. Your logged-in browser doesn't move.
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Cloud Browser Agents Keep Failing Cloudflare. Your Own Chrome Doesn't.
Datacenter-hosted browser agents hit turnstiles, CAPTCHAs, and login walls. Why bot detection flags them, and why a local browser agent just loads the page.
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AI Productivity Pollution Is Just Work That Landed in the Wrong Place
AI productivity pollution is really a routing problem: the output lands in a doc instead of the system of record. A browser agent writes into the real form.