Let your CellCog agent browse and act on the web inside your real Chrome browser, using your sessions, your bookmarks, and your profile.
Browse my Chrome lets a CellCog agent drive your real Chrome browser during a chat. Instead of a separate browser, the agent works inside your Chrome: the sites you are already logged into, the cookies you already have, the bookmarks you already saved.
Once enabled, an agent can:
Key principle: you stay in control. The agent works inside a dedicated cyan "CellCog" tab group in your Chrome window. Tabs outside that group stay private. Every action is classified by risk and gated by your approval threshold, and Chrome itself shows a yellow safety banner whenever CellCog is driving a tab.
Browse my Chrome is the peer of Cowork on my PC. Both require the CellCog Desktop app and extend the agent's reach in different directions:
| Use | Cowork on my PC | Browse my Chrome |
|---|---|---|
| Edit local files (code, docs) | Yes | No |
| Run terminal commands on your machine | Yes | No |
| Visit and interact with websites | No | Yes |
| Use your logged-in sessions | No | Yes |
| Fill forms, click buttons, take page screenshots | No | Yes |
| Trust boundary | Working directory on disk | The "CellCog" tab group |
You can enable both in the same chat, for example "research these products in Chrome, then write a comparison into my project directory".
Browse my Chrome uses your Chrome on your machine, authenticated as you, and only while your computer and the desktop app are on. AI employees also have their own cloud browsers: a persistent Chrome per employee that runs on CellCog's servers, keeps its own logins between shifts, and works while your machine is off.
| Browse my Chrome | Cloud Browsers | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose identity | Yours (your Chrome profile, your logins) | The employee's own (separate identity and logins per employee) |
| Where it runs | Your machine | CellCog's servers |
| Needs your computer on | Yes | No |
| Who can use it | Any chat where you enable Browse | AI employees |
| Logging in | You are already logged in | You log the employee in once through a live view |
Use Browse my Chrome for errands that must happen as you; give employees cloud browsers for long-running, autonomous work. See the Cloud Browsers Guide.
Browse my Chrome runs on top of the CellCog Desktop app, the same app used by Cowork on my PC.
cellcog.ai/cowork/browse (also reachable from the Browse chip in the chat editor via "Browse settings", or from your profile page)If CellCog Desktop is already connected, skip to Step 2. Full desktop setup details are in the Cowork on my PC Guide.
chrome://extensions/, click Details on CellCog Browse, and turn on Allow access to file URLs. Chrome only lets the extension attach local files with this permission on; without it, the agent can still browse, fill forms, and take screenshots, but every upload is refused.The extension lives inside one Chrome profile. If you have several profiles (Personal, Work), install it in each one you want to use.
Keep the chosen profile open in Chrome so the extension can connect to the desktop app. The Browse my Chrome page shows each profile's state: Connected, "Open this profile in Chrome to connect", or "Extension not installed in this profile".
On the Browse my Chrome page, find Auto-approve threshold and pick a level (see below). The default is Safe: public browsing auto-runs, reading your private pages and any data change still require approval.
Browse requires the desktop app to be connected.
When the agent first opens a tab, it creates a cyan tab group labeled "CellCog" in your Chrome tab strip. This group is the shared agent workspace:
If you already have a tab the agent should work with (a half-completed form, for example), the agent can adopt it into the CellCog group. Adopting moves your personal tab into the shared workspace, so it is classified moderate and respects your threshold.
The agent perceives and acts on pages in a few ways:
Each Chrome profile needs the extension installed separately. Each chat is bound to one profile via the Browse chip. The Browse my Chrome page shows the state of every detected profile, so you can see which one is missing the extension.
Browse uses the same agent-classifies, you-gate model as Cowork and connected Tools. The agent classifies every browser action by the data it touches, and shows the classification and a one-sentence reason on the approval card. Your threshold decides what runs without a click.
| Level | Browse examples |
|---|---|
| Safe | Reading a public article, searching on a public site, expanding a menu |
| Moderate | Snapshotting your inbox, a private repository, or a banking dashboard; reading cookies; listing or adopting your personal tabs |
| Dangerous | Submitting forms, sending email, paying, deleting, writing cookies, downloading files |
Thresholds on the Browse my Chrome page:
| Threshold | What it auto-approves |
|---|---|
| None | Nothing. Every browser action requires your approval. |
| Safe | Side-effect-free actions on public content. Reading your private pages and any data change still require approval. This is the default. |
| Moderate | Also actions that read your private data: logged-in page snapshots, cookies, personal-tab discovery. Anything that changes data still requires approval. |
| Dangerous | Also actions that change data: form submits, cookie writes, file downloads. The most permissive setting. |
You can override the level for a single chat from the Browse chip (hover the chip, click the colored dot). The full model, including pending approvals and AI employees, is in the Approvals & Safety Guide.
Chrome shows a yellow banner across the top of every tab CellCog is driving:
"CellCog Browse started debugging this browser." with a Cancel button
This is Chrome's built-in safety indicator and CellCog cannot hide it. It appears while the agent is actively executing a batch of commands and clears shortly after the batch completes. Click Cancel at any time to revoke control of that tab; the agent sees an error on its next attempt.
chrome://extensions/When Browse is enabled for a chat:
Before any data leaves Chrome, the extension redacts:
type=password)autocomplete=cc-number)autocomplete=cc-csc)The agent sees <redacted> in those fields.
These are not auto-redacted because they sometimes legitimately need to flow through the agent:
For full disclosure of these data flows, see the Privacy Policy.
file://) cannot be opened in your Chrome by the agent. Chrome blocks extension-driven navigation to local files. The agent serves the folder over a local web server and opens http://localhost:<port>/... instead, so a preview of a file on your machine still works, with one extra step.chrome://extensions/, find CellCog Browse, click the reload icon, then revisit the Browse my Chrome page.When an extension update requests a new permission, Chrome disables the extension until you approve the change. Open chrome://extensions/, find CellCog Browse, and re-enable it.
Uploads through Browse my Chrome need one extra Chrome permission on the extension. Open chrome://extensions/, click Details on CellCog Browse, and turn on Allow access to file URLs, then ask the agent to retry. An extension update can switch this off again, so check it first whenever uploads that used to work start failing. This is a Chrome rule for every extension that drives the browser, not something the agent can change on its own.
The chat is probably bound to a different Chrome profile than the one with the extension.
The banner goes away when the agent finishes its batch and detaches, or when you click Cancel. If neither happens, check that CellCog Desktop is still running; if it quit mid-session, reload the tab.
The agent tried to act on a tab that is not in its workspace. Ask it to adopt the tab (a moderate action), or have it open the URL fresh inside the CellCog group.
Clicking Install opens the Chrome Web Store in whichever Chrome profile is currently focused. If the extension landed in the wrong profile:
chrome://extensions/The desktop app authenticates you and brokers every command to and from CellCog. The extension is the small piece that talks to Chrome on the desktop app's behalf and does nothing on its own. Splitting them keeps the extension minimal.
No. Browse my Chrome works with Google Chrome. The desktop app also detects Brave, Vivaldi, and Chromium profiles. Microsoft Edge is not supported, and Firefox and Safari do not offer the browser interface it relies on.
It can list them (a moderate action, so it auto-runs only at threshold Moderate or above). It cannot interact with them until it adopts one, which is a separate moderate action.
No. Password and credit-card fields are redacted before anything leaves Chrome. The agent sees <redacted>.
Screenshots are saved to a temporary folder on your machine and shown to the agent in chat, where they become part of the chat's context. CellCog does not store them permanently.
You can use Browse my Chrome on any site. Snapshotting a banking dashboard is moderate; clicking "Transfer" is dangerous. Your threshold decides what runs without your click; most people keep Safe or Moderate for sensitive sites.
No. Standard credit usage applies to the agent's work, the same as with Cowork; having Browse enabled costs nothing by itself.
No. Browse runs against your Chrome profile on your machine, authenticated as you. Teammates install the desktop app and the extension on their own machines.
Only when you enable Browse for their chat. Otherwise they use their own cloud browser, which runs on CellCog's servers with its own logins. See the Cloud Browsers Guide.