electron

Electron App Automation

Automate any Electron desktop app using agent-browser. Electron apps are built on Chromium and expose a Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) port that agent-browser can connect to, enabling the same snapshot-interact workflow used for web pages.

Core Workflow

1. Launch the Electron app with remote debugging enabled
2. Connect agent-browser to the CDP port
3. Snapshot to discover interactive elements
4. Interact using element refs
5. Re-snapshot after navigation or state changes

# Launch an Electron app with remote debugging
open -a "Slack" --args --remote-debugging-port=9222
 
# Connect agent-browser to the app
agent-browser connect 9222
 
# Standard workflow from here
agent-browser snapshot -i
agent-browser click @e5
agent-browser screenshot

Launching Electron Apps with CDP

Every Electron app supports the --remote-debugging-port flag since it's built into Chromium.

macOS

Linux

Windows

Important: If the app is already running, quit it first, then relaunch with the flag. The --remote-debugging-port flag must be present at launch time.

Connecting

After connect, all subsequent commands target the connected app without needing --cdp.

Tab Management

Electron apps often have multiple windows or webviews. Use tab commands to list and switch between them:

Webview Support

Electron <webview> elements are automatically discovered and can be controlled like regular pages. Webviews appear as separate targets in the tab list with type: "webview":

Note: Webview support works via raw CDP connection.

Common Patterns

Inspect and Navigate an App

Take Screenshots of Desktop Apps

Extract Data from a Desktop App

Fill Forms in Desktop Apps

Run Multiple Apps Simultaneously

Use named sessions to control multiple Electron apps at the same time:

Color Scheme

The default color scheme when connecting via CDP may be light. To preserve dark mode:

Or set it globally:

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" or "Cannot connect"

• Make sure the app was launched with --remote-debugging-port=NNNN
• If the app was already running, quit and relaunch with the flag
• Check that the port isn't in use by another process: lsof -i :9222

App launches but connect fails

• Wait a few seconds after launch before connecting (sleep 3)
• Some apps take time to initialize their webview

Elements not appearing in snapshot

• The app may use multiple webviews. Use agent-browser tab to list targets and switch to the right one

Cannot type in input fields

• Try agent-browser keyboard type "text" to type at the current focus without a selector
• Some Electron apps use custom input components; use agent-browser keyboard inserttext "text" to bypass key events

Supported Apps

Any app built on Electron works, including:

• Communication: Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Telegram Desktop
• Development: VS Code, GitHub Desktop, Postman, Insomnia
• Design: Figma, Notion, Obsidian
• Media: Spotify, Tidal
• Productivity: Todoist, Linear, 1Password

If an app is built with Electron, it supports --remote-debugging-port and can be automated with agent-browser.