Steel Browser Skill

Cloud browser-use via Steel.dev + Playwright Python SDK. Ideal for web automation, scraping, form filling, and AI agent browser loops.

Prerequisites

pip install steel-sdk playwright
export STEEL_API_KEY=your_key_here

Get your API key at https://app.steel.dev → Settings → API Keys (free: 100 browser hours).

Steel API key should be set in OpenClaw config or environment:

openclaw config set env.STEEL_API_KEY "your_key"

State Management

• start_session.sh saves session ID to ~/.steel_state
• All scripts auto-load it from there
• Override anytime with export STEEL_SESSION_ID=<id>
• Sessions persist until release_session.sh or timeout

Scripts

| Script | Usage | Description | |---|---|---| | start_session.sh | [--proxy] [--captcha] [--timeout MS] | Create session; prints SESSION_ID + VIEWER_URL | | release_session.sh | [SESSION_ID] | Release session | | list_sessions.sh | (none) | List active sessions | | navigate.sh | URL [--wait-until networkidle] | Go to URL | | screenshot.sh | [OUTPUT.png] [--full-page] | Take screenshot | | click.sh | SELECTOR | Click by CSS/text/aria selector | | click_coords.sh | X Y [--right] [--double] | Click at pixel coords (fallback) | | type.sh | SELECTOR "text" | Fill input field | | press_key.sh | KEY | Press key (e.g. Enter, Control+a) | | scroll.sh | AMOUNT\|--to-bottom\|--to-top\|SELECTOR | Scroll page | | hover.sh | SELECTOR | Hover over element | | select.sh | SELECTOR VALUE | Select dropdown option | | get_content.sh | [--html] [SELECTOR] | Extract page text or HTML | | eval_js.sh | "js expression" | Execute JavaScript, print result | | wait_for.sh | SELECTOR [TIMEOUT_MS] | Wait for element to appear | | get_url.sh | (none) | Print current URL and page title |

Selector Examples

Steel uses Playwright selectors — much more powerful than pixel coords:

# By CSS
click.sh "#submit-button"
click.sh ".nav-link:first-child"

# By text content
click.sh "text=Sign in"
click.sh "button:has-text('Continue')"

# By aria label
click.sh "[aria-label='Search']"
click.sh "[placeholder='Email address']"

# XPath
click.sh "xpath=//button[@type='submit']"

Browser-Use Agent Loop Pattern

SCRIPTS="skills/steel-browser/scripts"

# 1. Start session (add --proxy --captcha for tough sites)
source <($SCRIPTS/start_session.sh)
echo "Session: $SESSION_ID"
echo "Watch at: $VIEWER_URL"

# 2. Navigate
$SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "https://example.com"

# 3. Agent loop
while true; do
  $SCRIPTS/screenshot.sh /tmp/screen.png
  
  # Get page text for LLM context
  CONTENT=$($SCRIPTS/get_content.sh)
  
  # LLM decides action...
  ACTION=$(echo "$CONTENT" | llm_decide /tmp/screen.png)
  
  case "$ACTION_TYPE" in
    click)    $SCRIPTS/click.sh "$SELECTOR" ;;
    type)     $SCRIPTS/type.sh "$SELECTOR" "$TEXT" ;;
    navigate) $SCRIPTS/navigate.sh "$URL" ;;
    done)     break ;;
  esac
done

# 4. Release
$SCRIPTS/release_session.sh

vs E2B Desktop

| Feature | Steel Browser | E2B Desktop | |---|---|---| | Selectors | Playwright CSS/text/aria ✅ | Pixel coords only | | Proxy support | ✅ Residential proxies | ❌ | | CAPTCHA solving | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | | Non-browser tasks | ❌ | ✅ Desktop apps, terminal | | Session viewer | ✅ Live URL | ✅ VNC stream |

Use Steel for web automation. Use E2B Desktop for desktop apps / full OS control.