OpenClaw Browser Relay: control Chrome from your agent

Set up the OpenClaw Browser Relay Chrome extension so your agent can click, type, and navigate in your real browser tabs through a secure local CDP relay.

The Browser Relay is OpenClaw's Chrome extension. It lets your agent control a real Chrome tab (clicking, typing, navigating, filling forms) through a local Chrome DevTools Protocol relay, instead of launching a separate headless browser. Because it drives your actual browser profile, the agent can work with sites where you are already logged in.

How it works

The extension bridges your Gateway and the browser through a loopback CDP relay server, by default on http://127.0.0.1:18792. It uses chrome.debugger to attach to a tab and pipes CDP messages to the relay. Two properties matter for safety:

  • The relay listens on localhost only, so nothing is exposed to your network.
  • The extension controls only the tabs you explicitly attach by clicking the toolbar button. Everything else in your browser stays out of reach.

Setup

  1. Install the relay components first. This copies the extension to a stable location under your OpenClaw state directory:
openclaw browser extension install

  1. Load the extension in Chrome from that location (the command prints the path), or install it from the Chrome Web Store ("OpenClaw Browser Relay").

  2. Create a browser profile that uses the extension driver:

openclaw browser create-profile \
  --name my-chrome \
  --driver extension \
  --cdp-url http://127.0.0.1:18792 \
  --color "#00AA00"
  1. Attach a tab: open the page you want the agent to control and click the extension icon. The badge shows ON while attached. Click again to detach.

Once attached, ask your agent to act in the browser ("open my dashboard and export this week's report") and it will drive the attached tab.

Troubleshooting

  • Relay not reachable / not authenticated. The two most common causes: the relay server is not running, or the gateway token is missing or wrong. Check openclaw gateway status and restart the Gateway if needed.
  • Badge never shows ON. Re-run openclaw browser extension install and reload the extension; Chrome occasionally drops unpacked extensions after updates.
  • Agent says it cannot see the page. Confirm you attached the right tab; the extension only exposes attached tabs.

Security notes

Treat an attached tab as handing the agent your session on that site. Attach deliberately, detach when done, and keep tool execution policies tight. Our safe setup guide covers openclaw security audit and the config that limits blast radius.

Source: OpenClaw Chrome extension docs, checked June 2026.

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