In-app browser

On macOS, Tidebreak agents can inspect and control a visible browser tab that you share. Use it for local development servers, previews, public documentation, and ordinary forms. Tidebreak keeps a separate browser profile and does not import your personal browser's cookies or logins.

Share a tab

To let an agent use a page:

1. Open Browser from the chat's status menu, or open a browser tab in the code workspace.
2. Navigate to the page you want the agent to use.
3. Select Share with agent and review the origin in the native confirmation.
4. Keep the tab visible and ask the agent to inspect or use the page.

For example: “Use the shared browser to add a Todo item, then read the page to confirm that it appears.”

Tidebreak remembers your sharing choice for this conversation or workspace, including after an app restart. For local previews, choose Only this origin or All local sites to include changing loopback ports. Stop sharing removes the saved choice.

If the agent sees no tabs, check that you opened and shared the tab in the same conversation or code workspace. A browser ID alone gives an agent no access. When the agent uses its navigation tool to request an unshared origin, Tidebreak pauses before opening it. Select Review & resume to review that destination. Page links, redirects, and iframe loads do not queue a destination for this control. The native URL callback rejects an unshared request without pausing the whole tab. To request a blocked destination deliberately, ask the agent to navigate directly to its address.

Coding agents

Tidebreak configures the browser connection when it launches a local coding session. Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode receive the browser through MCP. Grok CLI receives instructions for the bundled browser command. You do not need to install a second browser server or copy credentials into the conversation.

The agent lists shared tabs, reads a semantic snapshot, and uses the snapshot's element references to click, fill, select, or scroll. After an action, the agent reads a fresh snapshot. Old references fail when the page or control state changes. Focus and keyboard actions require a target whose native focus can be verified. If the engine returns unsupported_native, use a supported action or take over the tab.

On macOS, changing a collapsed select that opens a native popup returns unsupported_native before any input. Choose Take over and select the option yourself. If the requested value is already selected, the action completes without input. Selection in inline listboxes is not yet verified.

A terminal or agent launched outside Tidebreak does not inherit this connection. A remote server without the desktop browser runtime cannot control a local tab.

Stop or take over

Use Stop to cancel agent control, Take over to return control to yourself, or Stop sharing to revoke the grant. Hiding a tab prevents the agent from acting on it. An agent cannot resume a stopped tab by retrying its tool call. To continue, select Review & resume. An already approved site resumes without another sharing prompt.

Tidebreak treats page text as untrusted content. A page cannot grant access to another origin, a host file, or another conversation. Password and verification-code fields require you to take over. Outside localhost, Tidebreak asks for native confirmation before consequential actions and selection changes.

Files, screenshots, and reset

Foreground chat can attach an exact conversation output or a file from an approved connected folder. Each upload requires confirmation. The code-harness browser bridge does not expose an upload tool. To download a file, take over a visible foreground conversation browser. Tidebreak saves completed downloads to that conversation's Outputs. Code-workspace browsers cannot save downloads.

The screenshot operation returns an unsupported result while WKWebView cannot prove that closed shadow roots conceal no sensitive content. Agents can use semantic snapshots; they should not retry a screenshot that the engine refuses.

To clear the managed browser profile, use Reset development profile in the browser options. Reset ends agent control and invalidates old element references. It preserves your origin sharing choices. To revoke those choices, use Stop sharing.

Release scope

The macOS implementation is undergoing the release acceptance work tracked in issue #2345. Native agent workflows and packaging need separate verification; unit tests and the simulated bridge fixture do not establish those results. Windows and Linux agent control, background browser agents, arbitrary signed-in services, personal profiles, CAPTCHA handling, and password-manager integration remain outside this release.