glider

Chromium-based extension for CLI-powered browser automation

ToC

About
Browsers
Install
Usage
How it works
CLI
Privacy
Contact

About

• bridge Chrome tabs to local dev tools through Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP)

• CDP relay: connects browser to a local WebSocket server

• tab control: attaches + detaches debugger from any tab

• auto reconnect: survives local relay restarts

• persistent runtime: offscreen document keeps service worker alive

• built for glidercli and CLI-based browser automation

Browsers

• chromium-based only (no Firefox/Safari/DuckDuckGo) because Glider uses a Chrome Web Store extension + CDP
• default: Google Chrome for glider connect
• supported: Arc, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi (extension must be installed + enabled in that same browser profile)
• other Chromium: must support installing extensions from Chrome Web Store
• choose browser via GLIDER_BROWSER

  • ex: export GLIDER_BROWSER=Arc then → glider connect

• optional: GLIDER_BROWSER_PATH for non-default app bundle locations
• full browser registry options → glidercli docs/BROWSERS.md

Install

• install from Chrome Web Store

Usage

• install glidercli: npm i -g glidercli
• start relay: glider install
• click extension icon in the target browser you want to automate
• run a CLI command: glider eval "document.title"

Extension icon states

Icon	Status
🟢	Connected to relay
🔴	Disconnected

How it works

source: docs/glider-architecture-diagram.excalidraw

• bserve runs local WebSocket relay on port 19988
• extension connects to relay + attaches a CDP debugger to tabs
• CLI sends commands through relay to control browser

CLI

• use this extension with glidercli

npm i -g glidercli
glider install    # start daemon
glider connect    # connect to browser
glider goto "https://example.com"
glider eval "document.title"
glider screenshot /tmp/page.png

• see the glidercli README for full documentation

Privacy

• no data collection: extension only communicates with localhost
• no external servers: all traffic stays on your machine
• no tracking: zero analytics/telemetry
• open source: full code visibility

More details → PRIVACY.md

Contact

 

License

MIT