Steel provides a browser API and sandbox that manages infrastructure complexity for AI applications and agents needing to interact with the web. It offers control over Chrome instances and on-demand webpage processing endpoints.
Project overview
Steel provides a browser API and sandbox that manages infrastructure complexity for AI applications and agents needing to interact with the web. It offers control over Chrome instances and on-demand webpage processing endpoints.
Project type
Workflow
Use cases
Automation
Deployment
Refer to project documentation
License
Apache-2.0
Best for
Developers and AI engineers who need to build web automation or AI agent-automation workflows and want to avoid managing browser infrastructure from scratch.
Teams requiring session persistence, proxy rotation, stealth plugins, and on-demand rendering outputs like HTML, screenshots, and PDFs.
Key capabilities
Provides complete control over Chrome instances through Puppeteer and CDP, with connections supported through Puppeteer, Playwright, or Selenium.
Maintains browser state, cookies, and local storage across successive requests.
Provides built-in proxy chain management for IP rotation.
Loads custom Chrome extensions during browser automation tasks.
Provides request logging and a user interface to view and debug sessions.
Includes stealth plugins and fingerprint management capabilities.
Performs automatic cleanup and browser lifecycle management.
Offers scrape, screenshot, and PDF endpoints for on-demand webpage processing.
Limitations and risks
The Selenium integration does not support all features available in the CDP-based browser sessions API.
The documented direct Node.js run path requires an external Chrome executable.
Getting started
The simplest deployment method is running the pre-built Docker image locally using the command `docker run -p 3000:3000 -p 9223:9223 ghcr.io/steel-dev/steel-browser`.
Evidence and sources
GitHub project description: Steel Browser is a batteries-included browser sandbox that lets you automate the web without worrying about infrastructure.
README: The open-source browser API for AI agents & apps.
README: Steel.dev is an open-source browser API that makes it easy to build AI apps and agents that interact with the web. Instead of building automation infrastructure from scratch, you…
README: Steel is in public beta and evolving every day.
README: - **Full Browser Control**: Uses Puppeteer and CDP for complete control over Chrome instances -- allowing you to connect using Puppeteer, Playwright, or Selenium.