cm-browse — local Playwright daemon (fallback)

Prefer the host browser. Per _shared/browser-strategy.md: on Claude Code / Antigravity / Cursor / Codex, drive the platform's native browser mode (Claude in Chrome, Claude Preview, Chrome DevTools / Playwright MCP). This daemon is the fallback for bare CLI hosts with no browser mode, and is never auto-started — suggest it to the user and let them opt in.

Full runbook: docs/browse-daemon.md (install Chromium, token, troubleshooting).

When to use

• Only when no host browser mode is available (bare CLI) and you genuinely need a real browser for visual QA, screenshots, or post-deploy smoke. Otherwise use the host browser.
• HTTP-only checks (status code, curl) need no browser — do those first.

CLI

export CM_BROWSE_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 24)"
cm browse start --port 17395 --token "$CM_BROWSE_TOKEN"

HTTP API (Bearer token)

• POST /session/start body { "headless": true }
• POST /navigate { "url": "https://…" }
• POST /refs/refresh — assigns data-cm-ref to interactive nodes; use @e1 style refs.
• POST /click { "ref": "e1" }
• POST /fill { "ref": "e2", "value": "text" }
• GET /screenshot — PNG
• GET /console / GET /network — ring buffers

Integrations

• cm qa-visual --url … calls the daemon locally.
• Pair with cm-canary / cm-safe-deploy for ship verification.