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v1.7.0 — Persistent Browser (Never Dies)

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@rish-e rish-e released this 26 Mar 16:26
· 29 commits to main since this release
v1.7.0
d5f58a8

Autopilot v1.7.0 — Persistent Browser (Never Dies)

The #1 pain point — the browser dying mid-session — is solved. The browser now runs independently of Claude Code and survives session restarts.

How it works

Chrome runs as a persistent background process with Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) on port 9222. The Playwright MCP connects to it instead of launching its own browser.

Chrome (persistent, background)  <-- CDP -->  Playwright MCP  <-->  Claude Code
      |                                              |
  Always alive                                Dies with session
  Login sessions persist                      Reconnects on start

When your Claude Code session ends, the browser stays alive. When you start a new session, the MCP reconnects to the same Chrome. Login sessions, cookies, and tabs persist.

Three layers of resilience

Layer 1 — Persistent Chrome (new)

  • chrome-debug.sh start launches Chrome with CDP in the background
  • Survives terminal close, Claude Code restarts, and session timeouts
  • Login sessions persist in ~/MCPs/autopilot/browser-profile/
  • Installer auto-starts it during installation

Layer 2 — Auto-retry on context errors (new)

  • If a page/context closes, the agent tries browser_close + retry once
  • Recovers from tab-level crashes without user intervention
  • Only falls back to CLI after retry fails

Layer 3 — Smart browser avoidance (new)

  • Agent checks if browser is actually needed before using it
  • Skips browser for: encrypted messaging apps, QR code flows, native apps, CLI-available operations
  • Fewer browser uses = fewer chances for errors

New script: chrome-debug.sh

~/MCPs/autopilot/bin/chrome-debug.sh start    # Launch persistent Chrome
~/MCPs/autopilot/bin/chrome-debug.sh stop     # Stop it
~/MCPs/autopilot/bin/chrome-debug.sh status   # Check if running
~/MCPs/autopilot/bin/chrome-debug.sh restart  # Stop + start

After system reboot

The persistent Chrome needs to be started once after a reboot:

~/MCPs/autopilot/bin/chrome-debug.sh start

The installer does this automatically during initial setup.

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