Frequently Asked Questions
How does Unbrowse work?
Unbrowse is a drop-in replacement for browser automation when you want API-native access to the web. It opens a local browser, captures network traffic as you interact with a site, and reverse-engineers the shadow API endpoints that power the frontend. Once discovered, these endpoints are stored as reusable skills so your agent can call them directly — no browser required.
How much faster is Unbrowse than headless browser automation?
Unbrowse is approximately 100x faster per page. Headless browsers typically take 5–30 seconds per page interaction. Unbrowse makes direct API calls in 50–200 milliseconds. It also uses ~200 tokens per action compared to ~8,000 tokens for scraped HTML, a 40x reduction.
Is Unbrowse free?
Yes. Unbrowse is 100% free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. There are no paid tiers, cloud proxies, or usage credits. Everything runs locally on your machine.
What websites does Unbrowse support?
Unbrowse works with any website that uses shadow APIs to power its frontend — which includes most modern web applications. Sites like Airbnb, LinkedIn, and hundreds of others have been successfully mapped. When a site cannot be reverse-engineered, Unbrowse falls back to standard browser automation.
Is Unbrowse secure? Do my credentials leave my machine?
Unbrowse runs entirely locally. There are no cloud proxies, no man-in-the-middle interception, and your browser cookies never leave your device. Authentication credentials are encrypted with AES-256-CBC in a local vault. Only discovered API endpoint patterns (not data or credentials) are shared with the registry.
How do I install Unbrowse?
Run npx unbrowse setup for a one-command installation that sets up browser assets and configures your agent host. If Unbrowse is already installed, upgrade with npm install -g unbrowse@latest and rerun unbrowse setup. For skill-based agent platforms like OpenClaw, use npx skills add unbrowse-ai/unbrowse.
What is the skill registry?
The skill registry is a shared marketplace of reverse-engineered API skills. When one agent discovers how to interact with a website's API, that knowledge is published to the registry so every other agent can use it instantly — no need to re-discover the same endpoints.