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authorTianren Dong <tianrendong.dtr@gmail.com>2026-05-14 22:09:07 -0400
committerTianren Dong <tianrendong.dtr@gmail.com>2026-05-14 22:09:07 -0400
commita13b6e4b51daf687e0cb16ef8fbc7040fde415a9 (patch)
tree56309e6cf89c98b428fa173bd785ef97bab5b9be /docs/COMPARISON.md
parent815fd19c72f7a5a57f87eb0debe50194588e0202 (diff)
Restore terminal Chrome authorization
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@@ -36,21 +36,21 @@ We benchmark in public — see [`../test-suite/`](../test-suite). Where exact sc
## Axis 1 — drivers (where pi-chrome lives)
-| Tool | Transport | Profile | Trusted events | Banner when controlling | Default detectable as bot |
+| Tool | Transport | Profile | Browser input | Banner when controlling | Default detectable as bot |
| --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------- |
| Playwright | CDP (own driver) | throwaway by default | always | always ("controlled by test software") | yes (webdriver flag, automation flags) |
| Puppeteer | CDP | throwaway by default | always | always | yes |
| Selenium | WebDriver / BiDi | throwaway | partial (BiDi improves) | always | most detectable |
| puppeteer-stealth / playwright-extra | CDP + patches | throwaway | always | always | medium (patches flags) |
| Raw CDP | direct devtools protocol | either (needs `--remote-debugging-port`) | always | always | yes |
-| **pi-chrome** | **Chrome extension bridge → local loopback** | **your real Chrome profile, signed-in cookies, extensions, history** | **opt-in** (`/chrome clicks on` or `trusted: true`) | **only when trusted mode is active** | **synthetic mode bypasses common detection signals**¹ |
+| **pi-chrome** | **Chrome extension bridge → local loopback** | **your real Chrome profile, signed-in cookies, extensions, history** | **always for input tools** | **while Chrome input is attached** | **low (real profile + Chrome input)¹** |
-¹ pi-chrome synthetic mode dispatches DOM events with `isTrusted=false` — most sites don't check; some anti-bot defenses do. The [`test-suite/`](../test-suite) grades both modes against common detection signals. Trusted mode uses `chrome.debugger` and shows Chrome's banner like every other CDP-based tool.
+¹ pi-chrome uses `chrome.debugger` for browser input and shows Chrome's banner like other CDP-based tools. The [`test-suite/`](../test-suite) grades browser-control behavior against common detection signals.
### What makes pi-chrome different on this axis
1. **Profile attach, not driver launch.** Every other driver fights cookie persistence, login walls, MFA, and extension state. pi-chrome inherits all of it because it *is* your Chrome.
-2. **Synthetic-first, trusted-on-demand.** Two-tier event model — agents pick the right tradeoff per call. Competitors are all-trusted (CDP) and always show the banner. pi-chrome avoids it by default; you opt in when a site needs it (autoplay gate, clipboard, file picker).
+2. **Chrome input against your real profile.** Interactive tools use CDP input for reliability while still controlling the Chrome profile you already use.
3. **Extension bridge transport.** No `--remote-debugging-port`, no throwaway Chromium. Survives Chrome auto-updates. Works alongside your normal Chrome usage.
4. **Honest result envelopes.** Every action returns `pageMutated`, `defaultPrevented`, `elementVisible`, `occludedBy`, `valueMatches`. Competitors return `void` or generic acks; agents loop blindly on broken clicks.
5. **Multi-session shared bridge.** Planner + worker + audit Pi sessions all drive the same Chrome concurrently.
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ These wrap a driver with an LLM loop. They are **higher-level than pi-chrome** a
| **OpenAI Operator** | proprietary | OpenAI's own VLM + browser; ChatGPT-integrated. | closed, hosted |
| **Project Mariner** (Google) | proprietary Chrome integration | Google's own VLM Chrome experiment. | closed |
| **Surfer 2 / Surfer-H** (H Company) | proprietary | Hosted proprietary agent stack. | closed, hosted |
-| **Anthropic Computer Use** | OS-level screenshots + mouse/keyboard | Broader than browser; trusted events at OS level. | closed (API) |
+| **Anthropic Computer Use** | OS-level screenshots + mouse/keyboard | Broader than browser; OS-level events. | closed (API) |
**Why pi-chrome is not on this list:** it's intentionally **not an agent**. There's no LLM loop, no `.act("click the blue button")`. Pi handles the loop; pi-chrome provides the primitives. This means:
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Yes — you can export cookies and replay them, or point Playwright at your exis
Different security boundary, not strictly safer.
- **CDP-based tools** require `chrome --remote-debugging-port=...`. That port is unauthenticated and exposes the whole browser to any local process. Easy to misconfigure.
-- **pi-chrome** runs through an extension you install yourself with broad permissions (tabs, scripting, debugger, webNavigation). The bridge listens on `127.0.0.1:17318` loopback only. **Only install the bundled extension if you trust the source you got the npm package from.**
+- **pi-chrome** runs through an extension you install yourself with broad permissions (tabs, scripting, debugger, webNavigation). The bridge listens on `127.0.0.1:17318` loopback only, rejects browser-origin command requests, and keeps chrome_* tools locked until `/chrome authorize` is run in the current Pi session. **Only install the bundled extension if you trust the source you got the npm package from.**
If your threat model excludes extensions with broad permissions, neither approach is a fit — you want a sandboxed CI runner.
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ If your threat model excludes extensions with broad permissions, neither approac
## Public benchmarks worth knowing (for axis 2 / axis 3 comparison)
-Pi-chrome itself ships a benchmark suite ([`../test-suite/`](../test-suite)) of **38 primitive challenges** plus **4 hermetic BrowserGym-style long-horizon tasks** covering trusted-input, pointer humanization, keyboard fidelity, drag/drop, Shadow DOM, file uploads, network observability, fingerprint leaks, and agent-safety honeypots. Scoring is **expected-outcome-by-mode** (not raw PASS count): each challenge has expected verdicts per mode (`synthetic` / `trusted` / `manual`) and a tool grades itself by whether its actual outcome matches expectations. That's **driver-level** grading.
+Pi-chrome itself ships a benchmark suite ([`../test-suite/`](../test-suite)) of **38 primitive challenges** plus **4 hermetic BrowserGym-style long-horizon tasks** covering real input, pointer humanization, keyboard fidelity, drag/drop, Shadow DOM, file uploads, network observability, fingerprint leaks, and agent-safety honeypots. Scoring tracks expected outcomes per challenge instead of raw PASS count. That's **driver-level** grading.
For **agent-level** comparison (axis 2), the public benchmarks worth citing: