Cloud Browsers

When you can't or don't want to install Chromium locally, connect to a cloud browser provider. This is useful for serverless, CI, or headless environments.

Note: Cloud browsers still require playwright-core to be installed (it provides the CDP client). If playwright-core also can't be installed, use VIDEO_VISION_MODE=ytdlp instead.

Supported Providers

Provider	Env Vars	Free Tier
Browserless	VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERLESS_TOKEN	1,000 units/month
Browserbase	VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERBASE_API_KEY + VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID	100 sessions/month
Steel	VIDEO_VISION_STEEL_API_KEY	100 sessions/month

Setup

Browserless

export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSER=browserless
export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERLESS_TOKEN="your-token"

Browserbase

export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSER=browserbase
export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERBASE_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID="your-project-id"

Steel

export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSER=steel
export VIDEO_VISION_STEEL_API_KEY="your-api-key"

How It Works

Cloud browsers connect via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) over WebSocket:

openclaw-video-vision
    |
    | playwright-core (CDP client)
    |
    v
wss://provider.com?token=xxx
    |
    v
[Remote Chromium Instance]
    |
    v
Scrape video page, capture screenshots

You do not need to run npx playwright-core install chromium when using a cloud browser.

Combining with yt-dlp

In auto mode (default), yt-dlp is tried first. The cloud browser is only used if yt-dlp + FFmpeg fail. This minimizes cloud browser usage and costs.

export VIDEO_VISION_MODE=auto           # try yt-dlp first
export VIDEO_VISION_BROWSER=steel       # fall back to Steel
export VIDEO_VISION_STEEL_API_KEY="..."