dsh-local-browser-search

Web search and page fetching powered by your local browser (Edge / Chrome) over the Chrome DevTools Protocol — no API key, no cloud search provider, no bundled browser download.

The plugin drives the installed browser with Node.js built-ins only (child_process, fetch, WebSocket) and registers two model-facing tools for the DSH agent:

Tool	What it does
browser_search	Searches the web and returns organic result titles / URLs / snippets. Engine: bing (default), duckduckgo, or google.
browser_fetch	Opens a URL in the browser and returns the rendered page text — exactly what a human sees after JavaScript executes.

This is useful where public search APIs are unavailable or unkeyed: the search runs in a real browser using your own network and cookies-free fresh profile.

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-local-browser-search

Then restart dsh web. The two tools appear in the agent's toolset.

Note: this package can also be installed from a local checkout with npm install <path-to-this-folder> in your profile directory.

Configuration

Defaults are set in cordis.patch.yml:

Key	Default	Meaning
headless	true	Run the browser headless (false opens a visible window).
engine	bing	Default search engine: bing / duckduckgo / google.
maxResults	8	Upper bound on sources returned per search.
timeoutMs	30000	Cooperative tool-call timeout budget.
browserPath	null	Explicit browser executable; auto-detected (Edge → Chrome → Brave) when unset.

You can also set DSH_BROWSER_PATH in the environment to force a browser.

Bing is the default because it is the engine reachable on the most restrictive networks (DuckDuckGo/Google are often blocked in some regions).

How it works

1. The plugin finds an installed Chromium-based browser (Edge by default on Windows).
2. It launches it headless with --remote-debugging-port and a fresh temporary profile.
3. It drives the page over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (WebSocket JSON-RPC): navigate to the search engine, evaluate the result extractor, and read back the JSON.
4. The browser is killed and its temp profile removed after each call.

No user profile, cookies, or browsing data are ever touched — every call uses a fresh temp profile.

Security note

Like any DSH plugin, loading this package runs its code in your harness process with your permissions. The browser it launches is the one you already run. Review the source before use.

License

MIT