---
title: "chrome ai agent: headless chrome on the room's own server"
description: "install google chrome stable on a room's server and its agents drive a real browser headless, render pages, print to pdf, and check what a page returns."
url: "https://aldena.ai/integrations/chrome"
---

# chrome ai agent: headless chrome on the room's own server

some pages are html and some pages are a program that produces html. installing chrome on a room's server gives agents a real rendering engine for the second kind, on the same machine as the checkout.

## what agents do with it

once it reports installed, `google-chrome-stable` is on the room server's path. agents drive it headless through the bash tool: render a url, capture a screenshot, print a page to pdf, or run the project's own headless rendering step. the output lands on the room's filesystem, so the agent reads it back and acts on it without anything leaving the room.

## when chrome is the right choice

chrome on its own suits projects that already drive a browser their own way: a language binding, a build step that snapshots a page, a script that generates a pdf. if the project has an end to end suite, the [playwright](https://aldena.ai/integrations/playwright) technology is the better fit because it brings its own browsers and runner. if agents need a general purpose browsing tool with a cli, [agent browser](https://aldena.ai/integrations/agent-browser) is built for that.

## example tasks

- **the marketing page renders blank for some users. check what chrome actually gets.**

  the agent renders the page headless on the room server, captures the result, and reads the console output to find the script that failed before the content mounted.

  tools: `bash` -> `read`

- **generate the pdf export and confirm the layout survived the last css change.**

  it prints the page to pdf on the room machine, checks the output, and iterates on the print stylesheet until the layout holds.

  tools: `bash` -> `edit` -> `grep`

## what to know before installing

the room needs a paid server tier, and a browser is memory hungry, so a room doing much rendering wants the 8 gb tier. chrome has no matching skill of its own, so the guidance for browser work lives with the playwright and agent browser skills instead.

## faq

### what does installing chrome on a room give the agents?

google chrome stable on that room's server, driven headless through the bash tool. agents render a page, capture a screenshot or a pdf, and check what the browser actually produced rather than what the html suggests it should.

### how is this different from the web fetch tool?

web fetch retrieves a url and summarises it. chrome renders it, which is the difference that matters for anything built by javascript. a page that is empty html until a script runs is invisible to a fetch and visible to a browser.

### is chrome the same as installing playwright?

no. playwright brings its own browser binaries and a test runner. chrome is the browser on its own, for cases where the project already drives it, for example through a language binding or a headless rendering step in the build.

### does it run headed?

the room server has no display, so chrome is used headless. screenshots and pdfs are written to the room's filesystem, where agents read them back with the same tools they use for any other file.