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122 points parsabg | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.468s | source

Hey HN,

I'm excited to share BrowserBee, a privacy-first AI assistant in your browser that allows you to run and automate tasks using your LLM of choice (currently supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, and Ollama). Short demo here: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/209c7042-6d54-4fc...

Inspired by projects like Browser Use and Playwright MCP, its main advantage is the browser extension form factor which makes it more convenient for day to day use, especially for less technical users. Its also a bit less cumbersome to use on websites that require you to be logged in, as it attaches to the same browser instance you use (on privacy: the only data that leaves your browser is the communication with the LLM - there is no tracking or data collection of any sort).

Some of its core features are as follows:

- a memory feature which allows users to memorize common and useful pathways, making the next repetition of those tasks faster and cheaper

- real-time token counting and cost tracking (inspired by Cline)

- an approval flow for critical tasks such as posting content or making payments (also inspired by Cline)

- tab management allowing the agent to execute tasks across multiple tabs

- a range of browser tools for navigation, tab management, interactions, etc, which are broadly in line with Playwright MCP

I'm actively developing BrowserBee and would love to hear any thoughts, comments, or feedback.

Feel free to reach out via email: parsa.ghaffari [at] gmail [dot] com

-Parsa

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dbdoskey ◴[] No.44021460[source]
Looks amazing. Would love something like this in Firefox or Zen. Mozilla released Orbit, but it was never something that ended up really being useful.
replies(2): >>44021534 #>>44021770 #
tux3 ◴[] No.44021534[source]
Firefox already has something similar natively, but it's not enabled by default. If you turn on the new sidebar they have an AI panel, which basically looks like an iframe to the Claude/OAI/Gemini/etc chat interface. Different from Orbit.
replies(1): >>44021932 #
1. dbdoskey ◴[] No.44021932[source]
That sidebar doesn't have the ability to do any actions on the browser tab, or have the data form the browser as a context in any way. It is just a simple iframe.
replies(1): >>44023069 #
2. Vinnl ◴[] No.44023069[source]
If you click the three-dots menu above the iframe, you can select "Show shortcut when selecting text". That allows you to select text and then provide that as context to an AI prompt.

(At least, that's how I understand it - I have the feature turned off myself.)