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The Agentic Browser Protocol (ABP) is an open specification that enables web applications and Chrome extensions to expose browser-exclusive capabilities — like PDF rendering, authenticated sessions, GPU-accelerated graphics, and privileged chrome.* APIs — to AI agents through direct API calls rather than fragile UI automation.

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What is ABP?

ABP inverts the traditional browser automation model. Instead of agents manipulating UI elements through CSS selectors, applications expose a programmatic API that agents call directly: 
// Fragile, breaks when UI changes
await page.click('#copy-button');
await page.waitForSelector('.success-toast');

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Why ABP?

Modern AI agents can read files, execute commands, and make HTTP requests, but certain capabilities remain inaccessible:
CapabilityWhy Only Browsers Have It
Canvas/WebGL/WebGPU renderingRequires browser engine and GPU access
Authenticated sessionsUser’s cookies, localStorage, and OAuth tokens
On-device AI (Summarizer, Translator)Chrome’s built-in AI APIs run locally in the browser
Accurate HTML/CSS renderingOnly browsers render CSS correctly
PDF generation with CSSBrowser print engines produce vector PDFs with proper fonts
Chrome extension APIschrome.tabs, chrome.scripting, chrome.bookmarks, etc. only available to extensions
ABP provides structured access to these browser-exclusive capabilities.

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Project Components

ABP Specification

A complete protocol specification defining how web applications expose capabilities to AI agents — session lifecycle, capability system, message formats, and discovery mechanism.

ABP MCP Bridge

A reference implementation: a generic MCP server that connects any MCP-compatible AI agent to any ABP-compliant web application.

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Design Principles

  1. Browser as Runtime — The browser is a capability provider, not a UI to manipulate
  2. Explicit Contracts — All operations have defined inputs, outputs, and error conditions
  3. Progressive Enhancement — Core features work everywhere; advanced features are opt-in
  4. Transport Agnostic — Works over Puppeteer, postMessage, or WebSocket
  5. Future-Proof — The capability system accommodates APIs that don’t exist yet
  6. Bidirectional — Apps can request information from agents, not just respond
  7. Observable — Long operations report progress; state changes trigger notifications

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Relationship to MCP

ABP is complementary to the Model Context Protocol (MCP), not a replacement:
AspectMCPABP
Primary use caseBuild servers that give AI access to data and toolsMake web apps accessible to AI agents
Deployment modelPurpose-built server (local or remote)Web application running in a browser
Typical capabilitiesDatabases, filesystems, APIs, external servicesBrowser-exclusive: PDF rendering, canvas, user sessions
The ABP MCP Bridge is an MCP server that connects to ABP apps. Agents use MCP; the bridge translates to ABP.

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Use Cases

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For Web Developers

  • Expose your app’s features to AI agents — data visualization, document conversion, image processing, on-device AI, and more
  • Make your SaaS app’s features available programmatically without rebuilding an API
  • Let agents leverage your app’s authenticated sessions and user data

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For AI Agent Developers

  • Access browser-exclusive capabilities (canvas/WebGPU rendering, authenticated sessions, on-device AI)
  • Use the reference MCP Bridge implementation as a starting point
  • Build specialized clients for specific ABP apps

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For Researchers & Experimenters

  • Explore new ways to leverage browser capabilities in agentic workflows
  • Prototype browser-AI interactions without reinventing infrastructure
  • Build proof-of-concept integrations between existing web apps and agents

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Project Status

Current Version: 0.1.0-alpha The protocol is under active development. We welcome feedback, issue reports, and contributions.

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Open Source & License

ABP is an open source community project released under the BSD 3-Clause License.
This is a freely available specification built for the community. You can use ABP in commercial and non-commercial projects, build implementations, and contribute to the protocol’s evolution.
We encourage:
  • 🔧 Building ABP-compatible apps and extensions
  • 🤝 Contributing improvements to the specification
  • 💬 Participating in design discussions
  • 📚 Sharing implementations and use cases
  • 🌍 Growing the ABP ecosystem

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Next Steps

Quick Start

Get up and running with ABP in minutes

Protocol Overview

Understand the core concepts and how ABP works

Build an ABP App

Make your web app ABP-compatible

API Reference

Complete API documentation with TypeScript definitions