Many local coding agents need a browser but either steal focus, trigger Chrome’s remote-debugging prompt, or run in a separate headless profile that lacks the user’s signed-in sessions. Chrome Relay solves this by pairing a small local relay service with an MV3 extension that exposes per-agent DevTools endpoints over WebSocket. Agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Paseo) talk to the relay from the CLI, which opens inactive tabs in a collapsed "Agents" group and runs chrome.debugger commands so pages load with the user’s real profiles without bringing windows forward. Popups and OAuth flows are handled as hidden tabs; simple Google SSO clicks are automated while password/passkey or 2FA steps stop and hand control back to the user.
Access is gated by a per-machine secret and by validating the connecting process, and only the installed extension can act as the browser endpoint; this prevents casual local tools or web pages from connecting but does not defend against already-running malware. Performance is fast (≈0.15 s per DevTools command, ≈0.6 s to open a page) and every action is audited (pages, clicks, screenshots; typed text logged only as length). Current limits: macOS + Chrome only, Node.js 20+, manual extension loading in developer mode, and minor issues with 1Password frames and Chrome’s “started debugging” bar. The project is open-source under MIT with setup instructions and agent-browser integration.
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