PinchTab

Name: Pinchtab
Author: Luigi Agosti

Browser control for AI agents

12MB Go binary. Launches Chrome, exposes an HTTP API. Any agent, low token usage cost with cli or curl.

Go Compact binary MIT license CLI or curl

View on GitHub Docs

> Quick Start

Up and running in seconds

One command to install. Chrome opens. You log into your sites. Agents drive the rest.

terminal

# One-liner install (macOS/Linux)curl -fsSL https://pinchtab.com/install.sh | bash

# Install via npmnpm install -g pinchtab

> Token Efficiency

A cheaper alternative

Great for repeated tasks: have your agent remember the navigation pattern and revisit your preferred pages with consistent token usage.

~10,000

Full snapshot

~3000

Pinchtab no prior context

~2000

Web fetch (no rendering)

>1000

Pinchtab with context

> What It Does

Everything your agent needs

Accessibility-first. Token-efficient. Framework-agnostic.

Accessibility Tree

Structured tree with stable refs (e0, e1...) for click, type, and read. Deterministic with no coordinate guessing.

Multi-tab Management

Create, switch, and close tabs efficiently.

Stealth Mode

Patches navigator.webdriver, spoofs UA, and hides automation flags to pass major bot checks.

Persistent Sessions

Cookies, auth, and tabs survive restarts. Log in once and keep the session alive.

Text Extraction

Readability mode strips nav and ads. Raw mode keeps full text for parser workflows.

Direct Actions

Click, type, fill, press, focus, hover, select, and scroll by ref or selector.

JS Evaluation

Escape hatch for any workflow gap. Execute JavaScript in any tab on demand.

Screenshots

JPEG output with quality control for visual verification and downstream auditing.

PDF

Export full pages as PDF for sharing, archiving, and offline review.

> Architecture

Simple by design

One binary. One Chrome. HTTP in, CDP out.

runtime

# Open GitHub in Pinchtabpinchtab nav https://github.com/pinchtab/pinchtab

> Full API

Few endpoints. That's it.

Read-only GETs for data, POSTs for mutations. All JSON.

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	`/health`	Connection status
POST	`/navigate`	Go to URL
POST	`/action`	Click, type, fill, press, hover, select, scroll
GET	`/find`	Find elements by text or selector hints
GET	`/text`	Readable text — readability or raw
GET	`/snapshot`	Accessibility tree — primary interface
GET	`/screenshot`	JPEG screenshot
GET	`/pdf`	Export page as PDF

> Security

Your browser, your responsibility

Pinchtab gives agents full control of a real logged-in browser, so your security boundaries are your own.

When you log into sites through Pinchtab's Chrome window, those sessions persist. Any client that can reach Pinchtab and authenticate can act as you.

→ You are responsible for what agents do with your accounts.
→ Set PINCHTAB_TOKEN so unauthorized clients cannot control your browser.
→ Keep the default settings unless you have a specific reason to change them.
→ Treat Pinchtab's data and profile directories as sensitive because they store login sessions and other browser state.
→ ~/.pinchtab/ is only the legacy fallback location.
→ Start with low-risk accounts before touching production data.
→ No data leaves your machine by default, but connected agents can still exfiltrate it.