Functions · browserbase/skills · Skills Docs

Skills

Chapter 12 of 16

Functions

Deploy serverless browser automation as cloud functions using Browserbase.

1 minute · 112 words · 13 sections

Browserbase Functions

Deploy serverless browser automation using the official browse CLI.

Prerequisites

Get an API key from: https://browserbase.com/settings (opens in a new tab)

export BROWSERBASE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

Creating a Function Project

1. Initialize

browse functions init my-function
cd my-function

This creates:

my-function/
├── package.json
├── index.ts        # Your function code
└── .env            # Add credentials here

2. Add Credentials to .env

echo "BROWSERBASE_API_KEY=$BROWSERBASE_API_KEY" >> .env

3. Install Dependencies

pnpm install

Function Structure

import { defineFn } from "@browserbasehq/sdk-functions";
import { chromium } from "playwright-core";

defineFn("my-function", async (context) => {
  const { session, params } = context;

  // Connect to browser
  const

Key objects:

context.session.connectUrl - CDP endpoint to connect Playwright
context.params - Input parameters from invocation

Development Workflow

2. Test Locally

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:14113/v1/functions/my-function/invoke \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"params": {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com"}}'

3. Iterate

The dev server auto-reloads on file changes. Use console.log() for debugging - output appears in the terminal.

Deploying

browse functions publish index.ts

Output:

Function published successfully
Build ID: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Function ID: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Save the Function ID - you need it to invoke.

Quick Reference

Command	Description
`browse functions init <name>`	Create new project
`browse functions dev <file>`	Start local dev server
`browse functions publish <file>`	Deploy to Browserbase

For invocation examples, common patterns, and troubleshooting, see REFERENCE.md (opens in a new tab).

Appendix 12.1–12.2

2 files · 5 KB

Everything this skill ships beside its prose. All of it is set here, as subchapters of chapter 12.

Also bundled2 files

Everything else published alongside the skill.

Install this repository

$ npx skills add browserbase/skills

» /plugin marketplace add browserbase/skills

Skills install per repository, not per chapter — the CLI has no documented per-skill form, so we do not print one.

About this skill

Trigger

Deploy serverless browser automation as cloud functions using Browserbase. Use when the user wants to deploy browser automation to run on a schedule or cron, create a webhook endpoint for browser tasks, run automation in the cloud instead of locally, or asks about Browserbase Functions.

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Allowed tools: BashReadWriteEdit
Compatibility: Requires the browse CLI (`npm install -g browse`), Node.js 18+ with pnpm or npm, and BROWSERBASE_API_KEY.
Licence: MIT
Source: skills/functions/SKILL.md

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/browserbase/skills, branch main, last pushed 5 August 2026.

Licence

Discovery

16 chapters found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. One layout observed: skills/*/SKILL.md.

Issue colours

Resolved from a curated brand profile — hue 73°, chroma 0.159. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this chapter so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Shifted “13 headings” from h1 to h2 so the chapter title is the only h1.

Spec compliance

Every chapter satisfies the Agent Skills specification’s frontmatter rules.

Images

Images inside a chapter come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Browserbase, declaring 5 plugins. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at , and each chapter at its own URL.

/browserbase/skills.md

.md