Configure Overview

Create a browser, pick its shape, and choose what it carries onto a site

A KERNEL browser works with no configuration: create one and drive it. This page covers the settings most agents touch at creation time. The rest of Configure covers the features that decide whether an agent gets through a real site: stealth, proxies, profiles, vaults, authentication, and payments.

Create a browser

TypeScript

import Kernel from '@onkernel/sdk';

const kernel = new Kernel();

const browser = await kernel.browsers.create();
console.log(browser.session_id, browser.browser_live_view_url);

The response includes everything you need to drive the browser: session_id, cdp_ws_url, webdriver_ws_url, and browser_live_view_url. See create a browser for the full walkthrough, including creating from a browser pool.

Pick a browser type

Type	When to use it	How to set it
Headful (default)	Agents on real sites. It has a real display, so live view and replays work and bot detectors see a normal browser. 8 GB of memory by default.	Nothing to set
Headless	Short-lived or highly concurrent jobs that don’t need to be watched. Lighter, at 1 GB by default, but some bot detectors notice it.	headless: true
GPU-accelerated	WebGL, video, and canvas-heavy sites. Headful only, doesn’t support standby, and has its own usage rate.	gpu: true

Set common options

TypeScript

const browser = await kernel.browsers.create({
  viewport: { width: 1280, height: 800 },
  timeout_seconds: 300,
});

• Viewport: defaults to 1920x1080 at 25Hz. A custom viewport restarts Chromium on creation, so use a browser pool if you need it to be instant.
• Standby: after 5 seconds with no CDP, WebDriver, live view, or computer controls activity, a browser goes into standby. It keeps its state and stops accruing usage cost until something reconnects.
• Termination and timeouts: timeout_seconds sets how long a browser can sit in standby before KERNEL deletes it. It defaults to 60 seconds and can be up to 72 hours. Delete browsers explicitly when you’re done; Playwright’s browser.close() doesn’t delete them.

More browser settings

Most agents never need these, but they’re there when you do:

• Regions: run browsers in us-east, eu-west, or ap-southeast, closer to your code and your users.
• Extensions: load unpacked Chrome extensions into a browser.
• Chrome policies: apply Chrome enterprise policies, such as startup pages and bookmarks.
• Private networking: reach services behind a VPN or tunnel from inside the browser session.

What to configure next

Stealth

Anti-detection defaults, stealth mode, CAPTCHA handling, and Web Bot Auth.

Proxies

Route traffic through datacenter, ISP, residential, or mobile IPs, or bring your own.

Profiles

Save cookies, storage, and logins from one session and load them into the next.

Vaults

Store credentials and payment items that a browser fills into a page without your agent reading them.

Authentication

Fill logins from a vault, or let managed auth handle the login and keep the session alive.

Payments

Let agents complete checkouts through a wallet without handling raw card details.

Config Registry

Get browser and proxy settings that have already worked on the site you’re automating.