CamoFox Browser Server

Anti-detection browser server for AI agents — TypeScript REST API wrapping the Camoufox stealth browser engine

Table of Contents

• Why CamoFox?
• Features
• Preview Status
• Quick Start
• CLI
• Console Capture
• Playwright Tracing
• Security
• Usage with AI Agents
• Architecture
• API Reference
• Search Macros
• Geo Presets
• Environment Variables
• Deployment
• Used With
• Project Structure
• Contributing
• Credits
• License

Why CamoFox?

The Problem: Standard browser automation (Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium) is easily detected by modern anti-bot systems. JavaScript-level patches are fragile and get bypassed quickly.

The Solution: CamoFox Browser Server wraps Camoufox, a Firefox fork with C++ engine-level fingerprint spoofing. No JavaScript injection — anti-detection happens at the browser engine level.

| Feature | Puppeteer/Playwright | CamoFox Browser Server | |---------|---------------------|------------------------| | Anti-detection | JavaScript patches (fragile) | C++ engine-level (robust) | | Fingerprint spoofing | Limited | Full (engine-level) | | Token efficiency | Raw HTML / screenshots | Accessibility snapshots (smaller + structured) | | Integration | Direct SDK | REST API for any language / AI agent | | AI agent support | Varies | MCP + OpenClaw compatible |

Features

• C++ Anti-Detection — fingerprint spoofing at the Camoufox engine level (not JS injection)
• REST API — language-agnostic HTTP endpoints for browser automation and AI agent integration
• Multi-Session — concurrent isolated browser contexts per userId (defaults: max 50 sessions, max 10 tabs/session)
• Persistent Browser Profiles — Each user gets a dedicated Firefox profile. Cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB, and all browser storage persist across sessions automatically.
• Geo Presets — 8 built-in region presets (locale/timezone/geolocation) + custom presets file
• 14 Search Macros — Google, YouTube, Amazon, Reddit (search + subreddit JSON), Wikipedia, Twitter, Yelp, Spotify, Netflix, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch
• Element Refs — accessibility snapshots annotated with stable eN element references for precise interaction
• Cookie Persistence — import Netscape/Playwright-style cookies into a session (bearer auth required only when CAMOFOX_API_KEY is set)
• OpenClaw Plugin — OpenClaw-compatible endpoints (/start, /tabs/open, /act, etc.)
• TypeScript — strict mode, typed request shapes, modular Express routes
• YouTube Transcript Extraction — yt-dlp + browser fallback (service-level; no public API route currently exposed)
• Snapshot Pagination — offset-based windowing for large page snapshots
• Browser Health Monitoring — health probe with recovery/degraded state tracking
• 🖥️ CLI Mode — 50+ commands for terminal-based browser automation
• 🔐 Auth Vault — AES-256-GCM encrypted credential storage (LLM-safe)
• 📜 Pipeline Scripting — Execute command scripts from files
• 🔍 Console Capture — capture and filter browser console messages and uncaught errors
• 📼 Playwright Tracing — record and export Playwright traces for debugging

Preview Status

CamoFox Browser Server is in Preview (Phase 1). Preview releases are functional for browser automation and agent integration, but carry specific compatibility commitments and explicit non-goals.

What Preview Means

• The REST API and CLI are usable for agent workflows today; CamoFox MCP is available as an external companion integration
• New features may be added between minor versions
• Backward-compatible aliases are maintained for renamed or moved endpoints (see Compatibility Policy)
• Local state (profiles, registries, sessions) uses versioned formats with fail-closed integrity checks

What Preview Does NOT Guarantee

• Frozen API surface — endpoint behavior, request shapes, or response formats may change between minor versions
• Automatic local-state migration — browser profiles, download registries, and session files use versioned sidecar formats; incompatible upgrades require manual reset (see Local State Recovery)
• Downgrade safety — rolling back to an older version may require clearing local state
• Fixed GA timeline — promotion to GA requires meeting evidence-based exit criteria, not a calendar date

Compatibility Policy

During Preview, CamoFox follows an additive-only deprecation model:

• Legacy aliases (e.g., listItemId accepted alongside sessionKey, OpenClaw /act routing to core endpoints) continue to work alongside their replacements
• Deprecated fields are accepted silently; no removal until GA or a documented migration window with advance notice in CHANGELOG
• No existing endpoint is removed in a minor version — removals happen only in major versions with prior CHANGELOG notice

Local State Recovery

Browser profiles, download registries, and CLI session files use versioned sidecar formats. When upgrading CamoFox:

• Compatible versions: State loads normally
• Incompatible or corrupt state: The server refuses to load incompatible profiles and download registries; the CLI rejects incompatible saved-session files. Both log an actionable error with the specific recovery path.
• Recovery: Delete the affected profile directory, session file, or download registry as indicated in the error message. Clean state is recreated on next use.

Supported sidecars include limited forward-migration paths (e.g., fingerprint v0 → v1); when no migration path exists for a given version, the server refuses to load the file and logs an actionable recovery message. There is no silent repair or downgrade path — this fail-closed default prevents data corruption at the cost of manual intervention on unsupported version jumps.

Quick Start

From Source

git clone https://github.com/redf0x1/camofox-browser.git
cd camofox-browser
npm install
npm run build
npm start

Using npm (CLI)

npm install -g camofox-browser

# Start the server
camofox-browser

# Or use the CLI for browser automation
camofox open https://example.com
camofox snapshot
camofox click e5

See CLI for the complete command reference.

Using Docker

Docker image: ghcr.io/redf0x1/camofox-browser

docker build -t camofox-browser .
docker run -d \
  --name camofox-browser \
  -p 9377:9377 \
  -p 6080:6080 \
  -v ~/.camofox:/home/node/.camofox \
  camofox-browser

To persist browser profiles (cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB, etc.) across container restarts, keep the volume mount shown above.

Using Docker Compose

services:
  camofox-browser:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "9377:9377"
    environment:
      CAMOFOX_PORT: "9377"
      # Optional auth gates
      # CAMOFOX_API_KEY: "change-me"
      # CAMOFOX_ADMIN_KEY: "change-me"
      # Optional: proxy routing (also enables Camoufox geoip mode)
      # PROXY_HOST: ""
      # PROXY_PORT: ""
      # PROXY_USERNAME: ""
      # PROXY_PASSWORD: ""

Verify

curl http://localhost:9377/health
# {"ok":true,"engine":"camoufox","browserConnected":true}

CLI

CamoFox Browser includes a powerful CLI for browser automation directly from the terminal. The CLI auto-starts the server when needed.

Installation

# Global install (recommended)
npm install -g camofox-browser

# Or use npx (no install needed)
npx camofox-browser open https://example.com

Quick Start

camofox open https://example.com       # Open a page in anti-detection browser
camofox snapshot                       # Get accessibility tree with element refs
camofox click e5                       # Click element [e5]
camofox type e3 "hello world"         # Type into element [e3]
camofox screenshot --output page.png   # Save screenshot
camofox close                          # Close the tab

Core Commands

# Browser lifecycle
camofox open <url>                     # Open URL in new tab
camofox close [tabId]                  # Close tab
camofox navigate <url>                 # Navigate current tab to URL

# Inspection
camofox snapshot                       # Get accessibility tree with [eN] refs
camofox screenshot [--output file]     # Take screenshot (saves to file)
camofox annotate                       # Screenshot + element ref overlay
camofox get-url                        # Get current page URL
camofox get-text                       # Get page text content
camofox get-links                      # Get all links on page
camofox get-tabs                       # List open tabs

# Interaction
camofox click <ref>                    # Click element by ref
camofox type <ref> <text>              # Type text into element
camofox fill '[e1]="user" [e2]="pw"'  # Fill multiple fields at once
camofox scroll <direction>             # Scroll up/down/left/right
camofox select <ref> <value>           # Select dropdown option
camofox hover <ref>                    # Hover over element
camofox press <key>                    # Press keyboard key
camofox drag <from> <to>               #