OpenClaw Browser Automation: Web Scraping & Computer Use

OpenClaw can browse the web, fill forms, extract data, and interact with websites — turning your AI agent into a web automation powerhouse.

Browser Capabilities

OpenClaw's browser automation can:

• Navigate to any URL
• Read and extract page content
• Fill out forms
• Click buttons and links
• Take screenshots
• Handle multi-page workflows
• Extract structured data from websites
• Monitor pages for changes

Setup Options

Option 1: Built-in Web Browsing

OpenClaw includes basic web browsing out of the box. No extra setup needed.

# Already available — just use it
> "Search the web for the best noise-canceling headphones under $200"
> "Go to example.com and extract the pricing table"

Option 2: Browser Relay (Chrome Extension)

The OpenClaw Browser Relay Chrome extension provides full browser control via Chrome DevTools Protocol.

1. Install from the Chrome Web Store
2. Connect it to your OpenClaw instance
3. OpenClaw can now control a real Chrome browser

This enables:

• JavaScript-heavy sites (SPAs, React apps)
• Sites that block headless browsers
• Authenticated sessions (your logged-in browser)
• Complex interactions (drag-and-drop, hover menus)

Option 3: Headless Browser (Playwright)

For server-side automation, install the browser MCP server:

openclaw plugins install @anthropic/mcp-browser

This runs a headless Chromium instance on your server.

Practical Use Cases

Price Monitoring

"Check the price of [product] on Amazon, BestBuy, and Walmart every 6 hours. Alert me if any drops below $X."

OpenClaw navigates to each site, extracts the price, compares against your threshold, and sends alerts.

Data Extraction

"Go to [competitor website] and extract all their product names and prices into a table."

Form Filling

"Fill out the job application on [company website] with my resume information."

OpenClaw navigates the form, fills fields based on your stored information, and pauses for you to review before submitting.

Content Research

"Find 5 recent articles about AI regulation in Europe. Summarize the key points from each."

Screenshot Monitoring

"Take a screenshot of my website's homepage every day. Alert me if anything looks different."

Flight & Hotel Checking

"Check flights from NYC to Tokyo for March 15-22 on Google Flights. Show me the top 3 cheapest options."

Automation Scripts

Multi-Step Web Workflows

OpenClaw can chain browser actions together:

1. Navigate to login page
2. Enter credentials
3. Navigate to dashboard
4. Extract data from table
5. Download report
6. Summarize the report
7. Send summary to Telegram

All from a single Telegram message like: "Download my latest sales report from the CRM and summarize it."

Scheduled Web Checks

Combine browser automation with cron scheduling:

"Every morning, check my analytics dashboard and send me yesterday's key metrics: visitors, signups, and revenue."

Limitations

What Works Well

• Public websites with standard HTML
• Simple forms and navigation
• Data extraction from tables and lists
• Search engines and comparison sites

What's Challenging

• Heavy CAPTCHAs (by design — respect bot protections)
• Complex JavaScript applications
• Sites with aggressive bot detection
• Real-time interactive applications

Ethical Considerations

• Respect robots.txt and terms of service
• Don't scrape personal data without consent
• Rate-limit your requests
• Don't bypass authentication or paywalls

On ClawTank

ClawTank containers include the browser automation runtime pre-installed. Your AI agent can browse the web immediately after deployment — no additional setup or Chrome installation needed.

Get Started

Deploy on ClawTank and start automating web tasks through natural language. Tell your AI agent what to find, extract, or monitor — it handles the browsing.