# ego lite: a macOS browser that shares your logged-in state with AI agents > citrolabs/ego-lite is an MIT-licensed browser aimed at agent automation, with a dedicated Space per agent and the ego-browser skill as the connection layer. It runs on macOS today, and the README is explicit that Windows and Linux are still on the roadmap. **citrolabs/ego-lite** — The fastest browser for AI agents to run browser automation, built for sharing your logged-in browser state with your AI agents, like Codex or Claude Code, without disturbing you. Zero cost, zero config. - Repository: https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite - Website: https://lite.ego.app - Stars: 16,679 · Forks: 886 - Language: JavaScript - License: MIT - Published: 2026-09-10 · Updated: 2026-09-10 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/citrolabs-ego-lite ## The problem ego lite is aimed at, and who feels it Browser automation frameworks assume the agent owns the browser. The README names browser-use and agent-browser as examples of that model and describes the consequences plainly: they need a separate browser to drive, logins never carry cleanly, and you and the agent end up fighting for the same tabs. Anyone who has run an agent against a logged-in site has hit the second one. The agent gets a fresh profile, the site sees a new session, and the task stalls at a login wall or a bot check. ego lite takes the opposite position. It is one browser that both you and the agent use, with the agent working in its own Space rather than in a separate browser process. The target user is someone who already has an agent CLI open, typically Claude Code or Codex, and wants it to operate on pages where they are already signed in. That is a narrower audience than "anyone doing browser automation," and the README does not pretend otherwise. ## Spaces, the Snapshot, and the ego-browser skill Three mechanisms carry the design. The first is the Space: each agent gets a fully isolated workspace inside the same browser, so your tabs and the agent's tabs do not collide. The README says you can see which Space has an agent running and take it over or stop it. Multiple Spaces run in parallel, which is how the README's example of Claude Code enriching ten leads across ten Spaces works. The second is the page Snapshot. The README claims kernel-level customization produces what it calls the highest-quality page snapshots, and specifically calls out deeply nested iframes as the case where other approaches break down. That claim is not backed by a published benchmark in the repository, so treat it as the vendor's positioning rather than a measured result. The third is `ego-browser`, the connection layer between any agent CLI and the browser. It exposes the browser as in-page JavaScript tools: snapshot, fill, click, wait, navigate, capture. The agent writes a JavaScript snippet that calls those tools, and `ego-browser` runs it on the page in one pass. This is the part of the design with the clearest stated rationale. The README argues that a code-based interface lets the agent compose a multi-step task into a single output instead of looping through "call two commands, look at the result, call two more commands," and cites complex workflows finishing up to 2.5x faster with fewer tool calls. Again, no methodology is given, so the number is a claim to verify against your own tasks. ## Installing ego lite and running a first task The README gives three install paths on macOS. The first is a DMG download, split by chip: one for Apple Silicon and one for Intel. Opening it installs the app, and the README states that either install path adds the `ego-browser` skill to every agent's skills directory on the machine. The second path installs only the skill, without the app, through the skills CLI: ```bash npx skills add citrolabs/ego-lite ``` The README notes that the first time your agent runs a browser task, it walks you through installing the ego lite app. So this path is a two-stage install, not a way to avoid the DMG. The third path hands the whole thing to the agent. The README gives this prompt to paste into your agent CLI: ``` Set up ego lite for me: https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite Read `skills/ego-browser/references/install.md` and follow the steps to install ego lite. ``` On first launch the app asks one question: whether to migrate your Chrome data. The README says answering yes means the agent inherits your existing logins, cookies, extensions, and bookmarks. The README also states that browsing data stays on your device and that ego lite only records whether you opted into Chrome migration during setup. To run a task, type `/ego-browser` in your agent CLI followed by a space, then describe what you want in plain language. The README's example is: ``` ego-browser follow @ego_agent on x.com for me ``` The agent picks up the skill, opens the page in its own Space, reads a Snapshot, acts, and reports back. Your own tabs should be untouched throughout. ## Where ego lite is the wrong tool The platform limit is the first constraint. ego lite runs on macOS today, and the README points to a roadmap page for Windows and Linux. If your agents run on a Linux build machine or a Windows workstation, this is not an option yet, regardless of how well the Space model fits. The second is the Chrome migration dependency. The convenience of the agent inheriting your logins is also the risk surface: the same cookies and sessions that make the agent useful are what an agent mistake can act through. The README does not document a rollback for the migration, and it does not describe what happens to the migrated data if you later decline or remove the app. That gap matters if you were planning to try it on a machine you also use for sensitive accounts. The third is the server case. Nothing in the README describes a headless mode, a Docker image, or a CI integration. The design assumes a person and an agent sharing one desktop browser, so a pipeline that needs to run unattended on a build agent is outside what this project describes. ## How it differs from browser-use and agent-browser The README's comparison table puts ego lite against Browser-Use, agent-browser (Vercel), ChatGPT Atlas, and Perplexity Comet across five capabilities: multitasking in parallel, reusable skills, inheriting Chrome's data, and the same browser with separate workspaces. ego lite is marked as supporting all of them; Browser-Use and agent-browser are marked as supporting none. The meaningful difference is architectural, not feature-level. Browser-Use and agent-browser are frameworks that drive a browser you supply or that they launch. ego lite is the browser. That changes the setup story, since there is no separate browser to install and point the framework at, and it changes the session story, since the agent is working in the same browser where you are already logged in. The trade-off runs the other way too. A framework can be pointed at any browser, including a headless one on a server, and can be swapped out. ego lite is the runtime, so adopting it means adopting the browser. If the Space model or the Snapshot quality turns out not to fit your tasks, there is no partial adoption path described in the README. ## Licence, releases, and what an upgrade costs you ego lite is MIT licensed, which permits commercial use, modification, and redistribution provided the copyright notice and permission notice are retained. That is a permissive licence with no copyleft obligation on your own code. It says nothing about the macOS app binaries distributed through the CDN links, which are a separate artifact from the source repository. The release cadence is visible in the tags: v1.2.3-beta.5 on 2026-08-10, v1.2.3 on 2026-08-11, and v2.0.0 on 2026-09-10. The last push to the repository was on 2026-09-10, the same day v2.0.0 shipped. A major version bump from 1.2.3 to 2.0.0 within a month is worth reading the release notes for before upgrading, because the README does not describe a migration path or a compatibility guarantee between major versions. The upgrade cost that is documented is the skill. Because `ego-browser` is installed into your agent's skills directory, the skill and the app need to stay in step. The README does not say what happens when the skill is ahead of the app or behind it, so pinning the `npx skills add citrolabs/ego-lite` step to the same version as the app is the safe assumption until the docs say otherwise. ## Conclusion Adopt ego lite if you are on macOS, you already drive Claude Code or Codex, and the friction you want to remove is re-authenticating the agent into sites you are already signed into. Do not adopt it if you need Windows or Linux today, or if you want a headless browser running in CI on a server. Before you commit, check that the DMG for your chip is the one you downloaded, that the ego-browser skill actually landed in your agent's skills directory, and whether the Chrome migration prompt is something you want to accept, because that is the step that hands your existing cookies and logins to the agent. ## FAQ ### What is ego lite? It is a browser for macOS where you and your AI agents work in parallel, with each agent running in its own isolated Space inside the same browser. It connects to any agent CLI through the `ego-browser` skill, which exposes the browser as in-page JavaScript tools such as snapshot, fill, click, wait, navigate, and capture. ### What is Ego AI? The README does not describe a separate product called Ego AI. The repository is citrolabs/ego-lite, and its README describes ego lite as a browser for AI agents that shares your logged-in browser state with agents like Codex or Claude Code. ### What is an alternative to ego lite? The README compares ego lite against browser-use and agent-browser (Vercel), which it describes as browser automation frameworks that need a separate browser to drive and do not carry logins cleanly. The architectural difference is that ego lite is the browser itself, so there is no separate browser to install and point a framework at. ## Sources - [citrolabs/ego-lite on GitHub](https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite) - [License: MIT](https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite/blob/main/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://lite.ego.app) - [README](https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite/blob/main/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/citrolabs/ego-lite/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/citrolabs-ego-lite