ridealong
Open source · self-hosted · MIT
One logged-in Chrome on your server for you and your AI agents. Sign in to your sites once. Agents work as you, each in its own tabs, and you step in when they hit a captcha.
$ ridealong setup
Watch the 42-second launch video with sound or in square.
How it works
Open the viewer from any browser or your phone. Log in to Gmail, GitHub, LinkedIn, your internal tools. The sessions live in a real Chrome on your server.
http://127.0.0.1:8083
Point Claude Code, Codex, any MCP client, Playwright or Puppeteer at the agent port. Each agent works as you, but only sees the tabs it opened.
ws://127.0.0.1:9230/default/research-bot
Captcha, 2FA prompt, "is this you?" page. Open the viewer, answer it, and the agent carries on in the same tab.
you are watching research-bot
Features
Sign in once. Agents work as you, each in its own tabs. They can't see or touch your tabs or each other's.
When an agent hits a captcha, 2FA prompt or "is this you?" page, you open the viewer and answer it.
Separate profiles like personal and work. Idle ones stop Chrome after 10 minutes and use no RAM, then wake in about 2 seconds with tabs restored.
A new frame is sent only once the last one arrived, so there is never a backlog. 56 ms median picture age on a 4 Mbit/s link. Optional H.264 video mode.
Tabs render at your screen's size, sites get a mobile browser, and you get touch scrolling and an on-screen keyboard.
Watch each agent connect, open tabs and browse. An overview shows every tab as a live thumbnail. Disconnect, close or block any agent.
When a page asks for a file, pick it on your device. Anything the browser downloads, yours or an agent's, can be saved to your device.
Jump to any tab or workspace, open an address or run a command. Light and dark themes.
A Node process plus Xvfb. Run it as a normal user under systemd, or in Docker.
Connect an agent
Click Connect an agent in the viewer, or run ridealong connect <agent-name>. You get ready-to-paste setup and a live check that tells you the moment your agent connects.
<agent><workspace># Claude Code (or any MCP client) via Chrome DevTools MCP
claude mcp add browser -- npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest \
--wsEndpoint ws://127.0.0.1:9230/default/research-bot/devtools/browser# Any MCP client: run Chrome DevTools MCP against your agent's endpoint
npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest \
--wsEndpoint ws://127.0.0.1:9230/default/research-bot/devtools/browser// Playwright
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP('http://127.0.0.1:9230/default/research-bot');// Puppeteer
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({ browserWSEndpoint: 'ws://127.0.0.1:9230/default/research-bot/devtools/browser' });Endpoint ws://127.0.0.1:9230/<workspace>/<agent>/devtools/browser
Install
On a Linux server or VM with Node 20+, or anywhere Docker runs.
sudo apt-get install -y xvfb ffmpeg # ffmpeg is optional (video mode)
npm install -g https://github.com/killerz3/ridealong/releases/latest/download/ridealong.tgz
ridealong setupsetup checks your system, downloads Chromium if needed (about 170 MB, no root), sets a viewer password and offers to install a systemd user service.
git clone https://github.com/killerz3/ridealong && cd ridealong
echo "RIDEALONG_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -base64 18)" > .env
docker compose up -dBoth ports are published on 127.0.0.1 only. Profiles live in the ridealong-data volume.
Then open http://127.0.0.1:8083 and sign in.
On a remote server, tunnel with ssh -L 8083:127.0.0.1:8083 your-server or put the viewer behind Cloudflare Tunnel or Caddy.
--no-sandbox.FAQ
Anything that speaks the Chrome DevTools Protocol. The viewer has ready-made setup for Claude Code, Codex, any MCP client (via Chrome DevTools MCP), Playwright and Puppeteer.
After 10 idle minutes (configurable per workspace, or never) Chrome saves its session and exits, so the workspace uses no memory. It wakes in about 2 seconds when you select it or an agent connects, and agents get their tabs back. Chrome DevTools MCP reconnects on the next tool call.
No. The agent proxy records which agent created which tab and hides every other tab from that agent. Popups inherit their opener's owner. This keeps agents from tripping over each other, but it is not a security boundary: only connect agents you trust.
Expose only the viewer port (8083), for example through Cloudflare Tunnel with Access, or Caddy for automatic HTTPS. Never expose the agent port (9230): anything that can reach it is signed in as you everywhere.
Yes. ridealong is the new name for tabkennel. Same project, same author, MIT licensed.