Automatically installs Playwright Chromium (npx playwright install chromium --with-deps) into the Docker container running DeepSeek Harness, and bridges the installed binary onto PATH so the dsh-ego-browser side-bar plugin finds it — no manual "find the binary / symlink it / set EGO_LINUX_* env vars / wrap it with --no-sandbox" steps for agents ever again.

Why this plugin exists

dsh-ego-browser discovers its browser the following way (see lib/index.js → resolveEgoEnv and runtime/ego-linux/src/chrome.mjs):

It scans PATH + fixed locations for google-chrome, google-chrome-stable, chromium, chromium-browser, … and
on root hosts (docker default), it hands the found binary to a bundled --no-sandbox wrapper that only looks at fixed paths (/usr/bin/*, /opt/google/..., /usr/local/bin/google-chrome-stable, /snap/bin/chromium).

Playwright installs Chromium into ~/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-<rev>/chrome-linux{,64}/chrome — a location invisible to both scans. That is why agents kept having to hunt the binary down, symlink/wrap it, and set EGO_LINUX_CHROME / EGO_LINUX_EXTRA_ARGS by hand.

This plugin does exactly that bridging once, automatically:

on load it checks the Playwright cache (idempotent, no-op when the browser is already there),
if the browser is missing it runs npx --yes playwright install chromium --with-deps in the background (profile startup is never blocked for minutes), and
it then symlinks the installed binary at /usr/local/bin/google-chrome-stable and /usr/local/bin/chromium — the exact names ego-browser's PATH scan and its bundled --no-sandbox wrapper look for. On this root container, the chain then resolves to: root detected → bundled --no-sandbox wrapper → --no-sandbox launch; no DISPLAY → automatic headless. No env vars, no manual wrapper, no agent steps.

Nothing is ever clobbered: a pre-existing system Chrome or a user wrapper keeps winning (the plugin only creates links where nothing of its own/an external binary exists).

Install (from git — recommended)

Install from your forge (the command below is the full-URL form for any host; on GitHub you can use the shorthand github:<you>/dsh-browser-install#main):

dsh plugin --profile web add https://git.notexpectedyet.com/Not-Expected-Yet/dsh-browser-install.git#main

The #main branch ref is what makes updates work: pnpm update re-resolves the branch tip (verified against pnpm 12.8.1), so after you push new commits simply run

dsh plugin --profile web update                        # all deps
dsh plugin --profile web update dsh-browser-install    # just this one

Bundle changes only become active after a profile restart: dsh --profile web.
No build step: the bundle ships plain ESM and declares no prepare script, so pnpm's default block on git-dependency build scripts never applies — nothing to allowBuilds in pnpm-workspace.yaml.
pnpm installs git deps over HTTPS, so keep the repo public (or set up credentials on the host).

Alternative: install from a local checkout

dsh plugin --profile web add /root/workspaces/Plugin\ Development/dsh-browser-install

A directory install is a symlinked file: dependency — handy while iterating. For persistent installs and updates, prefer the git flow above.

Restart and verify

Restart the profile, then check the plugin loaded and did its job:

dsh --profile web

dsh --profile web --dump-config | grep -A3 browser-install
ls -la /usr/local/bin/google-chrome-stable        # -> .../ms-playwright/chromium-*/chrome-linux64/chrome

Then from any agent session, ego_doctor should report a browser binary, and ego_space_open/ego_navigate work with no environment prep.

Non-root hosts: set symlinkDir to a directory on your PATH (e.g. ~/.local/bin). On root only /usr/local/bin is needed — it also satisfies the bundled --no-sandbox wrapper's absolute-path list.

Config

All fields are optional. Override them in your profile's cordis.patch.yml (or in the bundle row's config):

- id: browser-install
  name: "dsh-browser-install"
  config:
    withDeps: true          # run `--with-deps` (apt system deps); needs root/apt
    target: chromium        # chromium | chromium-headless-shell | chrome
    package: playwright     # npx package spec, e.g. "playwright@1.54.1"
    forceInstall: false     # always re-run the install on load
    installOnStartup: true  # install in background when the browser is missing
    cacheDir: ""            # empty = $PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH | ~/.cache/ms-playwright
    symlinkDir: /usr/local/bin
    symlinkNames: [google-chrome-stable, chromium]
    installTimeoutMs: 600000

Field	Default	Meaning
`installOnStartup`	`true`	Run the Playwright install when the plugin loads and no matching browser is found. The install runs in the background so profile startup is not blocked.
`forceInstall`	`false`	Always run the install on load, even when a browser is already present (e.g. after a Playwright upgrade).
`package`	`playwright`	Package spec passed to `npx --yes <package> install ...`. Pin with e.g. `playwright@1.54.1`.
`target`	`chromium`	Which Playwright browser to ensure: `chromium` (full build), `chromium-headless-shell`, or `chrome` (Google Chrome). Default matches what ego-browser expects.
`withDeps`	`true`	Pass `--with-deps` so Playwright also installs the browser's system dependencies via apt (requires root; the DSH image runs as root).
`cacheDir`	auto	Playwright browsers cache root. Empty = `$PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH`, else `~/.cache/ms-playwright`. When set here, the installer child also gets `PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH`.
`symlinkDir`	`/usr/local/bin`	Directory for the PATH links; must be on the DSH process `PATH`.
`symlinkNames`	`[google-chrome-stable, chromium]`	Link names to create. `google-chrome-stable` is the one ego-browser's PATH scan and its `--no-sandbox` wrapper both check.
`installTimeoutMs`	`600000`	Max time for the background install before it is killed.

Behaviour notes

No-clobber links: a link whose target lives inside the Playwright cache is treated as ours and refreshed to the newest installed revision; any other existing file/symlink is left untouched (and wins).
Lifecycle: the background installer child is killed if the plugin is unloaded mid-install (ctx.effect). The PATH links are intentionally not removed on unload — a running browser may be using them and they are harmless, idempotent shared state.
Error visibility: install failures, symlink errors, and a symlinkDir missing from PATH are all logged loudly under the dsh-browser-install logger scope, so an agent can read the reason instead of guessing.
ego-browser settings untouched: the plugin does not modify dsh-ego-browser's config or any EGO_LINUX_* env vars — it only fills the gap (install + visible symlink) that makes ego-browser's existing auto-adaptation work (root → --no-sandbox wrapper, no DISPLAY → headless).

Uninstall

dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-browser-install

The symlinks are left in place (harmless; the browser keeps working for ego-browser). Remove them manually if you truly want them gone:

rm -f /usr/local/bin/google-chrome-stable /usr/local/bin/chromium

Development

Pure helpers (resolveCacheDir, resolveBrowserBinary, planSymlinks, applySymlinkPlan, buildInstallCmd) are exported for testing; the plugin itself needs no build step (plain ESM, no TypeScript compile).

Node ≥ 22 (the harness image ships v24).
Requires DSH ≥ 0.1.2-rc.1 (same baseline as dsh-ego-browser).
Runtime dependency: @deepseek-ai/schemastery (already present in the profile).