Multi-tab research¶

When the question needs more than one source, BrowserControl's tab tools let the agent open multiple pages, switch between them, and read from each.

What the agent does¶

"Open GitHub in one tab and Hacker News in another, then tell me the top repo and the top story."

→ create_tab("https://github.com/trending")
→ create_tab("https://news.ycombinator.com")
→ list_tabs()                    # → see both tabs with their indices
→ switch_tab(0)                  # focus GitHub
→ get_page_content()
→ switch_tab(1)                  # focus HN
→ get_page_content()

Step by step¶

1. Open the tabs¶

create_tab("https://github.com/trending")
create_tab("https://news.ycombinator.com")

Each create_tab returns an annotated screenshot of the newly active tab, so you can keep going from there.

2. Confirm what's open¶

list_tabs()

Returns:

Open Tabs:
  [0] GitHub Trending · Build software better, together - https://github.com/trending (active)
  [1] Hacker News - https://news.ycombinator.com

Note: list_tabs returns plain text — no screenshot, so it's cheap.

3. Switch and read each tab¶

switch_tab(0)              # focus GitHub Trending
get_page_content()

switch_tab(1)              # focus HN
get_page_content()

The agent now has content from both sources and can synthesize the answer.

Workflows that benefit from multi-tab¶

Compare products¶

"Compare the pricing pages of Linear and Height."

create_tab("https://linear.app/pricing")
create_tab("https://height.app/pricing")
list_tabs()
switch_tab(0); get_page_content()
switch_tab(1); get_page_content()

Search then drill in¶

"Search for X, then click the first result and tell me more."

create_tab("https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fastmcp+python")
# ... parse results, find the link to click ...
click(8)             # first organic result, opens in the SAME tab
get_page_content()

Persist context across tabs¶

Cookies and localStorage are shared across all tabs in the same browser context. Log in once in one tab, and every other tab is logged in too.

Tips¶

Indices shift after close_tab

Closing tab [0] makes what was [1] become [0]. Always re-list before switching after a close.

Use take_snapshot to checkpoint

Save the state of each tab with take_snapshot("after_search"). Useful when you want to come back to a specific state later.

Shared session

Tabs share cookies, localStorage, and sessionStorage — they all live in the same browser context. This is usually what you want.