---
title: "Configure a Browser for OpenClaw"
description: "Your assistant can drive a real browser to do things on the web that have no API. Pick between using the Google Chrome on your Mac or a self-contained browser inside the VM, and understand what each option gives you."
updated: 2026-07-15
canonical: https://holaclaw.ai/docs/configuration/browser
---

A lot of what you'd want an assistant to do lives behind a website.
For example, checking whether a flight got cheaper or pulling last
month's invoice out of an account. For those tasks your assistant opens
a browser and uses it the way you would.

Before it can do any of that, it needs a browser to use. HolaClaw gives you two
ways to provide one, and they're genuinely different: one drives the **Google Chrome
already installed on your Mac**, the other runs a **browser inside the
assistant's virtual machine** where you never see it. The option you pick decides
whether you can help your assistant when a site asks for a human.

This page covers making that choice. For how your assistant behaves once it's
browsing, see [Browsing the web](/docs/configuration/browsing-the-web).

## Choose a browser when you create an assistant

The choice happens at **Step 3** of the Create Assistant wizard, on the screen
titled *"How should HolaClaw browse the web?"*.

![Step 3 of the Create Assistant wizard, showing the Host option selected with Google Chrome detected, and the Isolated option below it](/images/docs/configuration/browser-wizard-step.webp)

There are two options.

**Host** is selected by default and marked Recommended. It uses the real Google
Chrome installed on your Mac.

If Chrome isn't found, you get a link to download it and a **Re-scan** button.
Install Chrome, and hit Re-scan. You can't finish setup with Host selected while
Chrome is missing, so either install it or switch to Isolated.

**Isolated** is the other option. It runs a browser inside the agent environment.
It's easier to run, but more prone to issues.

Pick one and press **Finish setup**.

## Host: your own Chrome

With Host, your assistant drives the Google Chrome that's already on your Mac.
It's a real browser on a real machine, which is what makes the difference:

- **You can log in.** Sign in to a site once, yourself, and your assistant works
  from that signed-in session afterwards.
- **You can step in.** When a captcha or a confirmation appears, you solve it
  and your assistant carries on from there.
- **Sites treat it normally.** Automated browsers get detected and blocked
  constantly. This one is far less likely to be, because it isn't one.

The window is visible, and it's tinted **purple** so you never confuse it with
your everyday Chrome. It opens on a page that explains what it is:

![The agent browser window, tinted purple, showing the HolaClaw agent browser landing page](/images/docs/configuration/browser-chrome-instance.webp)

You can watch it work, and you can take the wheel whenever you want. When your
assistant is running, a **Show browser** button in the chat header brings the
window forward.

Host mode needs **Google Chrome**, and it's macOS only.

### Your everyday browsing stays untouched

Your assistant does **not** use your normal Chrome profile. It runs in a
**dedicated profile** that HolaClaw creates and manages for it. Your bookmarks,
history, saved passwords, and open tabs are never read and never changed. Its
logins are its own and yours are your own.

### Where the browser's data lives on your Mac

This applies to **Host only**. The profile and cache are stored per assistant,
next to that assistant's VM state, under:

```text
~/.local/share/holaclaw/vf-vms/<vm-name>/browser/
```

## Isolated: the built-in browser

With Isolated, your assistant uses a self-contained browser that ships with
HolaClaw and runs **inside the assistant's private virtual machine**. Nothing is
installed on your Mac and nothing appears on your screen. There's no separate
profile folder to know about, because the browser and everything it stores live
in the VM along with the rest of the assistant.

The trade-off is that it runs invisibly, so you can't help it. You can't sign in
for it, you can't solve a captcha for it, and more sites will detect it and
block it. It suits an assistant that rarely touches the web, or only reads pages
that don't need an account.

## Which one should I pick?

Pick **Host** if your assistant needs to do anything real on the web, especially
on sites you have an account with. Pick **Isolated** if browsing is incidental
and you'd rather not have a browser window opening on your Mac.

If you're unsure, choose Host. It's the default, it handles far more, and the
worst case is a window you occasionally see.