Release v1.4.0

What's New in v1.4.0

🆓 Google Gemini Free Mode

• Zero-Cost Access: Try OpenBUA completely free without needing paid API keys or setting up billing.
• Powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Selected as the default high-limit free model with automatic 429 rate-limit backoff and pacing.
• Full Chain-of-Thought Reasoning: Free tier models now stream structured thinking process blocks before taking action or executing browser tools.

⚙️ Redesigned Settings Tab

• Free vs BYOK Selector: Effortlessly switch between Google Gemini Free mode and Bring Your Own Key (OpenAI / Anthropic compatible).
• Latest Model Presets: Added official model IDs for the latest releases (OpenAI GPT-6 Astra, 6.1 Sol, 6 Luna & Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Fable 5.1).
• Streamlined Navigation: Replaced the hamburger icon with an intuitive back button that instantly returns you to your most recent chat.
• Direct Free Key Access: Dedicated 1-click link to fetch your free Gemini API key from Google AI Studio.

🧠 Modernized Memory Tab

• Simplified Interface: Renamed page heading to Memory and removed redundant subtitles and secondary upload buttons.
• Rounded Card Aesthetic: Memory cards, modal containers, and empty states now feature sleek rounded-3xl styling with solid backgrounds and no outer ring artifacts.
• Single iMessage Blue Action: A unified, persistent + Add button in vibrant iMessage blue (#007AFF).
• Clean Content Editor: Simplified modal with only Title and Content inputs using the crisp Inter typeface (Markdown by default, no clutter).
• Refined Status Indicators: Replaced file icons with clean white checkmark toggles for active memory documents.

🌐 Universal Browser Compatibility

• Out-of-the-box support for Arc Browser, Brave, Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome with intelligent side panel docking and popup fallback.

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Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.4.0

What's Changed

• Main by @AliSharjeell in #1
• Merge pull request #1 from AliSharjeell/main by @AliSharjeell in #2

New Contributors

• @AliSharjeell made their first contribution in #1

Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.4.0

Release v1.3.0

The agent can now open new tabs to look up information without losing form progress, making multi-step form filling and research tasks more productive.

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.3.0

Release v1.2.0

UI Redesign

A complete visual overhaul featuring a modern UI interface with clean Inter typography, dynamic Thinking Orbs, collapsible thoughts and tools, and feathered translucent styling.

Full Changelog: v1.1.0...v1.2.0

Release v1.1.0

Release v1.1.0 - 10-Second HITL CAPTCHA Gate, Fast Outreach & UI Polish

Highlights & What's New in v1.1.0

1. 🛡️ Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) 10-Second CAPTCHA Intercept Gate

• Multi-Provider Challenge Detection: Automatically detects Cloudflare Turnstile, Cloudflare Interactive Challenges, Google reCAPTCHA v2/v3, hCaptcha, Arkose Labs, and Bing Bot Verification.
• Synthesized Web Audio Alert: Plays a two-tone chime (698Hz $\rightarrow$ 880Hz) via the Web Audio API to alert you even if the browser window or sidepanel is in the background.
• Dedicated Amber Countdown Banner: Renders an interactive banner in the sidepanel with real-time countdown progress and controls:
  • [✅ I Solved It]: Immediately checks and resumes automation with a pleasant ascending success chime (523Hz $\rightarrow$ 659Hz $\rightarrow$ 784Hz).
  • [⏭️ Skip / Pivot]: Immediately halts waiting and activates the automated workaround.
• Automated Pivot Workaround: If the 10-second timer expires or user skips, the agent automatically aborts the blocked page and executes an intelligent workaround (e.g., pivoting from blocked search engines to Google X-Ray).

2. ⚡ 10x Prospect Discovery & Outreach Engine

• High-Recall Google X-Ray Search: Banned narrow keyword churn and fragile LinkedIn location modal clicking. Employs canonical high-yield boolean dorks to discover prospects in a single turn.
• Zero-Click SERP Snippet Extraction: Automatically extracts full names, affiliations, and public emails directly from Google search snippets without redundant profile visits.
• Compound Direct Webmail Sender (send_web_email): Fast single-turn action that navigates straight to prefilled Gmail compose URLs and dispatches emails via UI click / Ctrl+Enter.
• Lightweight Reachability Checks (quick_url_check): Background HTTP status check (under 3s) to verify website/portfolio status without heavy tab navigations.
• Native Keyboard Shortcuts (press_key_combination): Native dispatch of Ctrl+Enter, Escape, Enter, and keyboard commands directly to the active page.

3. 🧠 Token Optimization & Sliding Window History

• 2-Turn Sliding Window Compaction: Automatically compacts older turn DOM dumps and rehydrated history into a 2-turn window, preventing context bloat and rate limits on long-running tasks.
• Product Knowledge Scratchpad Caching: Caches target app features on Turn 1 so the agent never re-navigates back to the landing page later in the workflow.

4. 🎨 UI Refinements & User Experience

• Geist Font Typography: Applied clean font-sans Geist typography across all thinking blocks, tool calling streams, and chat bubbles.
• Subtle Tool Output: Removed bulky green completion badges and checkmarks in favor of a clean background stream.
• Session Scratchpad: Read-only for users to prevent accidental edits, scoped per chat session tab with live synchronization.
• Full Chat Copying: Copy any message or entire chat transcript with precise HH:MM:SS timestamps.

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Installation Guide

1. Download OpenBUA-v1.1.0.zip (or OpenBUA-extension.zip) below.
2. Unzip / extract the downloaded file to a folder on your computer.
3. In Google Chrome, go to chrome://extensions/ and toggle on Developer mode (top right).
4. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder containing manifest.json.
5. Open the Side Panel to start using OpenBUA!

Release v1.0.1

Release v1.0.1

What's New in v1.0.1

• Conversation Context Window Persistence & Hydration: Chat turns, tool calls, and execution states are now preserved and rehydrated across extension reloads, sidepanel re-opens, and session switching, enabling seamless continuation with "continue".
• Autonomous Email & Webmail Automation: Added support for Gmail and webmail compose automation (automatic recipient chip creation, subject/body population, modal prioritization) directly using your logged-in browser session without SMTP/IMAP passwords.
• Multimodal Vision Screenshots: Tab screenshots captured with capture_tab_screenshot are now passed as multimodal image payloads to vision-supported models for direct visual inspection.
• Modal & Dialog Prioritization: Form inspection automatically prioritizes active modals, popups, and compose dialogs (e.g. Gmail compose, job application overlays).
• Research Scratchpad: Built-in scratchpad tool and UI tab (notepad_write, notepad_read, notepad_append, notepad_clear) allowing the agent to persist collected findings during multi-step research tasks.
• Enhanced SPA Hydration & Navigation: Tab navigation now reliably waits for full page hydration and includes hard timeouts to prevent hangs on complex single-page apps like YouTube.
• Proactive Rate-Limit & Token Protection: Automatic token compaction and retry handlers for rate-limited endpoints, with clear documentation disclaimers.

Installation

1. Download OpenBUA-v1.0.1.zip below.
2. Unzip the file into a folder on your computer.
3. In Chrome, navigate to chrome://extensions/ and enable Developer mode (top right).
4. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder.

Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.0.1

Release v1.0.0

Initial release of OpenBUA (Open Browser Use Agent) - Autonomous browser use Chrome extension running inside your everyday browser for research, data extraction, interaction, and form filling. Download OpenBUA-v1.0.0.zip, unzip it, and load it into chrome://extensions with Developer mode enabled.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/AliSharjeell/OpenBUA/commits/v1.0.0