feat(browser): add Obscura as a browser provider (Rust headless browser with CDP)

[willy-scr]

Feature Request: Obscura Browser Provider

What is Obscura?

Obscura is an open-source headless browser engine written in Rust, purpose-built for AI agent automation and web scraping. It exposes a full Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) WebSocket server, making it compatible with Puppeteer and Playwright as a drop-in replacement for headless Chrome.

Why integrate it?

Compared to Chrome/Chromium:

Metric	Obscura	Chrome
Memory	~30 MB	200+ MB
Binary size	~70 MB	300+ MB
Page load	~85 ms	~500 ms
Startup	Instant	~2s

Key features relevant to Hermes Agent's browser tool:

1. CDP-compatible — WebSocket server at ws://127.0.0.1:9222, same protocol Hermes already uses for Browserbase/local Chrome
2. Stealth mode built-in (--stealth flag) — anti-fingerprinting, tracker blocking (3,520 domains), navigator.webdriver = undefined
3. Zero dependencies — single binary, no Chrome/Node.js needed
4. Parallel scraping — obscura scrape with configurable concurrency
5. CLI tools — serve, fetch, scrape subcommands
6. Cross-platform — Linux x86_64, macOS (ARM + Intel), Windows

How it could work

Since Hermes already has a provider model (tools/browser_providers/) with browserbase.py, browser_use.py, and firecrawl.py, an obscura.py provider could be added that:

1. Spawns obscura serve --port 9222 as a local subprocess (or connects to an already-running instance)
2. Connects via the existing CDP WebSocket path (same as local Chrome mode)
3. Optionally enables --stealth mode via config flag
4. Falls back gracefully if obscura binary is not found

Suggested config

browser:
  provider: obscura          # new provider option
  obscura:
    binary_path: obscura     # or full path
    stealth: true            # enable anti-fingerprinting
    port: 9222               # CDP WebSocket port
    headless: true           # always true for Obscura (no GUI)

Environment variables

• OBSCURA_BINARY_PATH — override binary location
• OBSCURA_STEALTH — true/false to enable stealth mode
• OBSCURA_PORT — CDP port (default 9222)

Benefits for Hermes users

• Lightweight alternative to running full Chrome on VPS/memory-constrained environments
• Built-in stealth without needing Browserbase's advanced stealth (which costs extra)
• Fast startup — ideal for short-lived browser tasks (cron jobs, quick scrapes)
• Single binary — easy to install via hermes setup tools

Links

• Repository: https://github.com/h4ckf0r0day/obscura
• License: Apache 2.0 / MIT
• Language: Rust (pre-built binaries available)

Contribution

I'd be happy to contribute a PR for the Obscura browser provider if there's interest. The implementation would follow the existing BrowserbaseProvider / BrowserUseProvider pattern.

[Solido]

Until it's added, if ever, it can already be provided as a plugin and it would help gather attention.

[teknium1]

Thanks for the detailed request and for the related implementation work. This is an automated hermes-sweeper review.

• Hermes policy keeps new third-party/vendor integrations out of the in-tree plugins/ directory; they should ship as standalone plugins installed under ~/.hermes/plugins/ or through a pip entry point.
• The existing BrowserProvider/register_browser_provider() extension surface is intended for this exact integration shape, without Obscura-specific core changes.
• The linked feat(browser): add Obscura local browser provider (resolves #15445) #43446 discussion already points to a standalone implementation: SGavrl/hermes-plugin-obscura, configured with browser.cloud_provider: "obscura".

Closing the in-tree feature request under the in-tree-provider-integration policy. Please continue distribution and iteration through the standalone plugin route; it can be promoted in #plugins-skills-and-skins.

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Closed as not-planned per standing maintainer policy (in-tree-provider-integration). This is a design-direction decision, not a code-quality judgment — see the Contribution Rubric in AGENTS.md for what the project is looking for. If you believe this policy was misapplied to your change, comment here and a maintainer will take a look.