🚀 Browser4 4.16.2

🚀 Browser4 v4.16.2 Release Notes

Release Date: 2026-11-06 13:23:54 UTC
Built by: @galaxyeye

☕ Java requirement — depends on how you install

Install mode	Java needed?
Self-contained bundle — browser4-cli install	None — the bundle ships its own jlink-built JRE
browser4-cli binaries / npm install -g browser4-cli	None — native binary
Standalone Browser4.jar (java -jar)	Java 25+
WebMiner (browser4-cli webminer)	JDK 17+ — auto-detected (the bundle's JRE also satisfies it)
Build from source	JDK 25+ to compile; JDK 25 enables the JVM AOT cache (JEP 483/515)

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fix(cli): only use WMI backend spawn under tree-killing shell hosts

The previous commit (d96efb2) unconditionally routed every Windows backend
launch through Win32_Process.Create. That survived Trae shell tree-kills, but
the WMI-created process starts in session 0 with the provider's environment, so
on GitHub Actions windows-latest the JVM never opened its HTTP port and the
release smoke test timed out after 15 minutes.

Switch to detection-based routing: only shells whose environment carries the
Trae toolhost markers (TOOLHOST_IPC_NAME / TOOLHOST_RUNTIME_MODE) use the WMI
path; ordinary terminals and CI runners keep the plain detached spawn with
CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB fallback. BROWSER4_WINDOWS_BACKEND_SPAWN=wmi|spawn
overrides the detection for other hosts with the same teardown behaviour.

Refs #632

📦 Release Highlights

📊 Release Statistics

Metric	Value
📁 JAR Size	106MB
📝 Commits	11
👥 Contributors	1
🏗️ Build Date	2026-11-06 13:23:54 UTC

🔄 Changes Since Last Release

• fix(cli): only use WMI backend spawn under tree-killing shell hosts (1aaf96a2a5)
• ci: replace retired macos-14 runner with macos-latest (72381ea9ee)
• chore(release): sync 4.16.2 across all poms via version.mjs (12da6e9b3b)
• ci(pr): compile the Rust CLI on Linux in the PR gate (e635bf3501)
• fix(cli): drop the Windows creation-flag block from the non-Windows branch (381036e4d3)
• chore(release): 4.16.2 (67e43b214c)
• fix(cli): always spawn the backend outside the caller's process tree on Windows (d96efb26a6)
• feat(cli): daemon lifecycle, profile-import fixes and doc refresh (a6f2445340)
• chore(git): add .fetch-state.json to .gitignore and untrack (e51bc068eb)
• chore(release): sync CLI version to 4.16.2 (5d5cb44747)
• Bump version to v4.16.2 (ed665af32c)

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🚀 Quick Start

Self-contained install

Use the CLI to download the matching Browser4 runtime bundle for your platform
(ships its own jlink-built JRE — no Java installation required):

browser4-cli install
browser4-cli open

CLI & SKILLS

# Open a new browser window
browser4-cli open

# Navigate to a page
browser4-cli goto https://browser4.io

# Inspect the page — note the eN labels on interactive nodes
browser4-cli snapshot

# Interact using refs from the snapshot
browser4-cli click e15
browser4-cli type e15 "Hello World"
browser4-cli press e15 Enter
browser4-cli keydown Shift
browser4-cli mousemove 150 300
browser4-cli mousewheel 0 100
browser4-cli keyup Shift

# Take a screenshot and save it to disk
browser4-cli screenshot

# Use a custom server URL
browser4-cli open --server http://localhost:9090

# Execute multiple commands in one process
browser4-cli batch "open https://browser4.io" "snapshot"

# Stop on the first batch failure
browser4-cli batch --bail "open https://browser4.io" "click e1" "screenshot"

# Advanced: pipe batch commands as JSON via stdin
echo '[
  ["goto", "https://example.com/form-filling"],
  ["click", "#reset-btn"],
  ["fill", "#first-name", "Bob"],
  ["fill", "#last-name", "Smith"],
  ["fill", "#email", "bob@example.com"],
  ["select", "#country", "uk"],
  ["check", "#agree-terms"],
  ["click", "#submit-btn"]
]' | browser4-cli batch --json

# Close the session when done
browser4-cli close

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📄 Full Changelog

v4.16.1...v4.16.2

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Built with ❤️ by the Browser4 team

browser4-cli

This release also includes prebuilt browser4-cli binaries for:

• Linux x64
• Linux ARM64
• Linux musl x64
• Linux musl ARM64
• Windows x64
• macOS x64
• macOS ARM64

npm package:
npm install -g browser4-cli

CLI package version in this release workflow:

• 4.16.2

Self-contained Browser4 runtime bundles

This release also includes self-contained Browser4 runtime bundles with:

• a lib/ directory containing Browser4Bundle.jar and all runtime dependencies
• a minimal jlink-built JRE under runtime/
• platform-specific launcher scripts in bin/

Runtime model:
runtime/bin/java -cp "lib/*" <MainClass>

Supported release assets:

• browser4-bundle-runtime-windows-x64.zip
• browser4-bundle-runtime-linux-x64.tar.gz
• browser4-bundle-runtime-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

Recommended install flow:

browser4-cli install

Full Changelog: v4.16.1...v4.16.2