Practical overview
When it fits
Use Steel when an agent or application needs controlled, programmatic interaction with live websites and the development team wants browser-session and process infrastructure already provided.
Who it is for
- Developers building AI agents that navigate or interact with live websites.
- Teams creating browser automation tools for web-based business processes.
- Application builders needing a self-hosted or cloud browser sandbox layer.
Documented uses
- Provide browser access for an AI agent or web application.
- Maintain browser state, including cookies and local storage, across requests.
- Connect browser automation code through Puppeteer, Playwright, or Selenium.
- Capture or transform page results into screenshots, PDFs, Markdown, or readability output.
- Operate browser sessions with logging, debugging, extension support, and lifecycle management.
Requirements & limits
The repository documents Steel Cloud, cloud-provider deployment, local Docker deployment, Docker Compose, and a direct Node.js and Chrome development path. It is public and open source under the Apache-2.0 license.
- Steel is infrastructure rather than a complete AI agent, so the consuming application must provide its own agent logic and workflow.
- The documented browser control layer uses Puppeteer and CDP, with connection options for Playwright and Selenium.
- Local direct execution requires both Node.js and Chrome, while Docker provides a pre-built image path.
- Session state, proxy management, extensions, debugging, and browser cleanup are documented as part of the browser infrastructure.
- The repository describes the project as being in public beta and evolving.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Run Steel locally with Docker
Start a local Steel browser server and UI using the repository’s pre-built Docker image.
Before you start
- Docker installed on the local machine.
- The pre-built Steel Browser image available from GitHub Container Registry.
Steps
Pull and run the image with ports 3000 and 9223 published: docker run -p 3000:3000 -p 9223:9223 ghcr.io/steel-dev/steel-browser.
Open the server at http://localhost:3000 and the UI at http://localhost:3000/ui.
Use the running instance for documented browser operations such as creating sessions, scraping pages, and taking screenshots.
Expected outcome
A local Steel browser server is started on port 3000, with the UI available at /ui and the console debugger port published on 9223.
Guide limitations
- This recipe documents local startup and the listed next-stage operations, not successful execution of those operations.
- Mac Silicon users may need DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/arm64 when using Docker Compose; that flag is not part of the single-image command above.
Start a local development environment
Run the Steel API and UI from the repository for local contributor development.
Before you start
- Docker and Docker Compose.
- A checkout of the Steel repository.
- For the alternative direct Node.js path: Node.js and Chrome installed, with Chrome available at a documented platform path.
Steps
Run docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up to build and start the development services.
Use docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up --build when the images need to be rebuilt for local changes.
For the direct Node.js path, run npm install followed by npm run dev.
Use a .env file or adjust the compose environment variables when running on a custom host, as described by the repository’s development setup documentation.
Expected outcome
The development configuration starts the Steel server on port 3000 and the UI on port 5173.
Guide limitations
- This is a development startup recipe, not a production deployment guide.
- The direct Node.js path requires Chrome at one of the repository’s documented executable locations.
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 2 October 2026
- Original website title
- steel-dev/steel-browser · Official homepage title · retained in its source language