Installation

Every way to install webrain — one-liners, package managers, from source.

Installation

Pick a path. All of them give you the webrain binary; the first run of webrain install downloads the browser engine.

Global installation (recommended)

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prokopis3/webrain/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Then, in any terminal:

webrain install          # Download Chrome for Testing (first time only)
webrain mcp --http 9223  # start the MCP server

Manual download

Windows

$dir = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\webrain"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $dir | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/prokopis3/webrain/releases/latest/download/webrain-windows.exe" -OutFile "$dir\webrain.exe"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$([Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path','User'));$dir", "User")
# open a new terminal, then:
webrain install
webrain mcp --http 9223

macOS: swap webrain-linux for webrain-macos in the curl line.

Package managers

Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap prokopis3/webrain
brew install webrain
webrain install

From source

git clone https://github.com/prokopis3/webrain
cd webrain
cargo build --release --bin webrain
./target/release/webrain install   # Download Chrome (first time only)
./target/release/webrain mcp --http 9223

Linux dependencies

Chrome needs system libraries on Linux. Install them before first run:

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install -y libnss3 libnspr4 libxkbcommon0 libatk1.0-0 \
  libatk-bridge2.0-0 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxrandr2 libxfixes3 \
  libxcursor1 libxi6 libxtst6 libxss1 libxext6 fonts-liberation

If you see “shared library” errors when running Chrome, that’s the missing-deps symptom — install the list above.

Updating

webrain upgrade

Detects your install method (Homebrew, Scoop, or manual) and updates automatically. For a cargo install:

cargo install --git https://github.com/prokopis3/webrain webrain-cli --force

Re-download engines after an update (the cache dir stays; versions are additive):

webrain install
webrain install --engine obscura

OS compatibility

Engine	Windows	macOS	Linux
Chrome for Testing (webrain install)	✅	✅	✅
Obscura (webrain install --engine obscura)	✅ x86_64	✅ x86_64 / arm64	✅ x86_64 / arm64
Lightpanda (webrain lightpanda, binary needed)	⚠️ (needs a Windows build on PATH)	✅	✅
Docker (docker/Dockerfile)	via Docker Desktop	via Docker Desktop	✅

Binary discovery is automatic on every OS: env override → PATH → ~/.lightpanda, ~/.obscura, ~/.local/bin → the webrain engine cache.