tauri-browser

A CLI + Tauri plugin for automating and inspecting Tauri apps. Ref-based element targeting with output designed for LLM consumption.

Install the Skill

Add the Claude Code skill to your project:

npx skills add thrashr888/tauri-browser

Or install globally:

npx skills add thrashr888/tauri-browser -g

Install the CLI

cargo install tauri-browser

Setup

Add the plugin to your Tauri app behind a feature flag:

# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
tauri-plugin-debug-bridge = { version = "0.4", optional = true }

[features]
debug-bridge = ["tauri-plugin-debug-bridge"]

// src-tauri/src/lib.rs
#[cfg(feature = "debug-bridge")]
app.plugin(tauri_plugin_debug_bridge::init());

Add the permission to your capabilities. You can add "debug-bridge:default" to capabilities/default.json, or create a separate file to avoid overwrite issues if your build process regenerates default.json:

// capabilities/debug-bridge.json
{
  "identifier": "debug-bridge",
  "description": "Debug bridge for tauri-browser automation",
  "windows": ["main"],
  "permissions": ["debug-bridge:default"]
}

Run your app with the feature enabled:

cargo tauri dev --features debug-bridge

Authentication

The plugin generates a random auth token on each startup and writes a discovery file to /tmp/tauri-debug-bridge/<app-identifier>.json. The CLI reads this automatically — no token needed in your commands:

tauri-browser connect              # auto-discovers token
tauri-browser snapshot -i          # just works

When multiple Tauri apps are running, specify which one:

tauri-browser --app com.example.myapp connect

You can still pass the token explicitly if needed:

export TAURI_BROWSER_TOKEN="a1b2c3d4e5f6..."
tauri-browser connect

# Or per-command:
tauri-browser --token "a1b2c3d4e5f6..." connect

The /health endpoint does not require auth.

Usage

tauri-browser connect                        # verify connection
tauri-browser snapshot -i                    # interactive elements with @refs
tauri-browser click "@e3"                    # click by ref
tauri-browser fill "@e2" "user@example.com"  # fill input by ref
tauri-browser run-js "document.title"        # execute JS
tauri-browser screenshot out.png             # capture screenshot
tauri-browser windows                        # list app windows
tauri-browser invoke get_data '{"id":1}'     # call Tauri commands
tauri-browser events emit "refresh" '{}'     # emit events
tauri-browser console                        # stream JS console output
tauri-browser logs --level warn              # stream Rust logs

Architecture

tauri-browser (CLI)  ◄──── HTTP/WS ────►  tauri-plugin-debug-bridge (in-app)
                         localhost:9229

The plugin starts a local HTTP+WS server inside your Tauri app.
The CLI talks to it. No app code changes needed beyond plugin registration.

Troubleshooting

401 Unauthorized on all requests
The CLI auto-discovers the token from /tmp/tauri-debug-bridge/. If that fails, set TAURI_BROWSER_TOKEN to the token printed at app startup. The token changes every restart.

Eval/invoke times out after 10-30s
The debug-bridge:default permission must be in your capabilities/default.json. Without it, Tauri silently blocks the eval_callback command and results never return.

Console streaming shows nothing
Make sure you're on plugin version 0.2.5+ which includes console_callback in the default permission set. Earlier versions only permitted eval_callback.

Port already in use
Configure a different port (or 0 for auto-assign) in tauri.conf.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "debug-bridge": {
      "port": 0
    }
  }
}

The CLI discovers the actual port from the discovery file automatically.

License

MIT