Quay — Chrome DevTools with Accessibility Semantics

Quay combines Chrome DevTools Protocol with accessibility-tree semantics for browser automation using your authenticated Chrome sessions.

Why Quay?

Feature	Quay	Playwright	agent-browser	Raw CDP
Full AX tree (raw CDP nodes)	✅	❌ Simplified snapshot only	✅	❌
AX ref targeting	✅	❌	✅	❌
Uses your logged-in Chrome	✅	❌	❌	✅
Connection pooling	✅	✅ BrowserContext	❌	❌
Auto-reconnect	✅	❌	❌	❌
Python-native	✅	✅	❌ JS/TS	❌
Session recording	✅	✅ Codegen/trace	❌	❌
Package size	~20KB	~50MB	~5MB	~5KB

Quay's niche: Full Chrome accessibility tree + your existing authenticated sessions.

Installation

pip install quay

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/sidonsoft/quay
cd quay
pip install -e .

Prerequisites

Chrome must be running with remote debugging enabled:

# macOS
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

# Linux
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

# Windows
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --remote-debugging-port=9222

Or use the included launcher:

./scripts/chrome-debug.sh

Quick Start

Python API

from quay import Browser

browser = Browser()
browser.goto("https://gmail.com")  # Uses your logged-in session

tree = browser.accessibility_tree()
print(tree.to_tree_str())

browser.click_by_text("Sign in")
browser.fill_form({"Email": "[email protected]"})

CLI

# List tabs
quay list

# Open new tab
quay new https://example.com

# Get accessibility tree
quay snapshot

# Take screenshot
quay screenshot

# Click by text
quay click "Submit"

Features

Feature	Description
Accessibility Tree	Navigate pages using AX nodes like agent-browser
Session Reuse	Uses your existing Chrome session (no separate browser)
Connection Pooling	WebSocket reuse across operations for speed
Auto-Reconnect	Automatically reconnects on connection drop
Session Recording	Record and replay browser actions
Form Filling	Fill forms by label text
Click by Text	Click elements matching visible text
JavaScript Eval	Run arbitrary JavaScript

Automatic Reconnection

Quay automatically detects dropped connections and reconnects:

browser = Browser(reconnect=True, reconnect_max_retries=3)

# If connection drops during operation,
# Quay will attempt to reconnect automatically
tree = browser.accessibility_tree()  # May auto-reconnect if needed

Monitor reconnection with a callback:

def on_reconnect(msg):
    print(f"Reconnecting: {msg}")

browser = Browser(reconnect_callback=on_reconnect)

Architecture

Quay uses a mixin-based architecture for maintainability:

class Browser(
    BrowserCoreMixin,        # Connection lifecycle
    BrowserTabsMixin,        # Tab management
    BrowserCDPMixin,         # Low-level CDP
    BrowserNavigationMixin,  # Navigation
    BrowserWaitMixin,        # Wait methods
    BrowserAccessibilityMixin,  # Accessibility tree
    BrowserActionsMixin,     # User actions
    BrowserRecordingMixin,   # Session recording
):
    pass

See docs/internals/ARCHITECTURE.md for details.

License

Apache-2.0 - See LICENSE for details.