Steel Dev

Steel is cloud browser infrastructure designed specifically for AI agents — managed Chromium sessions with anti-detection capabilities, session persistence across tasks, and easy integration with Playwright or Puppeteer. For agents that need to browse the web: create a session, connect Playwright to the CDP endpoint, execute actions, and release the session. Built-in stealth mode reduces bot detection. Session replay and recording available for debugging. Confidence is docs-derived.

REST API at api.steel.dev/v1. Resources: sessions. POST /sessions creates a new browser session (returns sessionId and cdp_ws_endpoint). GET /sessions/{id} retrieves session status. DELETE /sessions/{id} releases a session. CDP WebSocket endpoint: connect Playwright Browser.connectOverCDP(cdp_ws_endpoint) for full browser control. File downloads: accessible via /sessions/{id}/files. Stealth mode configurable at session creation (useProxy, solveCaptchas, sessionContext options).

API key auth: Steel-Api-Key: {key} header. Keys from Steel Dashboard. HTTPS enforced. No OAuth2. Session-level isolation: each session is a separate Chromium instance. Session timeouts configurable (default 30 min idle). Key rotation via Steel Dashboard.

Session creation: typically 2–5 seconds. Session timeout: automatically released after idle timeout (configurable). CDP connection loss: Playwright reconnect required. Anti-detection is heuristic — may not defeat all bot detection systems. Steel infrastructure uptime at status.steel.dev. Sessions have a max duration; agents should handle session expiry gracefully.

docs.steel.dev covers session creation, Playwright integration, stealth options, file handling, and pricing. Getting started: create account, generate API key, first Playwright-connected session in under 10 minutes. Python and Node.js code examples. Free tier available. Community via Steel Discord.