Exploring AI with GitHub Browser: Tips and Demos

Intro

This article discusses how to install and setup a GitHub Browser Use Agent to perform a basic test task.

TLDR: Video of how to setup and run GitHub Browser Use

Recently, I’ve been knocking around some of the newer tools on the market for AI such as Claude computer use https://beththetester.wordpress.com/2024/11/17/exploring-ai-tools-and-their-applications/.

Setup and overview

Continuing this theme, I thought I’d try out GitHub Browser Use. It took me a little while to figure out how to install the pre-requisites, where to update the OpenAI API key and task which I wanted the agent to do, and also find a suitable site to play with.

On my travels I discovered that the OrangeHRM demo site (used and loved by testers) is now behind a registration screen for a 30 day free trial.

BUT: I’ve just found an open-source demo version available: https://opensource-demo.orangehrmlive.com/web/index.php/auth/login. I hadn’t seen this yesterday so I decided to use Restful Booker.

First thing I tried was to ask it to make a booking. It failed miserably – utilising 80K tokens in the process of over 5 minutes of “thinking” about how to complete the task before I shut the agent down.

https://youtu.be/T4BL49W2iJA

Conclusion

If you see the vid at the top of the page you can see it processing the original query and where it went wrong – I think on reflection this isn’t necessarily an issue with the tool itself – this site is an example testing site which intentionally has bugs such as error messages that don’t really make sense (such as “must not be null” without any explanation of what must not be null). For sites which are a bit more productionised I’m guessing this will be less of a problem (although not eliminated entirely, human in the loop FTW!).

I’d also point out that I haven’t experimented with the more plausible type which is to ask the agent to perform this via API calls rather than trying to do things in the front end.

Happy Testing!