---
title: "Fork the browser. Don't bolt on an extension. · Daniel Farina"
description: "Agent harnesses, evals, and the layer around the model."
canonical: https://danielfarina.com/posts/xplor-fork-the-browser/
last-updated: "2026-08-30"
---

# Fork the browser. Don't bolt on an extension. · Daniel Farina

Source: https://danielfarina.com/posts/xplor-fork-the-browser/

[← All writing](https://danielfarina.com/writing)

# Fork the browser. Don't bolt on an extension.

If the agent is a guest in Chrome, you already lost.

     Jun 11, 2026   Essay

Extensions are guests. Guests do not own navigation, default search, or the process lifetime of the tab. If you want an agent that builds and browses inside the browser, fork Chromium.

Xplor is that fork: Grok (and agent tooling) at source level — default search, per-page ask, toolbar, always-on local gateway.

## Extension vs fork

         Capability  Extension  Fork           Default search / new tab  Fighting Chrome  Native      Always-on local gateway  Fragile background page  Process you own      CDP + higher-level API  Partial / brittle  First-class      "Grok it" on every page  Content script games  Built-in      Not affiliated with xAI  Say it anyway  Say it anyway

The gateway is the actual product. CDP plus a higher-level API so any external agent can drive the browser — not a chat overlay bolted onto someone else's Chrome.

## What I care about measuring

Can an agent open a page, extract structure, write code in a side panel, and keep session state without the extension getting killed? That is a harness question. Chromium internals matter because the agent control plane has to sit under the UI chrome, not on top of it.

Live: [https://xplor.sh](https://xplor.sh) · source: [https://github.com/daniel-farina/xplorer](https://github.com/daniel-farina/xplorer)

Not affiliated with xAI. Power user of coding agents and browsers — shipping the fork.