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Show HN: Rotunda - A browser built for agents with simulated typing

https://github.com/monkeysee-ai/rotunda
12•icyfox•12h ago
Hi HN! Pierce here.

Rotunda is a firefox fork primarily intended for agent use, which I’ve been hacking on nights/weekends.

There was a [lengthy](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48024859) discussion last week on how expensive computer use models are. The cost is going to drop eventually, but I think on some level it's still usually the wrong primitive. The web gives us access to beautiful structured formats, plaintext, etc... why throw that away if we don't have to?

I realized at some point that for 99% of automations I just want agents to be able to control my Chrome instance. But that’s easier said that done: CDP (the Chrome automation protocol) leaks a ton of state about being programmatically controlled, either by toggling window attributes or by running `page.evaluate()` commands right in the page context. Plus if you look at an automation running it's pretty obvious what happens: the mouse jumps around, fields are filled instantly, etc.

Rotunda tries to fix this. Its standout features:

- Realistic simulation of mouse movements and keyboard commands, powered by a trained RNN on my own timing patterns from the last week. (still feel weird about opting-in to a key logger but whatever)

- Doesn’t lie about its host specs, only fibs about some client side details. Stealth browsers are too easy to flag statistically when you’re adding noise to canvas pixels or audio pipelines.

- It runs on your local device with a CLI or Playwright API accessible to Claude, Codex, or whatever your harness-de-jure today looks like.

- Patches modern Firefox (150) with an agentic harness to keep this updated over time

MPL-2.0 on GitHub: https://github.com/monkeysee-ai/rotunda

Longer writeup on the design choices: https://pierce.dev/notes/a-browser-for-agents

Also check out the demo on the site! https://www.rotunda.sh/

Pretty excited by how this turned out but we’re still super early. Give it a try and please flag any issues!

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492•speckx•11h ago•156 comments

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276•laurentlb•4d ago•198 comments

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86•Eswo•2d ago•28 comments

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39•jackhogan11•2d ago•5 comments

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194•rdslw•18h ago•131 comments

Princeton mandates proctoring for in-person exams, upending 133 year precedent

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249•bookofjoe•5h ago•358 comments

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43•sofiaqt•1h ago•52 comments

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306•jnord•1d ago•235 comments

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161•andsoitis•3d ago•70 comments

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67•vc289•9h ago•30 comments

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165•akrylov•12h ago•467 comments

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202•curiousgal•4d ago•79 comments

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170•pycassa•4h ago•60 comments

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48•speckx•7h ago•16 comments

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14•rolph•3d ago•0 comments

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112•logickkk1•5h ago•45 comments

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207•dmitrygr•2d ago•44 comments

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57•brandonb•4h ago•33 comments

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22•Schlagbohrer•3d ago•0 comments

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1•kunle•14h ago

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110•danso•6h ago•112 comments

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9•e12e•1h ago•0 comments