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12 changes: 4 additions & 8 deletions docs.json
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Expand Up @@ -119,7 +119,10 @@
{
"group": "Overview",
"pages": [
"index"
"index",
"overview/products",
"overview/concepts",
"overview/why-kernel"
]
},
{
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]
}
]
},
{
"group": "Info",
"pages": [
"info/concepts",
"info/unikernels"
]
}
]
},
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49 changes: 49 additions & 0 deletions images/overview/agent-stack.svg
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93 changes: 33 additions & 60 deletions index.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -5,74 +5,47 @@ description: ""
mode: "wide"
---

We build crazy fast, open source infra for AI agents to access the internet. Trusted by Cash App, Framer, and 11,000 teams.
KERNEL is the internet runtime for agents. we provide crazy fast, open source browser infra for your agents to access and act on the internet. each chromium browser is pre-configured with anti-detection defaults, runs in its own vm with isolated resources, and can be driven with browser automation frameworks, computer controls, or cdp and webdriver bidi directly. beyond browsers, KERNEL provides a platform of infrastructure primitives so your agents have what they need on real websites: stealth and proxies, authentication, payments, live view, replays, and more.

<Columns className="responsive-columns" cols={4}>
<Card title="Sandboxed Chromium" img="/images/chromium.svg" href="/introduction/create">
We spin up cloud browsers in &lt;30ms with GPU acceleration when needed.
</Card>
<Card title="Auth" img="/images/auth.svg" href="/auth/overview">
choose Managed Auth or Fill from Vault for browser agents.
## why we built it this way

most browser infrastructure runs chromium in containers orchestrated by kubernetes, with warm pools to hide slow starts. we [pioneered](https://www.kernel.sh/blog/scale) a different approach: running chromium on unikernels, single-purpose vms that carry only what the browser needs.

a unikernel carries the browser and nothing else, so there's little to boot or keep running. running every browser this way has many benefits, including:

- **lifecycle actions are fast.** a browser is created in about 30ms at p50 and 105ms at p99 ([benchmarks](https://www.kernel.sh/benchmarks)), so you can create one per task instead of keeping a warm pool alive to hide start-up time.
- **code on the vm is safe to hand an agent.** every browser is its own vm, isolated at the hypervisor rather than sharing a host kernel with other tenants, so the [browser repl](/browsers/repl), [process execution](/browsers/process-execution), and root access over [ssh](/browsers/ssh) stay contained to that session.
- **idle browsers go into standby.** five seconds after the last client disconnects, a browser enters [standby](/browsers/standby): it keeps its state and stops accruing usage cost until a client reconnects.

## open source

we value open source and transparency, so we publish the browser image and the vm runtime behind KERNEL browsers on github. you can read exactly what runs your agent's browser, run it yourself, or contribute.

<Columns className="responsive-columns" cols={3}>
<Card title="kernel-images" icon="github" href="https://github.com/kernel/kernel-images">
the chromium images behind KERNEL browsers.
</Card>
<Card title="Stealth Mode" img="/images/stealth.svg" href="/browsers/bot-detection/overview">
We solve CAPTCHAs and manage residential proxies to help you see fewer of them.
<Card title="hypeman" icon="github" href="https://github.com/kernel/hypeman">
the vm runtime we built to run browsers.
</Card>
<Card title="o11y" img="/images/o11y.svg" href="/introduction/observe">
You can view sessions live and record them as MP4s for debugging.
<Card title="cloud-hypervisor" icon="github" href="https://github.com/kernel/cloud-hypervisor">
our fork of the cloud hypervisor virtual machine monitor.
Comment thread
cursor[bot] marked this conversation as resolved.
</Card>
</Columns>

## start here
<span id="start-here" />
<span id="prod-setup" />
<span id="scaling" />
## get started

<Columns cols={3}>
<Card title="Create" href="/introduction/create">
Spin up a browser and pick the shape — headless, stealth, GPU, profiles.
<Columns className="responsive-columns" cols={3}>
<Card title="see all features" img="/images/chromium.svg" href="/overview/products">
browsers, stealth, proxies, auth, payments, and everything else, each linking to its docs.
</Card>
<Card title="Control" href="/introduction/control">
Drive it with computer use, playwright execution, CDP, or WebDriver BiDi.
<Card title="quickstart" img="/images/overview/quickstart.svg" href="/start/quickstart">
hand setup to your coding agent with one prompt, or create your first browser yourself.
</Card>
<Card title="Observe" href="/introduction/observe">
Watch it live, record replays, and capture screenshots.
<Card title="cookbooks" img="/images/overview/cookbooks.svg" href="/cookbooks">
end-to-end recipes you can clone and run, from computer use fallbacks to agentic payments.
</Card>
</Columns>

import { CopyPromptButton } from '/snippets/copy-prompt-button.jsx';

<div className="tinker-box">
<h3 style={{ margin: 0, fontSize: '1.5rem', fontWeight: 600 }}>fast setup</h3>
<div className="tinker-box-row">
<div style={{ flexShrink: 0 }}>
<img src="/images/tinker-bot.svg" alt="" className="block dark:hidden" style={{ width: '146px', height: 'auto' }} />
<img src="/images/tinker-bot-dark.svg" alt="" className="hidden dark:block" style={{ width: '146px', height: 'auto' }} />
</div>
<div className="tinker-box-content">
<p style={{ margin: 0, fontSize: '0.9375rem', lineHeight: 1.6, opacity: 0.8 }}>
copy and paste this into your AI coding agent (Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, etc.). it installs the Kernel CLI and skills, authenticates you, and opens a live browser session that you or your agent can interact with.
</p>
<div>
<CopyPromptButton />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

## prod setup

Our [app platform](/apps/develop) is a serverless compute service for running agent loops triggered on demand or by scheduled events without having to provision or manage sandboxes. Your agent runs co-located with its browser to minimize network latency.

Scaffold a project from a template:

```bash
kernel create --template computer-use
```

Deploy and invoke it on demand:

```bash
kernel deploy agent.ts
kernel invoke my-agent my-task --payload '{"url": "https://example.com"}'
```

### scaling

[browser pools](/browsers/pools) keep browsers ready to use and pre-configured, so you skip start-up latency on every task and idle browsers aren't billed. reach for them once you're running the same workload repeatedly, need low-latency acquisition, or are scaling steady, high-frequency traffic — on-demand `browsers.create()` stays the right call for occasional, bursty, or one-off work.
2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions integrations/overview.mdx
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Kernel browsers work with any tool that speaks the Chrome DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi. The guides below cover the integrations with first-class support. For anything else, see [how you drive the browser](/introduction/control). For every integration from one vendor on one page, see [Claude](/integrations/claude/overview) and [Vercel](/integrations/vercel/overview).

Sections follow the pieces of a browser agent described in [important concepts](/overview/concepts).

<span id="popular-framework-integrations" />
<span id="custom-integrations" />
<span id="universal-cdp-compatibility" />
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