Browser and computer use

Agents can work outside Matter in three ways:

Matter’s browser, in a thread’s side panel. Always available.
Browser Use: your own Google Chrome, through the Matter Browser Control extension. Off until you turn it on.
Computer Use: the apps on your Mac. Off until you turn it on.

All three happen on the Mac that runs the thread.

Matter’s browser

Every thread has a side panel. Open it with the panel button at the top right of the thread (Show related content), click New tab, then Browser. Web links you click in a thread open there too.

The toolbar has Back, Forward, Reload, an address field that also searches Google, and Open in default browser. Press ⌘F to find text on the page. Sign-ins are kept, and passkeys work.

Agents can use this browser without any setting. When an agent opens a page, its tab appears in the side panel and comes to the front, so you can watch. It can also use tabs you opened in that thread, so you can sign in to a site for it. Matter must be open on the Mac that runs the thread.

Browser Use: your Chrome

With Browser Use on, agents can work in Google Chrome, in new tabs or ones you already have open, with the accounts you’re signed in to there. To set it up:

Turn on Browser Use for the Mac (see below).
Install the Matter Browser Control extension. If it’s missing, Matter offers Install extension, which opens it in the Chrome Web Store.
The first time an agent connects to a Chrome profile, Chrome opens Connect Chrome to Matter, which explains what the agent can see and where that information goes. Click Connect to Matter. You do this once per Chrome profile.

An agent’s tabs sit in a tab group named “Matter ·” and the thread’s title, and stay in the background unless it brings one forward. The extension shows an M badge, “Controlled by a Matter agent”, and Chrome shows its own notice that the browser is being debugged. When the agent is done, Matter closes the tabs it opened and hands back the ones it borrowed.

Computer Use: apps on your Mac

With Computer Use on, agents can open apps and work in their windows: read them, click, type, scroll, use menus and take screenshots. Where it can, the agent works in the background without taking over your keyboard, and brings a window forward only when an action needs it.

When you turn it on, macOS asks for Accessibility and Screen & System Audio Recording. If one is missing, the setting says so and offers Open permissions. If Computer Use can’t start, use Relaunch Matter. When all is well, the setting says “Ready.”

Turn them on

Browser Use and Computer Use are switches for each of your Macs. They start off, and they apply to all your workspaces on that Mac. A change applies from the agent’s next turn.

In Settings: open Settings > Devices, choose the Mac, and use the switches under Capabilities. You can only change them on that Mac.
In the composer: the compass and monitor buttons beside Attach files turn Browser Use and Computer Use on or off for the thread’s Mac. They’re unavailable when the thread runs on another Mac.

Routines

A routine uses the switches of the Mac it runs on. Your own routines can use whatever that Mac allows.

A routine that comes with a Matter app gets only what its app’s manifest says it needs: browser, computer, or both. One that needs browser always has Matter’s browser, plus Chrome when Browser Use is on. One that needs computer fails on a Mac with Computer Use off, and its run history says: “This routine needs Computer Use, which is off on this Mac. Turn it on in Settings, then run it again.”

While an agent works

Each browser or computer action shows as a step in the agent’s reply. Expand a step to see the details.
To stop the agent, click Stop in the composer.
To end its access, turn off the switch, or the extension in Chrome.