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Chromium-based browsers (Chromium, Edge, Brave variants)

Oracle’s browser engine assumes Google Chrome by default and launches it via chrome-launcher. Cookie copying from Chrome’s profile/keychain is an explicit opt-in because cloning a live ChatGPT session can invalidate the interactive browser when tokens rotate. Chromium, Microsoft Edge, and other forks ship the same DevTools protocol, but they keep the executable and cookie store in different locations. Prefer a dedicated --browser-manual-login profile; if you intentionally copy cookies, use --browser-cookie-sync with the knobs below.

1. Point Oracle at the right executable

Either pass the CLI flag or set it once in ~/.oracle/config.json:

  • CLI: oracle --engine browser --browser-chrome-path "/Applications/Microsoft Edge.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Edge" …
  • Config: 
    {
  browser: {
    chromePath: "/Applications/Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium",
  },
}

--browser-chrome-path (also exposed in oracle --debug-help) controls which binary chrome-launcher starts. You can still keep chromeProfile: "Default" if you want to copy cookies from Chrome proper while launching Edge/Chromium.

To launch the selected binary headlessly, add --browser-headless or set browser.headless: true:

oracle --engine browser \
  --browser-chrome-path "/path/to/chromium" \
  --browser-headless \
  --prompt "Summarize the release notes"

Headless mode is opt-in; Oracle remains headful by default because some sites reject stock headless Chrome. The selected Chromium binary must provide any compatibility those sites require. Headless is a launch-only option: an explicit --browser-headless flag cannot be combined with --browser-attach-running, a saved browser.headless preference is ignored in attach-running mode (matching other launch-only defaults), and standalone --remote-chrome continues to warn and ignore headless.

2. Tell cookie sync where your session lives

Set the new --browser-cookie-path flag (or browser.chromeCookiePath in config) to the absolute path of the fork’s Cookies SQLite database. When present, Oracle feeds this path straight into the internal cookie reader, skipping Chrome-only heuristics and profile-name guesses.

oracle --engine browser \
  --browser-cookie-sync \
  --browser-chrome-path "/Applications/Microsoft Edge.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Edge" \
  --browser-cookie-path "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge/Profile 1/Cookies" \
  --prompt "Summarize the release notes"

Config example (JSON5):

{
  browser: {
    cookieSync: true,
    chromePath: "/usr/bin/chromium",
    chromeCookiePath: "/home/you/.config/chromium/Default/Cookies",
    chromeProfile: null,
  },
}

If you omit chromeCookiePath, Oracle falls back to chromeProfile (name or explicit path). Providing both keeps things unambiguous.

Common cookie DB paths

Browser macOS Linux Windows
Chrome (default) ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Cookies ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Cookies %LOCALAPPDATA%/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Network/Cookies
Chromium ~/Library/Application Support/Chromium/Default/Cookies ~/.config/chromium/Default/Cookies %LOCALAPPDATA%/Chromium/User Data/Default/Network/Cookies
Microsoft Edge ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge/Default/Cookies (profiles are Profile 1, Profile 2, …) ~/.config/microsoft-edge/Default/Cookies %LOCALAPPDATA%/Microsoft/Edge/User Data/Default/Network/Cookies

Brave and other forks work the same way—inspect %APPDATA%/~/Library/Application Support/~/.config for their Cookies file and pass its full path to --browser-cookie-path.

macOS / Windows encryption caveat

Oracle now detects the right Keychain/DPAPI label based on the cookie path (Chrome Safe Storage, Chromium Safe Storage, Microsoft Edge Safe Storage, etc.) and pulls the key automatically. If macOS asks for Keychain access, approve it. When the system doesn’t expose that secret (e.g., the browser hasn’t stored any cookies yet), fall back to --browser-inline-cookies[(-file)] until you can sign in once via the target browser.

Troubleshooting checklist

  • oracle --debug-help lists both --browser-chrome-path and --browser-cookie-path.
  • Run with -v to verify which cookie source Oracle is using (Chrome profile, inline payload, or explicit path).
  • If cookie sync fails with “Chrome Safe Storage” prompts while using another fork, fall back to inline cookies until the fork’s password store is supported.
  • CHROME_PATH still works as a last-resort override for the executable; config + CLI flags are preferred because they’re persisted per workspace.