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Virtual Browser lets you run a full Chromium or Firefox browser inside your workspace and control it remotely from your own browser. It uses a headless display server with VNC streaming — you see and interact with the remote browser as if it were running locally.

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Use Cases

  • Web scraping — browse sites from a VM IP address, avoiding bot detection on your local machine
  • UI testing — visually verify web applications running inside the workspace
  • Web tool access — use browser-based tools (admin panels, dashboards) from within the VM network
  • Screenshot automation — capture pages rendered by a real browser engine
  • Multi-browser testing — both Chromium and Firefox are available for cross-browser verification

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How It Works

Virtual Browser runs three components inside your workspace: You open the noVNC URL in your own browser and get a live, interactive view of the remote browser.

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Requirements

Virtual Browser requires Xvfb and x11vnc to be installed in the workspace. These are pre-installed in the full image along with Chromium and Firefox via Playwright.
ImageStatusWhat’s included
fullReady to launchXvfb, x11vnc, Chromium, Firefox, Playwright
baseRequires installationNone of the above
devRequires installationNone of the above
openclawRequires installationNone of the above
The full image has browsers pre-installed, so launching is nearly instant. On other images, installation downloads Chromium and Firefox which can take several minutes.

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Installation

If your workspace doesn’t use the full image, install Virtual Browser first. This installs Playwright along with Chromium and Firefox browsers. 
curl -X POST https://api.rigbox.dev/api/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/tools/virtual-browser/install \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RIGBOX_API_KEY"
Installation downloads browser binaries and their dependencies. This can take 3-5 minutes on a base image workspace depending on network speed.
See Install Virtual Browser for the full response schema.

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Tracking Installation Progress

Poll the installation status to know when the browser is ready. 
while true; do
  STATUS=$(curl -s https://api.rigbox.dev/api/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/tools/virtual-browser/install-status \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $RIGBOX_API_KEY" | jq -r '.status')
  echo "Status: $STATUS"
  [ "$STATUS" = "installed" ] && break
  sleep 5
done
See Installation Status for the response schema.

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Launching Virtual Browser

Once installed (or immediately on the full image), launch the browser. 
curl -X POST https://api.rigbox.dev/api/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/tools/virtual-browser/launch \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RIGBOX_API_KEY"
See Launch Virtual Browser for the response schema.

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Accessing the Browser

Once launched, Virtual Browser is accessible via noVNC on port 8892 inside the workspace. The public URL is: 
https://browser-{workspace-id}.rigbox.dev
Open this URL in your local browser. You’ll see the remote browser’s display and can interact with it using your mouse and keyboard.
The browser- prefixed subdomain is created automatically when you launch Virtual Browser. You don’t need to create an app route manually.

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Interacting with the Remote Browser

Once connected via noVNC:
  • Click anywhere to interact with page elements
  • Type to enter text in input fields and the address bar
  • Scroll with your mouse wheel or trackpad
  • Navigate using the browser’s address bar, back/forward buttons
  • Open new tabs using keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+T) or right-click menus
The noVNC client supports clipboard sharing. Copy text on your local machine and paste it into the remote browser, or vice versa. Use the noVNC sidebar menu for clipboard controls.

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Stopping Virtual Browser

Stop the browser when you’re done to free up resources. 
curl -X POST https://api.rigbox.dev/api/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/tools/virtual-browser/stop \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RIGBOX_API_KEY"
See Stop Virtual Browser for details.

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Complete Example: Browse a Local Web App

This walkthrough starts a web app inside the workspace and uses Virtual Browser to view it.

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Create a workspace with the full image

import requests
import time

API_URL = "https://api.rigbox.dev/api"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"}

# Quick deploy with the full template
workspace = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/quick-deploy",
    headers=HEADERS,
    json={"template_id": "full"},
).json()

workspace_id = workspace["id"]

# Wait for the workspace to be running
while True:
    status = requests.get(
        f"{API_URL}/workspaces/{workspace_id}",
        headers=HEADERS,
    ).json()["status"]
    if status == "running":
        break
    time.sleep(2)

print(f"Workspace running: {workspace_id}")

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Start a local web app

SSH into the workspace and start your web application: 
# Inside the VM
cd /home/developer/my-app
npm run dev -- --port 3000 &

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Launch Virtual Browser

response = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/workspaces/{workspace_id}/tools/virtual-browser/launch",
    headers=HEADERS,
)
browser_url = f"https://browser-{workspace_id}.rigbox.dev"
print(f"Open in your browser: {browser_url}")

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View your app in the remote browser

Open the noVNC URL in your local browser. In the remote Chromium browser, navigate to http://localhost:3000 to see your web app rendered by a real browser engine inside the VM.

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Stop when done

requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/workspaces/{workspace_id}/tools/virtual-browser/stop",
    headers=HEADERS,
)

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Programmatic Browser Control with Playwright

Since Virtual Browser installs Playwright, you can also control the browser programmatically from within the VM for automation tasks. 
# Inside the VM — run this as a Python script
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")
    page.screenshot(path="screenshot.png")
    print(f"Title: {page.title()}")
    browser.close()
This is useful for:
  • Automated screenshot capture
  • Web scraping with full JavaScript rendering
  • End-to-end testing of web applications
  • PDF generation from web pages
Virtual Browser (the VNC-based UI) and Playwright scripts use separate browser instances. Launching Virtual Browser does not affect Playwright scripts, and vice versa.

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Next Steps