See the browser when you need to
Camofox usually works best out of sight. But when a login needs attention, a page looks wrong, or you want to understand what an agent is doing, a hidden browser is hard to help with.
v1.14.0 adds an opt-in local browser window:
CAMOFOX_INTERACTIVE=desktopStart Camofox with that setting and it opens a real local Camoufox window. You can watch the task, inspect the page, and step in when needed. This is for direct local installs, including Hermes running on your own computer.
It is off by default. Existing installs remain headless, and desktop mode does not expose VNC, noVNC, or a remote browser-control port. If you need a browser-based remote view, use the existing VNC plugin in a supported Linux or Docker setup; it is a separate interactive path, not a second view of the same browser session.
You can also set it in camofox.config.json:
{
"interactive": { "mode": "desktop" }
}Set CAMOFOX_INTERACTIVE=off, or remove the setting, to return to normal headless behavior.
Other improvements
- Browser recovery stays with the affected user instead of disrupting other active users.
- Timed-out actions retire their tab rather than continuing in the background.
- Download clicks are not accidentally sent twice, and image URLs finish loading correctly.
- Direct installs support Node 24; the published Docker image supports ARM64 and includes the MCP files needed at runtime.
- VNC-backed displays clean up their own temporary display files after they stop.
npm testnow runs its test layers in the right order, and audited transitive dependencies were updated.
Thanks
Thank you to the contributors whose work informed or was incorporated into this release:
- @e-Garcia for the health-probe compatibility fix (#9253) and the Xvfb cleanup investigation (#9252).
- @dyiapanis for the per-user navigation recovery and single-flight restart work (#9324).
- @ibrahiem9 for the ARM64 Docker runtime and MCP reliability work (#9329).