0.0.46 server browser: Google answers chrome-headless-shell with a CAPTCHA; point the engine at the Environment browser #43

What happened

A pilot Environment ran the upstream nightly 0.0.46-nightly.20261007.2774, which has T3's server browser (pingdotgg#15328). An agent there was asked to search Google, and Google answered with its "unusual traffic" page: a reCAPTCHA in its hardest form, with distorted images and "Please try again". The person worked on it in the panel. The agent's next tab was then asked again.

Why

Measured on that Environment (2026-10-07):

• T3's browser is chrome-headless-shell 154.0.8037.92. It reports navigator.userAgent … HeadlessChrome/154.0.8037.92 … and navigator.webdriver true. Agent tabs run in fresh isolated contexts without cookies, and they reach Google from a server's IP address.
• The Environment browser on the same Environment is Chrome 154 with a window on the virtual display and one persistent profile (root decision 0191). It reports a normal Chrome/154.0.0.0 user agent. The same Google search passed there earlier that day, without a CAPTCHA.

What it means for 0.0.46

Upstream's engine and its tools are what we want. The browser it launches, though, is not usable on sites that check for bots, and the Environment's sign-ins do not reach it.

The direction under exploration (variant B) is to connect upstream's engine to the Environment browser over CDP, in its default context with the Environment's sign-ins. The 0.0.45 overlay does this first; it addresses #28. Upstream has no setting for an external browser; its only knob is T3CODE_SERVER_BROWSER_SANDBOX. On 0.0.46 this needs an overlay change in ServerBrowserContexts, or an upstream proposal.

Nothing has been reported upstream yet.