Launch HN: BrowserBook (YC F24) – IDE for deterministic browser automation

Hey HN! We’re Chris, Jorrie, and Evan of BrowserBook, an IDE for writing and debugging Playwright-based web automations. You can download it as a Mac app here: https://browserbook.com , and there’s a demo video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODGJBCNqGUI . Why we built this: When we were going through YC, we were a company that automated back-office healthcare workflows. Since the interoperability ecosystem in healthcare is so fragmented, we started using browser agents to automate EMRs, practice management software, and payment portals directly through the web. When we did, we ran into a ton of problems: Speed: High latency on LLM calls vs. a scripting approach Cost: We burned through tokens with all the context we needed to make the automations reasonably accurate Reliability: Even with detailed instructions, context, and tools, agents tended to drift on multi-step tasks in unpredictable ways Debuggability: When drift did occur, we were essentially playing