THE BROWSER SURFACE
A browser it operates.
SynthOS doesn’t hand you a list of links to read. It drives a real browser the way you would — opening pages, reading them, clicking through, filling forms, and gathering what it finds — to research, gather, and act on the web on your behalf. You don’t lose sight of any of it: each step shows up as a card you can read, and it pauses to ask before anything you’d want to confirm.
READING VS. ACTING
Two very different things, kept distinct.
It helps to separate two jobs that look similar from the outside. Reading the web is opening pages and pulling out what they say — researching a topic, comparing a few sources, gathering prices, quotes, dates, or facts into your notes. Nothing on the page changes; the browser is a pair of eyes.
Acting on the web is the browser as a pair of hands: submitting a form, posting something, sending a message, starting a checkout, changing a setting on a site you’re signed into. The same page is no longer just read — something happens because SynthOS did it.
SynthOS treats acting as the higher-stakes job it is. Reading is available wherever the browser is. Acting is gated by your tier, and — separately from any tier — it pauses for your approval before steps that change something out in the world (see Approvals while browsing below).
Read only. On the free Watch tier the browser researches and gathers — it opens pages and files what it reads into your vault — but it doesn’t take actions that change anything on a site.
Reads and acts. Build, Run, Orchestrate, and GodMode all unlock acting on the web — filling and submitting forms, posting, and the rest — still with a receipt for every step and an approval before anything risky. Acting on the web is a capability you unlock, never a guardrail you buy back: the approvals are on in every tier.
WATCHING IT BROWSE
Every step is on the record.
A browser run isn’t a black box that returns an answer. It unfolds as a sequence of cards — what it opened, what it clicked, and why — so you can follow the reasoning, not just the result.
OPENS A PAGE
Where it went
Each navigation is its own card: the address it opened and the goal it was pursuing when it went there. You can see the trail of pages it visited in order, the same way you’d retrace your own browser history.
Read it like a log. Nothing happens off to the side that doesn’t leave a card.
CLICKS & READS
What it clicked and why
When it clicks a link, opens a result, or scrolls to find something, the card names the element it acted on and the reason — “opening the pricing page to compare the two plans,” not a silent jump. What it read off the page is captured alongside, so you can check its source rather than take its word.
GATHERS & FILES
What it took away
As it finds the facts you asked for, they’re written into your vault with a link back to where they came from. By the end of the run you have both the answer and the path it took to get there — a record you can reopen later, not a one-time reply.
Filed, not flashed. The findings outlive the session in markdown you own.
APPROVALS WHILE BROWSING
It pauses before anything you’d want to confirm.
Reading is allowed to flow. Acting is not. When a browser run reaches a step that would change something out in the world — submitting a form, posting, sending a message, starting a payment, or changing an account setting — SynthOS stops and asks first. It shows you the exact action, the page it’s on, and the values it’s about to enter, and waits.
You can approve that step, edit what it’s about to do, or decline and send it a different way. Nothing consequential happens on a page without you saying so. This is true on every paid tier — the approval prompt is part of how acting works, not a setting you can be upsold out of.
FLOWS WITHOUT ASKING
Reading and gathering — opening pages, following links, scrolling, copying out facts. Reversible, low-stakes browsing it can do continuously while you watch.
PAUSES TO ASK
Submitting forms, posting or sending anything, starting a purchase, or changing a setting on a site you’re signed in to — anything that leaves a mark someone else can see.
LOGINS & SENSITIVE SITES
When a page needs you.
Some pages can’t — and shouldn’t — be crossed by an agent alone: a sign-in screen, a two-factor prompt, a payment form, a CAPTCHA. SynthOS is built to hand those moments back to you rather than try to fake its way through them.
The browser it drives runs on your Mac. When it hits a page that needs you, it pauses and lets you take the wheel — you sign in, clear the check, or enter the sensitive detail yourself, in the same window — then it carries on from where you left it. It is operating a browser on your machine, not a copy of your accounts somewhere else.
Sessions and cookies live in the browser on your machine, the way they would in any browser you use. SynthOS doesn’t need a separate copy of your credentials to do its job.
Logins, two-factor prompts, payment fields, and CAPTCHAs are handed to you. It picks up on the other side; it doesn’t store the secret you typed.
WHERE RESULTS GO
Filed into your vault as you watch.
What the browser gathers doesn’t vanish when the run ends. Findings are written into your Obsidian-compatible vault as plain markdown on your disk — with links back to the pages they came from — and auto-linked into the living graph alongside everything else SynthOS has done for you.
Because the vault is the same brain the rest of the surfaces write to, a price the browser found this morning is there for a terminal task this afternoon, or a chat next week. Web research stops being something you redo and starts being something that compounds.
LIMITS & GOOD PRACTICES
What it’s good at — and where to steer.
The browser surface is powerful and honest about its edges. A few things worth knowing before you point it at the web.
PAGES CAN FIGHT BACK
Some sites block automated browsers, change layout often, or rate-limit. When a page resists, the run says so on the card rather than guessing — better to surface the wall than invent a result.
CHECK THE SOURCE
Every finding links back to where it came from. For anything you’ll act on — a price, a date, a policy — open the source card and confirm it yourself. The trail is there so you can.
SCOPE THE ASK
Tell it where to look and when to stop — “compare these three vendors” beats “research the market.” A bounded job is faster, cheaper, and easier to read back step by step.
YOU OWN THE RISKY STEPS
Logins, payments, and anything that posts or sends stop for your approval by design. Read the action before you approve it; that pause is the point, not a delay to rush past.
For the skeptical: the browser is a real one SynthOS drives on your Mac — not a scrape of cached pages. Logins, two-factor, and payment screens are handed back to you; it doesn’t keep a copy of what you type there. Acting on the web is unlocked by tier; the approval before a world-changing step is on in every tier and isn’t something you can pay to remove. There is no “while you sleep” here — you watch it browse.
A browser that researches, gathers, and acts — with every step on the record and your hand on the steps that matter.