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Use the browser-only view when a person must see and control Chrome, but not the sandbox desktop.

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Open the browser view

  • In the dashboard, open the sandbox menu and select Browser.
  • In the CLI, run one of these commands:

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Use a Chrome profile

Add --profile <absolute path on the sandbox> to stream a specific Chrome user data directory. One sandbox can then hold several signed-in profiles. You choose which one to open.

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How the browser view works

The browser view is a separate browser surface on the same running sandbox. It does not create another sandbox. It never falls back to the desktop or to VNC. The browser view has its own Moonlight process, streaming identity, active-stream slot and clipboard policy. These are separate from the desktop stream. Thus a browser URL cannot attach to the desktop stream. New sandboxes get the browser-view files when Boat provisions them. The guest image must already have Chrome, X, Openbox, Sunshine and Moonlight.
The browser-only view limits the stream to Chrome. It does not show controls to close Chrome. It is not a security boundary against code that already runs inside the sandbox. A Boat user who can run any code, or who has root, can read or change the browser process and its data. Keep the returned URL secret.