hermes: CDP browser daemon + MCP client wiring for the agent

Adds a digest-pinned headless-shell Chrome DevTools Protocol daemon as a
boot-persistent quadlet unit (chrome-devtools-protocol.container). The
entrypoint override drops the image's socat front so the CDP endpoint binds
loopback-only on 127.0.0.1:9222 in the host network namespace; only the two
host-network consumers (Signal gateway, webui server) can drive it.

hermes-webui flips Network=dankclaw_default -> Network=host so its agent
process shares the daemon's namespace (0.0.0.0:8787 bind is LAN-facing as
before; no exposure change). deploy_hermes installs the new unit and starts
it if inactive without restarting in-flight browser sessions.

dankclaw/hermes/quadlet/chrome-devtools-protocol.container

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Quadlet unit: Chrome DevTools Protocol daemon for the hermes agent (rootless).
+#
+# Install path on dankclaw: ~/.config/containers/systemd/chrome-devtools-protocol.container
+# Unit name: chrome-devtools-protocol.service (container name: chrome-devtools-protocol)
+#
+# Headless Chrome exposing raw CDP over http://127.0.0.1:9222. The hermes
+# agent's chrome-devtools MCP client (mcp_servers.chrome-devtools in
+# /data/config.yaml) spawns npx chrome-devtools-mcp with --browserUrl pointing
+# at this endpoint and drives the browser over it. Both consumers — the Signal
+# gateway and the webui server — run in the host network namespace, so a
+# loopback-only bind is reachable by exactly the processes that may drive the
+# browser and by nobody else on the LAN or WAN.
+#
+# Entrypoint override drops the image's socat front (which would bind
+# 0.0.0.0:9222 in the host namespace and hand browser control to the whole
+# LAN). --no-sandbox is required because rootless podman grants Chrome no user
+# namespace for its sandbox; the content processes therefore run as the uid
+# that already owns this container, capping the blast radius of a hostile page.
+# Image pinned by digest: upgrades are a deliberate unit edit + redeploy, not a
+# tag drift at pull time.
+
+[Unit]
+Description=Chrome DevTools Protocol daemon (headless-shell) for hermes
+
+[Container]
+ContainerName=chrome-devtools-protocol
+Network=host
+Image=docker.io/chromedp/headless-shell@sha256:2d349b544a1ea6b5b5fd7c0fe99215ff662339c57407ee2e8c0a11af93516b04
+Entrypoint=/headless-shell/headless-shell
+Exec=--no-sandbox --disable-gpu --use-gl=angle --use-angle=swiftshader --remote-debugging-address=127.0.0.1 --remote-debugging-port=9222
+ShmSize=1073741824
+
+[Service]
+Restart=always
+RestartSec=5
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=default.target

dankclaw/hermes/quadlet/hermes-webui.container

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Quadlet unit: Hermex webui (rootless, boot-persistent).
+# Quadlet unit: Hermex webui (Hermex) container (rootless, boot-persistent).
 #
 # Install path on dankclaw: ~/.config/containers/systemd/hermes-webui.container
 # Unit name: hermes-webui.service (container name: hermes-webui)
@@ -7,10 +7,16 @@
 # foreground mode: bootstrap.py creates .venv inside the mounted checkout,
 # installs WebUI + agent deps, then execs server.py as a single foreground
 # process. It reads HERMES_HOME=/data, so it drives the SAME agent state
-# (memory, skills, sessions) as the gateway container. Published on the LAN
+# (memory, skills, sessions) as the gateway container.
-# interface only (192.168.0.143:8787): password-gated (HERMES_WEBUI_PASSWORD
+#
-# in the host .env, git-ignored), so LAN clients connect directly and the
+# Host networking on purpose: the agent's chrome-devtools MCP client spawns
-# SSH tunnel (phone -> Dankclaw:22) remains the sole off-network ingress.
+# npx chrome-devtools-mcp with --browserUrl=http://127.0.0.1:9222, and the CDP
+# daemon binds loopback-only in the host network namespace (see
+# chrome-devtools-protocol.container). Only processes sharing that namespace
+# can drive the browser; a bridge-network client could not reach it at all.
+# The server therefore listens on 0.0.0.0:8787 of the host netns (LAN-facing as
+# before); access control is the password gate, and the SSH tunnel
+# (phone -> Dankclaw:22) remains the sole off-network ingress path.
 
 [Unit]
 Description=Hermes webui (Hermex) container
@@ -19,9 +25,8 @@ Description=Hermes webui (Hermex) container
 ContainerName=hermes-webui
 Image=localhost/hermes-agent:latest
 Pull=never
-Network=dankclaw_default
+Network=host
 EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/dankclaw/.env
-Environment=HERMES_HOME=/data
 Environment=HERMES_WEBUI_HOST=0.0.0.0
 Environment=HERMES_WEBUI_PORT=8787
 Environment=HERMES_WEBUI_PASSWORD=${HERMES_WEBUI_PASSWORD}
@@ -30,7 +35,6 @@ Environment=HERMES_WEBUI_PASSWORD=${HERMES_WEBUI_PASSWORD}
 Environment=HERMES_WEBUI_SKIP_ONBOARDING=1
 Volume=/home/dank/hermes-data:/data
 Volume=/home/dank/hermes-webui:/webui
-PublishPort=192.168.0.143:8787:8787
 Exec=python3 /webui/bootstrap.py --foreground
 # JSON exec form on purpose: this quadlet generator joins a bare HealthCmd
 # into ONE argv element with \x20 escapes and then shell-executes it — the

scripts/deploy-remote.sh

@@ -576,6 +576,15 @@ deploy_hermes() {
     # cannot be enabled by this host's v1 quadlet generator).
     local unit
     mkdir -p "$quadlet_unit_dir"
+    # The CDP browser daemon is a companion service to the trio: install its
+    # unit and start it if inactive, but never restart it on deploy — a
+    # restart would kill in-flight browser sessions. Consumers (gateway,
+    # webui) reconnect with backoff.
+    cp "dankclaw/hermes/quadlet/chrome-devtools-protocol.container" "$quadlet_unit_dir/"
+    systemctl --user daemon-reload
+    if ! systemctl --user is-active --quiet chrome-devtools-protocol.service; then
+        systemctl --user start chrome-devtools-protocol.service
+    fi
     # The units run the image under a localhost/-aliased tag: this host's
     # quadlet path can fail to resolve registry-prefixed refs from local
     # storage at create time. Tag first, then (re)create via deploy.
@@ -583,7 +592,6 @@ deploy_hermes() {
     for unit in hermes hermes-dashboard hermes-webui; do
         cp "dankclaw/hermes/quadlet/$unit.container" "$quadlet_unit_dir/"
     done
-    systemctl --user daemon-reload
     if ! systemctl --user is-active --quiet hermes.service; then
         podman stop hermes hermes-dashboard hermes-webui 2>/dev/null || true
         podman rm hermes hermes-dashboard hermes-webui 2>/dev/null || true

serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Hermes.md

@@ -43,10 +43,24 @@ both containers. The tracked, sanitized configuration baseline is
 - Model choice drives quality; the local `frank-default-large` (Dankclaw, 7770) is the intended backend.
 - Do not expose the gateway without auth — put it behind [[Caddy]] with basic auth.
 
+## Browser automation (Chrome DevTools Protocol daemon)
+
+The agent's browser tool is an MCP client (`mcp_tool.py` in the image) that
+spawns `npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest --browserUrl=http://127.0.0.1:9222`
+per session; the browser itself lives in a dedicated daemon container, the
+digest-pinned headless-shell unit `chrome-devtools-protocol.container` (host
+network, loopback-only bind on 127.0.0.1:9222). Both consumers — the Signal
+gateway and the webui server — run in the host network namespace, so they can
+dial the daemon on loopback; nothing on the LAN can reach the CDP endpoint.
+The wiring lives in the live `/data/config.yaml` under `mcp_servers.chrome-devtools`
+(command `npx`, args `-y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest --browserUrl=http://127.0.0.1:9222`).
+The npx package cache lives in the container layer, so a recreation (not just a
+restart) pays one first-call npm download; subsequent calls are cached.
+
 ## See Also
 
 - [[Hermes-Dashboard]] — the LAN browser management UI
 - [[Hermes-WebUI]] — the Hermex server (phone-facing API, SSH-tunneled)
 - [[Dankclaw Stack]]
 - [[OpenWebUI]] — the chat UI that pairs with Hermes
-- Knowledge base: [[SearXNG]] (Hermes as the search agent)
+- Knowledge base: [[SearXNG]] (Hermes as the search agent)