Did an AI agent drive your browser while you were away? Chromium already knows

Description and use

Browser Watch in ccdeck lets users see pages opened by programs via API while they were away and react accordingly.

Problem

When agents run in the background, users cannot tell if automated navigation opened pages while they were away.

Outcome

Browser Watch reliably identifies API‑driven navigations that occur when the user is not actively browsing, providing a clear audit trail and configurable reactions.

Workflow

• Run ccdeck and open the Browser Watch panel
• Browser Watch queries the History database for visits with the FROM_API flag
• It groups visits into episodes per host and profile
• Episodes that occur during a quiet period (default 15 min) are shown as findings
• Users can click a finding to see full URLs and timestamps
• Users may dismiss findings or configure actions (notify, close tab, quit browser)

Evidence

Every visit in a Chromium history database has a transition value that says how you got there … One qualifier, FROM_API (0x08000000, bit 27), marks certain navigations from an external application.

Source

Browser Watch tests that bit rather than trying to infer intent from a URL.

Source

It has no idle timer and does not watch your keyboard. It goes by the history alone.

Source