Skip to main content
Some apps have no API. You can still connect them with a browser connection: you sign in through a browser once, and Membrane operates the app’s own interface on your behalf — opening pages, reading what’s on them, filling forms, and downloading files the way a person would. A browser connection is a Connection like any other. Once it exists, the Membrane agent uses it as a client — the same way it uses an API connection — to get work done in apps that would otherwise be out of reach.

​
When to use one

  • The app has no public API, or no connector for it yet.
  • The task only exists behind a sign-in: a portal, an internal tool, a supplier or bank website.
When you try to connect an app that has no connector, Membrane offers Build an API connector first and Connect via browser as the alternative.

​
Connecting

In the console, choose Create Connection → Connect via browser, give the app a name and its sign-in URL, then sign in yourself.
  • You do the signing in. Membrane never sees what you type, and your sign-in is not recorded.
  • Confirm when you’re done. After you’ve signed in, choose I’m signed in and the connection is ready.

​
Letting someone else sign in

If the person with the credentials isn’t you, choose Invite someone who has the credentials. Membrane creates a single-use link they open to sign in — they don’t need a Membrane account, and they never get access to your workspace.

​
What the agent can do

Once connected, the agent can work the app inside a browser session: open the app, read the current page, click and type, wait for you when a step needs a human, and download reports or files. Data it pulls — a downloaded report, values read off a page — flows into your Data Tables, Files, jobs, and canvases, just like data from an API connection. You can ask for this in plain language, for example:
Using the supplier portal connection, download this month’s settlement report and record every row in a table.

​
Sessions

Each time the agent works the app, it runs in a browser session shown in the connection’s Browser panel, with the steps it took. A session is live while it runs, pauses and asks for you when a step needs a human, and ends when the work is done.

​
Keeping it connected

Signed-in sessions don’t last forever. If the app signs the connection out, it needs to be reconnected before the agent can use it again:
  • Reconnect — sign in again yourself, or invite someone who has the credentials.
  • Test — when the connection has a sign-in check configured, Test opens a browser session and verifies the saved sign-in is still valid.