brow

Download, manage and launch multiple versions of Chrome & Firefox for web compatibility testing.

All browser binaries, profiles and cache are stored in ~/.brow/ — no system pollution.

Install

npm install -g brow-manager

Usage

# Interactive search & install
brow install chromium
brow install firefox

# Install specific version
brow install chromium 120
brow install firefox 128.0
brow install chromium latest

# Browse all available versions
brow available chromium
brow available firefox

# List installed browsers
brow list

# Launch
brow launch chromium
brow launch chromium 120
brow launch firefox --profile dev

# Remove
brow remove chromium 120

# Manage profiles
brow profiles
brow profile rm chromium dev

# Clear version cache
brow cache clear

Version coverage

| Browser | Range | Source | |----------|----------------|----------------------------------------------| | Chromium | 113 – latest | Chrome for Testing | | Chromium | 59 – 112 | Chromium Snapshots | | Firefox | 1.0 – latest | Mozilla Archive |

How it works

• Install: Downloads official browser builds and extracts them to ~/.brow/browsers/<browser>-<version>/
• Launch: Starts the browser with an isolated profile directory at ~/.brow/profiles/<browser>/<profile>/, so each version and profile is fully sandboxed
• Profiles: Each --profile <name> gets its own bookmarks, cookies, extensions, etc. Default profile is default

Requirements

• macOS (uses hdiutil for Firefox .dmg extraction)
• Node.js >= 18 or Bun
• curl and unzip (pre-installed on macOS)

Data directory

~/.brow/
├── browsers/          # Browser binaries
│   ├── chromium-120.0.6099.234/
│   └── firefox-128.0/
├── profiles/          # Isolated browser profiles
│   ├── chromium/
│   │   ├── default/
│   │   └── dev/
│   └── firefox/
│       └── default/
├── cache/             # Version list cache (24h TTL)
└── tmp/               # Temporary downloads (auto-cleaned)

License

MIT