Chrome policies

Kernel browsers accept an optional chrome_policy object that lets you apply Chrome enterprise policies to the browser at launch. Use this to control startup behavior, default homepages, bookmarks, download UI, notifications, and other browser-level settings. chrome_policy is supported on:

browsers.create() — on-demand browser sessions
browserPools.create() and browserPools.update() — reserved browser pools

Keys are Chrome policy names and values are the corresponding settings.

On-demand browsers

Pass chrome_policy when creating an on-demand browser. The policy is applied at session creation time.

import Kernel from '@onkernel/sdk';

const kernel = new Kernel();

const kernelBrowser = await kernel.browsers.create({
  chrome_policy: {
    HomepageLocation: "https://kernel.sh",
    HomepageIsNewTabPage: false,
    ShowHomeButton: true,
    DownloadBubbleEnabled: false,
  },
});

from kernel import Kernel

kernel = Kernel()

kernel_browser = kernel.browsers.create(
    chrome_policy={
        "HomepageLocation": "https://kernel.sh",
        "HomepageIsNewTabPage": False,
        "ShowHomeButton": True,
        "DownloadBubbleEnabled": False,
    },
)

The policy is echoed on GET /browsers/{id} and GET /browsers responses so you can verify what was applied.

Reserved browser pools

Pass chrome_policy when creating or updating a pool. Every browser in the pool launches with the policy applied. See Custom chrome policies on pools for the pool-specific update flow (including discard_all_idle).

import Kernel from '@onkernel/sdk';

const kernel = new Kernel();

const pool = await kernel.browserPools.create({
  name: "my-pool",
  size: 5,
  chrome_policy: {
    DownloadBubbleEnabled: false,
    HomepageLocation: "https://example.com",
  },
});

from kernel import Kernel

kernel = Kernel()

pool = kernel.browser_pools.create(
    name="my-pool",
    size=5,
    chrome_policy={
        "DownloadBubbleEnabled": False,
        "HomepageLocation": "https://example.com",
    },
)

Example policies

Policy	Type	Description
`HomepageLocation`	`string`	URL loaded when clicking the home button
`HomepageIsNewTabPage`	`boolean`	When `false`, the home button navigates to `HomepageLocation` instead of the new tab page
`ShowHomeButton`	`boolean`	Shows the home button in the toolbar
`NewTabPageLocation`	`string`	URL shown when opening a new tab
`RestoreOnStartup`	`integer`	Set to `4` to open a specific list of URLs on browser startup
`RestoreOnStartupURLs`	`string[]`	URLs to open when the browser starts. Requires `RestoreOnStartup` set to `4`
`BookmarkBarEnabled`	`boolean`	Shows the bookmark bar
`ManagedBookmarks`	`array`	Pre-configured bookmarks. Supports folders via nested `children` arrays
`DownloadBubbleEnabled`	`boolean`	Controls the download bubble UI. Set to `false` to fall back to the classic download shelf

Available policies

Any policy listed in the Chrome Enterprise policy documentation can be used in the chrome_policy object. Refer to the official docs for the full list of supported policy names, types, and values.

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Chrome policies

On-demand browsers

Reserved browser pools

Example policies

Available policies

​On-demand browsers

​Reserved browser pools

​Example policies

​Available policies

On-demand browsers

Reserved browser pools

Example policies

Available policies