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Zo has a real Chromium browser running on your computer. You sign into sites in that browser once, and from then on Zo can act on those sites as you: read your feed, click through your dashboard, post a draft, pull a number out of an admin panel, anything you’d otherwise do yourself. To open it, go to Settings → Tools and click Open Zo’s browser. The browser pops up in its own tab. Navigate, sign in, and close it. The session sticks.

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Why you’d use it

The browser is Zo’s universal fallback. Most of the time, Zo has a faster, cleaner way to do what you’re asking, and you should reach for those first when they exist. The browser is for everything else: services that don’t have an integration, don’t ship a CLI, don’t expose an API, and just live behind a sign-in page on the open web. That’s the long tail of the web. Niche SaaS, internal tools, customer portals, partner dashboards, vendor admin panels, anywhere you’d normally open a tab and do it yourself. What the browser unlocks for Zo: If you find yourself copy-pasting from a logged-in tab into Zo, that’s the moment to give Zo the browser instead.

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When to use it

The browser is heavier than Zo’s other ways of reaching the web. It loads a real page, runs JavaScript, and uses your session, so it’s worth it only when nothing lighter will do. The rough hierarchy: A good rule of thumb: if you could share the URL with someone who isn’t signed in and they’d see the same thing, use a web tool. If a service has its own integration or CLI, use that. The browser is the answer when you’d otherwise just open the tab yourself.

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Authenticated sites

Once you’ve signed into a site, it shows up in Settings → Tools as an authenticated site. That list also tells Zo which sites it has access to as you, so when you ask it to “check my Substack stats” it knows it can. You don’t have to mention “browser” in your prompts. Zo picks the browser tool on its own when a request points at a site it’s signed into. If you want to be explicit, say “in the browser…” or “open Substack and…”
The browser keeps live cookies for every site you sign into. Anything Zo can do as you in chat, it can also do as you on those sites: read messages, post, send, buy, change settings. Only sign into accounts you’re comfortable having Zo act on. If you want Zo to read a site but not take actions on it, run that work through a persona with a limited tool set.

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How sessions behave

Sessions persist the same way they do in your own browser. You sign in once, and Zo stays signed in until the site logs you out, expires the session, or you sign out from inside Zo’s browser.

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When Zo gets stuck

Live sites change layout, throw popups, and log you out. A few things that usually unblock Zo: