Browser subagent broken as playwrite missing $HOME directory designation on cloud server

Google Antigravity
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Every since the last update to Antigravity, every time my agent tries to use the browser subagent, the subagent fails. i asked my agent to write up a detailed report: Bug Report: browser_subagent Initialization Failure (Windows) Issue Overview The browser_subagent tool consistently fails to initialize in the Windows Antigravity environment. The failure occurs at the Playwright context creation stage, preventing any browser-based activities (navigation, screenshots, or interaction). Error Details Error Code: CORTEX_STEP_TYPE_OPEN_BROWSER_URL failure. Root Cause Message: failed to create browser context: failed to install playwright: $HOME environment variable is not set Context: This occurs when calling the open_browser_url tool through the subagent. Environment Observations OS: Windows Shell: PowerShell (pwsh) Constraint: The subagent appears to rely on a Unix-style $HOME environment variable to locate or install Playwright binaries. On Windows, this variable is typically not set by default (using $USERPROFILE or ~ instead), which causes the Playwright installer to crash. Steps to Reproduce Invoke the browser_subagent tool with any URL Observe the initialization failure during the open_browser_url step. Check the logs for the specific $HOME environment variable is not set error string. Impact Total loss of visual verification capabilities for the agent. Blocks all GUI testing, DOM scraping, and screenshot-based debugging. Prevents the agent from performing full-cycle verification of web applications.

2 Likes
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Found this on Reddit, itā€™s a fix for this issue:

To fix this, we need to manually tell Windows to create a shortcut named ā€œHOME.ā€

  • Open PowerShell: Click your Start menu, type PowerShell, and click on the app. (You donā€™t need to run it as Administrator, but you can if you want).

  • Run the Fix Command: Copy the code block below, paste it into the PowerShell window, and press Enter. (This command tells Windows: ā€œFrom now on, whenever a program asks for ā€˜HOMEā€™, send them to my user folder.ā€

    • [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('HOME', "$env:USERPROFILE", 'User')

  • Restart Antigravity: This change will not work until you completely close and reopen the IDE. This allows it to ā€œseeā€ the new shortcut you just created.

7 Likes
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Muito obrigado, funcionou !

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Gracias, era lo que necesitaba

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Thank you for sharing this solution and for your detailed report on the root cause!
It is very helpful to have the specific fix confirmedā€”manually setting the HOME environment variable to point to the user profile is a great workaround for the Playwright initialization failure on Windows.
We appreciate you taking the time to update the community with these steps!

1 Like