User Browser Sessions

User Browser Sessions collect full page navigations from an endpoint’s Chrome, Edge or Firefox extension. It does not launch a browser or generate visits. Use the separate Browser check for scheduled synthetic page loads.

Install the connector

In Add agent, select Enable User Browser Sessions, then download and run the install pack. The pack needs a published browser extension and the routespear-browser-host native helper. Availability depends on the deployment’s configured extension releases; an older bundle without the helper cannot enable it. Firefox requires version 140 or later.

Windows and Linux installation registers native hosts and browser policies. Browser management can override local policy and a restart may be needed. On macOS, deploy the generated extension policy through MDM or install the published extension manually. Packaged Linux browsers may need native-host access configured for that distribution.

Scope the collection

1. Choose User Browser Sessions in Test Management → New test.
2. Select endpoints that report the connector, or an appropriate network scope or label selector. Endpoints without the connector are excluded from execution.
3. Add up to 32 domain patterns and set the session idle timeout, from 1 to 120 minutes. The default is 30 minutes.
4. Save, check the extension popup for connection and monitored domains, then visit a matching page.

example.com matches that exact hostname. *.example.com matches subdomains but excludes the apex; include both when you need both. Patterns are lowercase ASCII hostnames (punycode for international names), not URLs, paths or arbitrary globs. Collection is event-driven, so a polling interval does not generate data. User Browser Sessions are a separate monitoring subject and cannot be combined with synthetic Browser or a custom script in one test.

Read sessions and pages

Open the test results within the relevant time window. Select a browser session, then a page in its ordered page list to inspect load/TTFB timings and its resource waterfall. Keep each waterfall with its owning page. Missing timings display as Unavailable; an empty session list may mean no matching visits were received.

The metrics include page and resource counts, load time and time to first byte. Browser restrictions can limit resource timing detail. Confirm extension connectivity, domain scope, agent freshness and actual visits before widening the collection scope.

What is collected

Stored URLs retain paths but remove credentials, query strings and fragments. The collector does not gather cookies, request/response bodies, form values, page text, screenshots or raw browser headers. Measurements travel through the agent’s existing spool and authenticated shipper with normal record retention.

Endpoint users are within the local telemetry trust boundary: these records are not tamper-proof evidence against someone controlling the endpoint. Synthetic browser screenshots are a separate feature with different collection behavior.