Browser agents still struggle with long multi step workflows

[u/SoleilWright]

I’ve been messing around with browser automation using Claude Sonnet, mostly for tasks that involve a few different websites, downloading files and filling out forms.

The individual actions are usually pretty solid, but things start getting weird once the workflow gets longer. After maybe 10 to 15 steps, it can lose track of which page it was on, forget an intermediate result or sometimes just repeat something it already did.

I’ve had better results keeping the browser actions, files and intermediate results as separate parts of the workflow instead of throwing everything into one huge prompt.

The other annoying part is recovery. A small UI change or an unexpected tool response can throw off the whole workflow, and getting the agent back on track isn’t always straightforward.

[u/SoleilWright → u/[deleted]]

Exactly. The agent usually fails because it loses some intermediate state, not because it can’t click the right button.

[u/SoleilWright → u/[deleted]]

How are you doing that? I’m still keeping most of it in the same workflow

[u/No_Product2095]

The recovery part is where these workflows still feel fragile. Breaking bigger tasks into smaller steps with checkpoints seems to work better because it is easier to spot where things went wrong instead of restarting everything. Tracking context across multiple actions is probably the next big challenge for browser agents.