Kernel · Cloud browsers for agents

Buyers shouldn't have to copy listings by hand. Paste a Marketplace, Craigslist or OfferUp link, and Handshake opens it in a real browser in Kernel's cloud, reads the price and photos, and checks whether the photos are really the seller's.

Try it live
Seller's own photo

Nintendo Switch OLED, $220 · craigslist.org

Console, carrying case and box on a beige carpet, uneven indoor lighting: a real home.

Seller's own photo

Switch OLED Zelda edition, $350 · craigslist.org

Box and console parts on a wooden deck with visible wear, unlike any studio render.

Store photo

“New” AirPods Pro 3, $140 · craigslist.org

Apple's product render: a seamless white background and no real surroundings. Flagged.

How it works

A pasted link replaces copying text and taking screenshots. Everything after the browser step is the same check every deal gets.

  1. 01

    Check the link

    Only public web pages are opened. Local addresses, names that resolve to private networks, odd ports and credentials in links are refused before any browser starts.

    Code
  2. 02

    Open it in the cloud

    Kernel starts a stealth Chromium in about a second. It loads the page like a person would, scripts and all, then reads the title, price, description and photos.

    Kernel · browsers.create
  3. 03

    Fetch the photos there too

    The listing's photos are downloaded inside Kernel's browser, not by our server, so a listing can never point Handshake at an internal address.

    Kernel · playwright.execute
  4. 04

    Compare with the store

    AI looks at each photo next to Channel3's store images of the same product: is it the real item in a real room, or a product render?

    AI · Vision + Channel3
  5. 05

    Code decides

    Any store photo becomes a flag with a plain next step: ask for a photo of the item next to today's date. The browser is closed every time.

    Deterministic

Why it matters

A seller who doesn't have the item can't photograph it, so many fake listings reuse the manufacturer's images. It's the easiest thing for a buyer to miss and the easiest for Handshake to check.

Real browsers get in

Marketplace pages are built by JavaScript and turn away simple scripts. A headful, stealth browser sees what a buyer sees.

Nothing runs on our server

The page and its photos are opened in Kernel's sandbox. Our server only receives text and images, and checks every link first.

Short and always closed

Each scan holds a browser for a few seconds and deletes it in a finally block, even when a page fails to load.

Proof

1.3s

to start a stealth cloud browser; a full link scan, from paste to verdict, takes about 20 seconds.

Kernel

9

real Craigslist listings scanned: 7 showed the sellers' own photos, 1 had none, and 1 used Apple's AirPods render and was flagged.

Live scans

20

automated tests for link and DNS safety, browser cleanup, the photo rule and the link limits.

Vitest

What we call

Start a browser

browsers.create({ stealth: true })

A fresh, isolated Chromium per scan with bot detection handled, capped at 60 seconds.

Read the page

browsers.playwright.execute

Our Playwright code runs next to the browser: load the page, read its text and largest images, download up to three photos.

Clean up

browsers.deleteByID

Every browser is deleted when the scan ends, whether it worked or not.

Docs & source

Check a deal Sell with Handshake