Onboarding

Step 1: Authentication Setup

• API Key (Quick Start) — Best for development/testing. Generate at https://nova.amazon.com/act?tab=dev_tools, then

  export NOVA_ACT_API_KEY="your_key"

  . No decorator needed.
• AWS Credentials + Workflow Definition (Production) — Best for IAM-based access, S3 export. Requires AWS creds +

  @workflow

  decorator. See

  references/workflow_definitions.md

  .

references/authentication.md

Step 2: Start Using Nova Act

references/browser_cli.md

references/browser_cli.md

references/qa_tests.md

references/qa_tests.md

references/data_extraction.md

references/gherkin_testing.md

references/flow_discovery.md

references/bug_reproduction.md

references/workflow_refinement.md

references/mock_generation.md

references/deployment_cli.md

pip install 'nova-act[cli]'
act browser execute "Go to https://example.com, find the pricing page, and extract plan names and prices" --session-id work
# If you need to observe current state:
act browser ask "What page am I on?" --session-id work
# If you need a zero-inference jump:
act browser goto https://example.com/specific-page --session-id work

execute

goto

ask

--nova-arg

--nova-arg max_steps=5 --nova-arg headless=true

--help

IMPORTANT: Before running any browser command, ask the user whether they want headed (visible browser) or headless mode, unless they have already specified. Use

--headed

or

--headless

accordingly.

⚠️ CRITICAL: NEVER kill Chrome or Chromium processes (e.g.,

pkill chrome

,

kill -9 $(pgrep chrome)

,

killall Google Chrome

). Nova Act manages its own browser lifecycle. Killing browser processes externally will corrupt session state and break automation. If a browser appears stuck, use

act browser sessions

to check status, or start a new session.

💡 Localhost HTTPS Testing: When testing against a local HTTPS server (e.g.,

https://localhost:8443

), Chrome will reject self-signed certificates by default. Add

--launch-arg=--ignore-certificate-errors --ignore-https-errors

to bypass this:

bash

act browser goto https://localhost:8443 --session-id dev --launch-arg=--ignore-certificate-errors --ignore-https-errors

⚠️ Only use

--ignore-certificate-errors

for localhost development servers. For non-local URLs, valid certificates should be used unless you have a specific reason to bypass validation.

references/browser_cli.md

from nova_act import NovaAct

with NovaAct(starting_page="https://example.com") as nova:
    nova.act("click the first link on the page")
    result = nova.act_get("What is the page title?")
    print(f"Page title: {result.response}")

references/qa_tests.md

Step 3: Validate Installation

• Python 3.10+:

  python --version

• Nova Act SDK:

  pip install 'nova-act[cli]'

  /

  pip show nova-act

• Google Chrome (Optional):

  playwright install chrome

Steering Files

references/browser_cli.md

references/browser_cli.md

references/qa_tests.md

references/deployment_cli.md

references/authentication.md

references/workflow_definitions.md

references/data_extraction.md

references/hitl.md

references/tool_use.md

references/agentcore_browser.md

references/playwright_interop.md

references/session_logs.md

references/trajectory_analysis.md

references/visual_reporting.md

references/gherkin_testing.md

.feature

qa-plan

references/flow_discovery.md

references/bug_reproduction.md

references/parallel_sessions.md

references/workflow_refinement.md

references/mock_generation.md