[BUG] agent-core-browser extra pins bedrock-agentcore <1.2.0 and conflicts with current SDK

[kmdwork]

Checks

• I have updated to the lastest minor and patch version of Strands
• I have checked the documentation and this is not expected behavior
• I have searched ./issues and there are no duplicates of my issue

Strands Version

1.50.2

Tools Package Version

strands-agents-tools 0.8.6.dev4+g60b63901e

Tools used

AgentCoreBrowser

Imported with:
from strands_tools.browser import AgentCoreBrowser

Python Version

3.14

Operating System

macOS 26.5.2

Installation Method

other

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a Python project managed by uv.

2. Add a current version of bedrock-agentcore:uv add 'bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1'

3. Add the AgentCore Browser extra from the Strands Tools GitHub repository:
   uv add 'strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser] @ git+https://github.com/strands-agents/tools.git@60b63901e5640f0176a8eb25352ac730765fd8ce'

4. Dependency resolution fails because the agent-core-browser extra requires an older AgentCore SDK range.
   The relevant project dependencies are equivalent to:

[project]
dependencies = [
    "bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1",
    "strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser] @ git+https://github.com/strands-agents/tools.git@60b63901e5640f0176a8eb25352ac730765fd8ce",
]

Expected Behavior

The agent-core-browser extra should be installable with a currently
supported version of bedrock-agentcore.
Alternatively, the dependency constraint should cover the newer compatible
AgentCore SDK versions after they have been tested.

Actual Behavior

uv reports that the requirements are unsatisfiable:

Because only strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser]
==0.8.6.dev4+g60b63901e is available and
strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser]
==0.8.6.dev4+g60b63901e depends on
bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<1.2.0,
all versions of strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser]
depend on bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<1.2.0.

Because the project depends on bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1 and
strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser], the requirements are
unsatisfiable.

As a result, strands_tools is not installed and the following import fails:
from strands_tools.browser import AgentCoreBrowser

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'strands_tools'

Additional Context

As a workaround, I added the following uv dependency override:

[tool.uv]
override-dependencies = [
    "bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1",
]

This installed bedrock-agentcore 1.18.1.
After applying the override, the tested AgentCoreBrowser workflow worked
successfully in Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime, including:

• Starting an AgentCore Browser session
• Connecting through Playwright
• Opening a web page
• Reading the page contents
• Closing the browser session

The following APIs used by AgentCoreBrowser are present in
bedrock-agentcore 1.18.1 and worked successfully in this workflow:

• BrowserClient
• BrowserClient.start()
• BrowserClient.generate_ws_headers()
  This does not prove complete compatibility with every browser feature, but
  it suggests that the <1.2.0 upper bound may now be unnecessarily
  restrictive.

Possible Solution

Test AgentCoreBrowser against recent bedrock-agentcore versions and
relax the upper bound accordingly.
For example, if compatibility is confirmed:
bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<2.0.0

Another option would be to test a range of recent AgentCore SDK versions in
CI before changing the upper bound.
The uv override works as a temporary workaround, but it bypasses the package's declared dependency constraint and should not be required by users.

Related Issues

I searched the existing issues and did not find an issue reporting this specific bedrock-agentcore <1.2.0 dependency conflict.

[kimnamu]

Thanks for the detailed report — the workaround and the list of APIs you exercised made this quick to check. I hit the same wall from a different direction (AgentCore Runtime + uv), so I dug into how far the upper bound is actually justified.

Reproduced on current main (b13980c8), with a local checkout so the version is unambiguous:

$ cat pyproject.toml
dependencies = [
    "bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1",
    "strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser] @ file:///tmp/tools-551",
]

$ uv lock
  × No solution found when resolving dependencies:
  ╰─▶ Because only strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser]==0.8.6.dev10+gb13980c81
      is available and strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser]==0.8.6.dev10+gb13980c81
      depends on bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<1.2.0, we can conclude that
      all versions of strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser] depend on
      bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<1.2.0.
      And because your project depends on bedrock-agentcore>=1.9.1 and
      strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser], we can conclude that your
      project's requirements are unsatisfiable.

The bound is pyproject.toml L96 (agent-core-browser) and L99 (agent-core-code-interpreter).

Where the bound came from

git log -S traces both lines to #341 (chore(deps): update bedrock-agentcore SDK to 1.1.x, Dec 2025). That PR's description is "the most recent version of AgentCore SDK is 1.1.1, updating the pinned version so we can use 1.1.x" — a routine bump to the then-current minor, not a recorded incompatibility with 1.2+. Worth knowing before treating <1.2.0 as load-bearing.

The API surface this repo touches hasn't moved

Only two modules import the SDK, and between them they use eight entry points:

• browser/agent_core_browser.py — BrowserClient(region=), .start(identifier=, session_timeout_seconds=), .generate_ws_headers(), .stop(), .session_id
• code_interpreter/agent_core_code_interpreter.py — CodeInterpreter(region=, session=), .start(identifier=, name=, session_timeout_seconds=), .get_session(interpreter_id=, session_id=), .invoke(method, params), .stop(), .session_id, .identifier

I introspected those exact call shapes against one release from every minor line from 1.1.0 through 1.21.0 (21 versions):

1.1.0   ALL PRESENT      1.9.1   ALL PRESENT      1.16.0  ALL PRESENT
1.2.0   ALL PRESENT      1.10.0  ALL PRESENT      1.17.0  ALL PRESENT
1.3.3   ALL PRESENT      1.11.0  ALL PRESENT      1.18.1  ALL PRESENT
1.4.8   ALL PRESENT      1.12.0  ALL PRESENT      1.19.0  ALL PRESENT
1.5.1   ALL PRESENT      1.13.0  ALL PRESENT      1.20.0  ALL PRESENT
1.6.4   ALL PRESENT      1.14.1  ALL PRESENT      1.21.0  ALL PRESENT
1.7.0   ALL PRESENT      1.15.1  ALL PRESENT
1.8.0   ALL PRESENT

BrowserClient.start did gain parameters (proxy_configuration, extensions, profile_configuration, enterprise_policies, certificates) and viewport widened from Dict[str, int] to ViewportConfiguration | Dict. All additive with defaults, and this repo passes neither. generate_ws_headers and every CodeInterpreter signature are byte-identical from 1.1.0 to 1.21.0. requires-python stayed >=3.10 throughout, matching this package.

Existing suites pass on each of 1.1.5 / 1.2.1 / 1.9.1 / 1.19.0 / 1.21.0:

$ .venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/browser/ tests/code_interpreter/ -q
97 passed, 1 warning in 0.89s

Those tests mock the client, so they show no import- or signature-level break rather than end-to-end compatibility — your real AgentCore Runtime run on 1.18.1 is the stronger evidence there. Instantiating for real on 1.21.0 also works:

$ AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2 python -c "..."
bedrock-agentcore 1.21.0
AgentCoreBrowser  -> AgentCoreBrowser identifier= aws.browser.v1
AgentCoreCodeInterpreter -> AgentCoreCodeInterpreter identifier= aws.codeinterpreter.v1
BrowserClient constructed OK; has start/generate_ws_headers: True True

One note on #557

Dependabot's #557 raises the bound to <1.20.0, which was already behind by the time it opened — 1.20.0 shipped Aug 4 and 1.21.0 Aug 6. Applying #557 and re-running your scenario still fails:

And because your project depends on bedrock-agentcore>=1.20.0 and
strands-agents-tools[agent-core-browser], we can conclude that your
project's requirements are unsatisfiable.

The AgentCore SDK is releasing roughly weekly, so a bound that names a specific minor will keep going stale.

Your suggested >=1.1.0,<2.0.0 is what the other extras in this file already do for 1.x-and-up dependencies (playwright>=1.42.0,<2.0.0, nest-asyncio>=1.5.0,<2.0.0) — one line each:

agent-core-browser = [
    "nest-asyncio>=1.5.0,<2.0.0",
    "playwright>=1.42.0,<2.0.0",
    "bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<2.0.0"
]
agent-core-code-interpreter = [
    "bedrock-agentcore>=1.1.0,<2.0.0"
]

With that change your scenario resolves, and all extras together resolve cleanly (bedrock-agentcore 1.21.0, boto3 1.43.66, strands-agents 1.50.2, 151 packages).

Happy to open that PR with the integ suite (tests_integ/browser, tests_integ/code_interpreter) run against 1.21.0 if that's useful — #341 used exactly that as its evidence, and it's the piece my mocked runs can't cover. If a maintainer knows of a 1.2+ service or client behavior change that the bound was protecting, that'd change the picture and I'd rather hear it first.