Claude Code’s browser agent assembled a Farnell shopping cart with components for a physics experiment
Claude Code’s browser agent assembled a Farnell shopping cart with components for a physics experiment
On 7 August, the author of the Chill Physics Enjoyer blog gave Claude Code Desktop, an application with browser capabilities, a paper describing a method for measuring the Boltzmann constant. The agent adapted the experiment for a breadboard, selected the components, created a bulk upload file, and filled a Farnell shopping cart. A review identified where the account owner would need to intervene before payment.
The experiment for measuring the Boltzmann constant uses Johnson noise, the random voltage fluctuations that occur in a heated resistor. Building this circuit requires translating the paper into resistor and capacitor values, integrated circuit packages, and supplier product codes. The author had postponed the experiment because selecting dozens of items took too much time.
On 7 August, the author of the Chill Physics Enjoyer blog uploaded the paper to Claude Code Desktop and asked it to prepare a breadboard version of the circuit. The agent found a replacement for the discontinued signal amplification chip, selected resistors and capacitors from Farnell, an electronic components catalogue, and matched them to the supplier’s product codes. It then created a bulk upload spreadsheet, submitted it to the website, and filled the shopping cart. The published interaction log records the process from replacing the discontinued component to entering the items in the supplier’s interface.
The author reviewed the cart himself. One 8,45 kΩ resistor was sold only in a pack of 5000 for £268. Another six items would have shipped from a warehouse in the US, adding £15,95 to the delivery cost. The agent found alternatives stocked in the UK. However, Farnell requires users to sign in before they can remove the original items from a guest cart. The author must remove seven items before payment.
In this run, Claude Code prepared a shopping cart containing specific product codes. The account owner then reviewed its contents and received a list of the items that had to be removed before payment.