diff --git a/profiles/core/profile.yaml b/profiles/core/profile.yaml
index cc58464f..25ed0860 100644
--- a/profiles/core/profile.yaml
+++ b/profiles/core/profile.yaml
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ skills:
     # ── Security ──
     - security/trivy-scan       # /trivy-scan — pre-merge supply-chain gate (Trivy: dependency CVEs + secrets + IaC misconfig). Hard-blocks HIGH/CRITICAL. Invoked by code-review-deep Pass 0 + ship Step 9.0.
     # ── Browser ──
+    - browser/ego-browser       # DEFAULT browser path. One JS heredoc drives a real Chromium (navigate, forms, clicks, snapshot, screenshots) instead of many MCP tool-call round trips — chosen for token cost. Reuses the user's real logins. Linux port lives in ~/Documents/ego-lite-linux (package/ego-linux).
     - browser/lightpanda        # Lightpanda — fast headless browser for scraping, DOM dump, CDP. Pairs with lightpanda MCP.
     # ── Source-fetching ──
     - tools/opensrc             # opensrc — fetch dependency source (npm/PyPI/crates/GitHub) so agents read implementations, not just types
diff --git a/resources/skills b/resources/skills
index e9e6657c..b8a73714 160000
--- a/resources/skills
+++ b/resources/skills
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit e9e6657c3dbe9ee7ab16c3a5cb565a79c6559559
+Subproject commit b8a73714cc2e40bf7fc615fb863336e8c5bb7998
diff --git a/src/lib/profile-merge.ts b/src/lib/profile-merge.ts
index ed186e73..639eaaa7 100644
--- a/src/lib/profile-merge.ts
+++ b/src/lib/profile-merge.ts
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ function skillSetTokens(ids: string[]): number {
 // skill discovery — they bootstrap the rest). Matched by slug suffix.
 const ALWAYS_KEEP_SLUGS = new Set([
   "caveman-commit", "find-skills", "smart-loader", "help",
+  // Default browser path. A merged profile that budgets it out doesn't skip
+  // the browser work, it downgrades it to MCP round-trips. Mirrors
+  // skill-subset's ALWAYS_KEEP, which holds it through the project loadout.
+  "ego-browser",
 ]);
 
 export type OptimizeAction = "prune" | "dedupe" | "budget" | "router";
diff --git a/src/lib/skill-subset.ts b/src/lib/skill-subset.ts
index 253418e8..a535b64e 100644
--- a/src/lib/skill-subset.ts
+++ b/src/lib/skill-subset.ts
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ export const ALWAYS_KEEP = new Set([
   "meta/acpx",
   "caveman/caveman",
   "caveman/caveman-commit",
+  // The default browser path. Deferring it doesn't save a browser session —
+  // it sends the agent to MCP round-trips or web fetch instead, which costs
+  // more than this skill's frontmatter. Keep it on in every project.
+  "browser/ego-browser",
 ]);
 
 // Re-exported so callers and tests that reached for these here keep working.