catalyst-smartbrowz

Prerequisites

Before using SmartBrowz, activate it once per project in the console:

Console → your project → SmartBrowz (left sidebar) → click "Start Exploring"

Skipping this step prevents access to Headless, Browser Logic, PDF & Screenshot, Templates, Browser Grid, and Dataverse components.

For Browser Logic functions: Requires Catalyst CLI installation. Initialize and deploy Browser Logic functions via CLI (cannot be created directly in console, but can be uploaded).

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How It Works

1. Multi-component service — SmartBrowz offers 6 independent components in one unified platform:

   • Headless: Connect to remote Chrome/Firefox in Catalyst cloud with automation libraries
   • Browser Logic: Serverless functions (Java/Node.js) containing browser automation logic
   • PDF & Screenshot: Generate visual documents programmatically
   • Templates: Design and store templates for dynamic content
   • Browser Grid (Early Access): Parallel headless browsers with auto-scaling
   • Dataverse: Data scraping APIs

2. Choose your workflow:

   • Headless mode: Copy console-provided endpoints and code snippets to connect with Puppeteer/Playwright/Selenium
   • Browser Logic: Initialize via CLI, code in IDE, deploy to console — for persistent browser automation tasks
   • PDF & Screenshot: Use console Playground, SDKs (Java/Node.js/Python), or API to generate documents
   • Browser Grid: Configure node/browser count, connect via CDP/Webdriver endpoints, process requests in parallel

3. Load references/smartbrowz-basics.md — for component details, automation library setup, Browser Logic structure, PDF/Screenshot SDK usage, Browser Grid configurations, and troubleshooting

4. SDK-first rule — When writing implementation code, always prefer SDK methods over raw REST API calls:

   • Node.js: app.SmartBrowz() → smartbrowz.convertToPdf(), smartbrowz.generateFromTemplate(), app.SmartBrowz().browserGrid() → grid.getGrid(), grid.stopGrid()
   • Python: app.smart_browz() → smart_browz.convert_to_pdf(), smart_browz.generate_from_template(), app.smart_browz().browser_grid() → grid.get_all_grid()
   • Java: ZCSmartBrowz.getInstance() → smartBrowz.convertToPdf(), smartBrowz.generateFromTemplate()
   • Use REST API only when no SDK equivalent exists (e.g., checking free_sessions on Browser Grid live stats)

5. Key concepts:

   • Remote browsers run in Catalyst cloud — not local. Endpoints are auto-generated by console.
   • No api-key in connection code — Puppeteer/Playwright/Selenium connect using only the endpoint URL. The api-key is only used for Browser Grid REST API calls (e.g., live stats).
   • Chrome browser only (currently) — Firefox support in Browser Grid (Early Access)
   • Browser Logic functions = Serverless function type — created with CLI, not console UI
   • Browser Grid = auto-scaling — nodes and browsers spawn on demand based on configuration
   • Code Recipes available in console for testing automation library use cases

6. Security note — Any browser automation or web scraping is at your own risk. Only use on domains that permit such actions or with proper approval.

Security Checklist

• API Key protection: Endpoints for Headless and Browser Grid are secured with auto-generated API keys. Regenerate keys if compromised (note: this resets grid stats).
• Browser Logic logs: All function activity is logged in Console → DevOps → Logs. Review logs for debugging and security audits.
• Browser Grid queue limits: Selenium requests queue for 30 seconds, Puppeteer/Playwright for 5 minutes. After timeout, requests are killed.
• Browser Grid alerts: Monitor Dashboard for alerts (Browser Creation Rejected, 90% Disk Exhausted, 80% Memory/CPU Exhausted, Nodes Crashed).
• Default storage: Browser Grid nodes have 10GB disk limit. Monitor disk usage to prevent failures.
• Rate considerations: Browser automation can generate high network traffic. Be mindful of target website rate limits and terms of service.

Triggers

Use this skill for: "SmartBrowz", "headless browser", "Headless Browser", "remote browser", "Puppeteer", "Playwright", "Selenium", "browser automation", "Browser Logic", "PDF generation", "screenshot webpage", "HTML to PDF", "URL to PDF", "template PDF", "PDF/Screenshot generation", "PDF & Screenshot", "SmartBrowz templates", "Browser Grid", "parallel browsers", "web scraping", "Dataverse", "CDP endpoint", "Webdriver endpoint", "headless Chrome", "headless Firefox", "browser testing", or "automation library".

References

Reference

Load when the query is about…

references/smartbrowz-basics.md

Headless setup (Puppeteer/Playwright/Selenium code snippets), Browser Logic (CLI commands, function structure, deployment), PDF & Screenshot (console Playground, SDK usage in Java/Node.js/Python, API calls, input formats HTML/URL/Template), Templates (design, storage, dynamic content), Browser Grid (configurations Basic/Light/Moderate/Heavy, node/browser setup, CDP/Webdriver endpoints, workflow, alerts, states Active/Inactive/Idle, dashboard, ideal practices), Dataverse (data scraping APIs), troubleshooting