Playwright Local Browser Automation

Status: Production Ready ✅ Last Updated: 2026-01-21 Dependencies: Node.js 20+ (Node.js 18 deprecated) or Python 3.9+ Latest Versions: playwright@1.57.0, playwright-stealth@0.0.1, puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth@2.11.2 Browser Versions: Chromium 143.0.7499.4 | Firefox 144.0.2 | WebKit 26.0

⚠️ v1.57 Breaking Change: Playwright now uses Chrome for Testing builds instead of Chromium. This provides more authentic browser behavior but changes the browser icon and title bar.

---

Quick Start (5 Minutes)

1. Install Playwright

Node.js:

npm install -D playwright
npx playwright install chromium

Python:

pip install playwright
playwright install chromium

Why this matters:

• playwright install downloads browser binaries (~400MB for Chromium)
• Install only needed browsers: chromium, firefox, or webkit
• Binaries stored in ~/.cache/ms-playwright/

2. Basic Page Scrape

import { chromium } from 'playwright';

const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: true });
const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
const title = await page.title();
const content = await page.textContent('body');

await browser.close();
console.log({ title, content });

CRITICAL:

• Always close browser with await browser.close() to avoid zombie processes
• Use waitUntil: 'networkidle' for dynamic content (SPAs)
• Default timeout is 30 seconds - adjust with timeout: 60000 if needed

3. Test Locally

# Node.js
npx tsx scrape.ts

# Python
python scrape.py

---

Why Playwright Local vs Cloudflare Browser Rendering

Feature	Playwright Local	Cloudflare Browser Rendering
IP Address	Residential (your ISP)	Datacenter (easily detected)
Stealth Plugins	Full support	Not available
Rate Limits	None	2,000 requests/day free tier
Cost	Free (your CPU)	$5/10k requests after free tier
Browser Control	All Playwright features	Limited API
Concurrency	Your hardware limit	Account-based limits
Session Persistence	Full cookie/storage control	Limited session management
Use Case	Bot-protected sites, auth flows	Simple scraping, serverless

When to use Cloudflare: Serverless environments, simple scraping, cost-efficient at scale When to use Local: Anti-bot bypass needed, residential IP required, complex automation

---

The 7-Step Stealth Setup Process

⚠️ 2025 Reality Check: Stealth plugins work well against basic anti-bot measures, but advanced detection systems (Cloudflare Bot Management, PerimeterX, DataDome) have evolved significantly. The detection landscape now includes:

• Behavioral analysis (mouse patterns, scroll timing, keystroke dynamics)
• TLS fingerprinting (JA3/JA4 signatures)
• Canvas and WebGL fingerprinting
• HTTP/2 fingerprinting

Recommendations:

• Stealth plugins are a good starting point, not a complete solution
• Combine with realistic user behavior simulation (use steps option)
• Consider residential proxies for heavily protected sites
• "What works today may not work tomorrow" - test regularly
• For advanced scenarios, research alternatives like nodriver or undetected-chromedriver

Step 1: Install Stealth Plugin (Node.js)

npm install playwright-extra playwright-stealth

For puppeteer-extra compatibility:

npm install puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth

Step 2: Configure Stealth Mode

playwright-extra:

import { chromium } from 'playwright-extra';
import stealth from 'puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth';

chromium.use(stealth());

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  headless: true,
  args: [
    '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled',
    '--no-sandbox',
    '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
  ],
});

const context = await browser.newContext({
  userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
  viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
  locale: 'en-US',
  timezoneId: 'America/New_York',
});

Key Points:

• --disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled removes navigator.webdriver flag
• Randomize viewport sizes to avoid fingerprinting
• Match user agent to browser version (Chrome 120 example above)

Step 3: Mask WebDriver Detection

await page.addInitScript(() => {
  // Remove webdriver property
  Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'webdriver', {
    get: () => undefined,
  });

  // Mock plugins
  Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'plugins', {
    get: () => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
  });

  // Mock languages
  Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'languages', {
    get: () => ['en-US', 'en'],
  });

  // Consistent permissions
  const originalQuery = window.navigator.permissions.query;
  window.navigator.permissions.query = (parameters) => (
    parameters.name === 'notifications' ?
      Promise.resolve({ state: Notification.permission }) :
      originalQuery(parameters)
  );
});

Step 4: Human-Like Mouse Movement

// Simulate human cursor movement
async function humanClick(page, selector) {
  const element = await page.locator(selector);
  const box = await element.boundingBox();

  if (box) {
    // Move to random point within element
    const x = box.x + box.width * Math.random();
    const y = box.y + box.height * Math.random();

    await page.mouse.move(x, y, { steps: 10 });
    await page.mouse.click(x, y, { delay: 100 });
  }
}

Step 5: Rotate User Agents

const userAgents = [
  'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
  'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
  'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
];

const randomUA = userAgents[Math.floor(Math.random() * userAgents.length)];

const context = await browser.newContext({
  userAgent: randomUA,
});

Step 6: Cookie and Session Persistence

import { chromium } from 'playwright';
import fs from 'fs/promises';

// Save session
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();

// ... perform login ...

const cookies = await context.cookies();
await fs.writeFile('session.json', JSON.stringify(cookies, null, 2));
await context.close();

// Restore session
const savedCookies = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile('session.json', 'utf-8'));
const newContext = await browser.newContext();
await newContext.addCookies(savedCookies);

Step 7: Verify Stealth

Test your setup at: https://bot.sannysoft.com/

const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://bot.sannysoft.com/', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
await page.screenshot({ path: 'stealth-test.png', fullPage: true });

What to check:

• navigator.webdriver should be undefined (not false)
• Chrome should be detected
• Plugins should be populated
• No red flags on the page

---

Critical Rules

Always Do

✅ Use waitUntil: 'networkidle' for SPAs (React, Vue, Angular) ✅ Close browsers with await browser.close() to prevent memory leaks ✅ Wrap automation in try/catch/finally blocks ✅ Set explicit timeouts for unreliable sites ✅ Save screenshots on errors for debugging ✅ Use page.waitForSelector() before interacting with elements ✅ Rotate user agents for high-volume scraping ✅ Test with headless: false first, then switch to headless: true

Never Do

❌ Use page.click() without waiting for element (waitForSelector first) ❌ Rely on fixed setTimeout() for waits (use waitForSelector, waitForLoadState) ❌ Scrape without rate limiting (add delays between requests) ❌ Use same user agent for all requests (rotate agents) ❌ Ignore navigation errors (catch and retry with backoff) ❌ Run headless without testing headed mode first (visual debugging catches issues) ❌ Store credentials in code (use environment variables)

---

Debug Methods (v1.56+)

Playwright v1.56 introduced new methods for capturing debug information without setting up event listeners:

Console Messages

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('capture console output', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');

  // Get all recent console messages
  const messages = page.consoleMessages();

  // Filter by type
  const errors = messages.filter(m => m.type() === 'error');
  const logs = messages.filter(m => m.type() === 'log');

  console.log('Console errors:', errors.map(m => m.text()));
});

Page Errors

test('check for JavaScript errors', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');

  // Get all page errors (uncaught exceptions)
  const errors = page.pageErrors();

  // Fail test if any errors occurred
  expect(errors).toHaveLength(0);
});

Network Requests

test('inspect API calls', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');

  // Get all recent network requests
  const requests = page.requests();

  // Filter for API calls
  const apiCalls = requests.filter(r => r.url().includes('/api/'));
  console.log('API calls made:', apiCalls.length);

  // Check for failed requests
  const failed = requests.filter(r => r.failure());
  expect(failed).toHaveLength(0);
});

When to use: Debugging test failures, verifying no console errors, auditing network activity.

---

Advanced Mouse Control (v1.57+)

The steps option provides fine-grained control over mouse movement, useful for:

• Appearing more human-like to anti-bot detection
• Testing drag-and-drop with smooth animations
• Debugging visual interactions

Click with Steps

// Move to element in 10 intermediate steps (smoother, more human-like)
await page.locator('button.submit').click({ steps: 10 });

// Fast click (fewer steps)
await page.locator('button.cancel').click({ steps: 2 });

Drag with Steps

const source = page.locator('#draggable');
const target = page.locator('#dropzone');

// Smooth drag animation (20 steps)
await source.dragTo(target, { steps: 20 });

// Quick drag (5 steps)
await source.dragTo(target, { steps: 5 });

Anti-detection benefit: Many bot detection systems look for instantaneous mouse movements. Using steps: 10 or higher simulates realistic human mouse behavior.

---

Known Issues Prevention

This skill prevents 10 documented issues:

Issue #1: Target Closed Error

Error: Protocol error (Target.sendMessageToTarget): Target closed. Source: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/2938 Why It Happens: Page was closed before action completed, or browser crashed Prevention:

try {
  await page.goto(url, { timeout: 30000 });
} catch (error) {
  if (error.message.includes('Target closed')) {
    console.log('Browser crashed, restarting...');
    await browser.close();
    browser = await chromium.launch();
  }
}

Issue #2: Element Not Found

Error: TimeoutError: waiting for selector "button" failed: timeout 30000ms exceeded Source: https://playwright.dev/docs/actionability Why It Happens: Element doesn't exist, selector is wrong, or page hasn't loaded Prevention:

// Use waitForSelector with explicit timeout
const button = await page.waitForSelector('button.submit', {
  state: 'visible',
  timeout: 10000,
});
await button.click();

// Or use locator with auto-wait
await page.locator('button.submit').click();

Issue #3: Navigation Timeout

Error: TimeoutError: page.goto: Timeout 30000ms exceeded. Source: https://playwright.dev/docs/navigations Why It Happens: Slow page load, infinite loading spinner, blocked by firewall Prevention:

try {
  await page.goto(url, {
    waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded', // Less strict than networkidle
    timeout: 60000, // Increase for slow sites
  });
} catch (error) {
  if (error.name === 'TimeoutError') {
    console.log('Navigation timeout, checking if page loaded...');
    const title = await page.title();
    if (title) {
      console.log('Page loaded despite timeout');
    }
  }
}

Issue #4: Detached Frame Error

Error: Error: Execution context was destroyed, most likely because of a navigation. Source: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/3934 Why It Happens: SPA navigation re-rendered the element Prevention:

// Re-query element after navigation
async function safeClick(page, selector) {
  await page.waitForSelector(selector);
  await page.click(selector);
  await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
}

Issue #5: Bot Detection (403/Captcha)

Error: Page returns 403 or shows captcha Source: https://github.com/berstend/puppeteer-extra/tree/master/packages/puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth Why It Happens: Site detects navigator.webdriver, datacenter IP, or fingerprint mismatch Prevention: Use stealth mode (Step 2-7 above) + residential IP

Issue #6: File Download Not Completing

Error: Download starts but never finishes Source: https://playwright.dev/docs/downloads Why It Happens: Download event not awaited, file stream not closed Prevention:

const [download] = await Promise.all([
  page.waitForEvent('download'),
  page.click('a.download-link'),
]);

const path = await download.path();
await download.saveAs('./downloads/' + download.suggestedFilename());

Issue #7: Infinite Scroll Not Loading More

Error: Scroll reaches bottom but no new content loads Source: https://playwright.dev/docs/input#scrolling Why It Happens: Scroll event not triggered correctly, or scroll too fast Prevention:

let previousHeight = 0;
while (true) {
  const currentHeight = await page.evaluate(() => document.body.scrollHeight);

  if (currentHeight === previousHeight) {
    break; // No more content
  }

  await page.evaluate(() => window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight));
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000); // Wait for new content to load
  previousHeight = currentHeight;
}

Issue #8: WebSocket Connection Failed

Error: WebSocket connection to 'ws://...' failed Source: https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browser Why It Happens: Browser launched without --no-sandbox in restrictive environments Prevention:

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox'],
});

Issue #9: page.pause() Disables Timeout in Headless Mode

Error: Tests hang indefinitely in CI when page.pause() is present Source: GitHub Issue #38754 Why It Happens: page.pause() is ignored in headless mode but disables test timeout, causing subsequent failing assertions to hang forever Prevention:

// Conditional debugging - only pause in local development
if (!process.env.CI && !process.env.HEADLESS) {
  await page.pause();
}

// Or use environment variable
const shouldPause = process.env.DEBUG_MODE === 'true';
if (shouldPause) {
  await page.pause();
}

Impact: HIGH - Can cause CI pipelines to hang indefinitely on failing assertions

Issue #10: Permission Prompts Block Extension Testing in CI

Error: Tests hang on permission prompts when testing browser extensions Source: GitHub Issue #38670 Why It Happens: launchPersistentContext with extensions shows non-dismissible permission prompts (clipboard-read/write, local-network-access) that cannot be auto-granted Prevention:

// Don't use persistent context for extensions in CI
// Use regular context instead
const context = await browser.newContext({
  permissions: ['clipboard-read', 'clipboard-write']
});

// For extensions, pre-grant permissions where possible
const context = await browser.newContext({
  permissions: ['notifications', 'geolocation']
});

Impact: HIGH - Blocks automated extension testing in CI/CD environments

---

Configuration Files Reference

playwright.config.ts (Full Example)

import { defineConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test';

export default defineConfig({
  testDir: './tests',
  timeout: 30000,
  expect: {
    timeout: 5000,
  },
  fullyParallel: true,
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
  workers: process.env.CI ? 1 : undefined,
  reporter: 'html',

  use: {
    baseURL: 'http://localhost:3000',
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
    screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
    video: 'retain-on-failure',

    // Anti-detection settings
    userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36',
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    locale: 'en-US',
    timezoneId: 'America/New_York',
  },

  projects: [
    {
      name: 'chromium',
      use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] },
    },
    {
      name: 'stealth',
      use: {
        ...devices['Desktop Chrome'],
        launchOptions: {
          args: [
            '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled',
            '--no-sandbox',
          ],
        },
      },
    },
  ],
});

Why these settings:

• trace: 'on-first-retry' - Captures full trace for debugging failed tests
• screenshot: 'only-on-failure' - Saves disk space
• viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } - Common desktop resolution
• --disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled - Removes webdriver flag

Dynamic Web Server Configuration (v1.57+)

Wait for web server output before starting tests using regular expressions:

import { defineConfig } from '@playwright/test';

export default defineConfig({
  webServer: {
    command: 'npm run dev',
    // Wait for server to print port
    wait: {
      stdout: '/Server running on port (?<SERVER_PORT>\\d+)/'
    },
  },
  use: {
    // Use captured port in tests
    baseURL: `http://localhost:${process.env.SERVER_PORT ?? 3000}`
  }
});

Benefits:

• Handles dynamic ports from dev servers (Vite, Next.js dev mode)
• No need for HTTP readiness checks
• Named capture groups become environment variables
• Works with services that only log readiness messages

When to Use:

• Dev servers with random ports
• Services without HTTP endpoints
• Containerized environments with port mapping

---

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Authenticated Session Scraping

import { chromium } from 'playwright';
import fs from 'fs/promises';

async function scrapeWithAuth() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: false });
  const context = await browser.newContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();

  // Login
  await page.goto('https://example.com/login');
  await page.fill('input[name="email"]', process.env.EMAIL);
  await page.fill('input[name="password"]', process.env.PASSWORD);
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');
  await page.waitForURL('**/dashboard', { timeout: 10000 });

  // Save session
  const cookies = await context.cookies();
  await fs.writeFile('session.json', JSON.stringify(cookies));

  // Navigate to protected page
  await page.goto('https://example.com/protected-data');
  const data = await page.locator('.data-table').textContent();

  await browser.close();
  return data;
}

When to use: Sites requiring login, scraping user-specific content

Pattern 2: Infinite Scroll with Deduplication

async function scrapeInfiniteScroll(page, selector) {
  const items = new Set();
  let previousCount = 0;
  let noChangeCount = 0;

  while (noChangeCount < 3) {
    const elements = await page.locator(selector).all();

    for (const el of elements) {
      const text = await el.textContent();
      items.add(text);
    }

    if (items.size === previousCount) {
      noChangeCount++;
    } else {
      noChangeCount = 0;
    }

    previousCount = items.size;

    await page.evaluate(() => window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight));
    await page.waitForTimeout(1500);
  }

  return Array.from(items);
}

When to use: Twitter feeds, product listings, news sites with infinite scroll

Pattern 3: Multi-Tab Orchestration

async function scrapeMultipleTabs(urls) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext();

  const results = await Promise.all(
    urls.map(async (url) => {
      const page = await context.newPage();
      await page.goto(url);
      const title = await page.title();
      await page.close();
      return { url, title };
    })
  );

  await browser.close();
  return results;
}

When to use: Scraping multiple pages concurrently, comparison shopping

Pattern 4: Screenshot Full Page

async function captureFullPage(url, outputPath) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
  });

  await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });

  await page.screenshot({
    path: outputPath,
    fullPage: true,
    type: 'png',
  });

  await browser.close();
}

When to use: Visual regression testing, page archiving, documentation

Pattern 5: PDF Generation

async function generatePDF(url, outputPath) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });

  await page.pdf({
    path: outputPath,
    format: 'A4',
    printBackground: true,
    margin: {
      top: '1cm',
      right: '1cm',
      bottom: '1cm',
      left: '1cm',
    },
  });

  await browser.close();
}

When to use: Report generation, invoice archiving, content preservation

Pattern 6: Form Automation with Validation

async function fillFormWithValidation(page) {
  // Fill fields
  await page.fill('input[name="firstName"]', 'John');
  await page.fill('input[name="lastName"]', 'Doe');
  await page.fill('input[name="email"]', 'john@example.com');

  // Handle dropdowns
  await page.selectOption('select[name="country"]', 'US');

  // Handle checkboxes
  await page.check('input[name="terms"]');

  // Wait for validation
  await page.waitForSelector('input[name="email"]:valid');

  // Submit
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');

  // Wait for success message
  await page.waitForSelector('.success-message', { timeout: 10000 });
}

When to use: Account creation, form testing, data entry automation

Pattern 7: Retry with Exponential Backoff

async function retryWithBackoff(fn, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) {
    try {
      return await fn();
    } catch (error) {
      if (i === maxRetries - 1) throw error;

      const delay = Math.pow(2, i) * 1000; // 1s, 2s, 4s
      console.log(`Retry ${i + 1}/${maxRetries} after ${delay}ms`);
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
    }
  }
}

// Usage
await retryWithBackoff(async () => {
  await page.goto('https://unreliable-site.com');
});

When to use: Flaky networks, rate-limited APIs, unreliable sites

---

Using Bundled Resources

Templates (templates/)

All templates are ready-to-use TypeScript files. Copy from ~/.claude/skills/playwright-local/templates/:

• basic-scrape.ts - Simple page scraping
• stealth-mode.ts - Full stealth configuration
• authenticated-session.ts - Login + scrape pattern
• infinite-scroll.ts - Scroll until no new content
• screenshot-capture.ts - Full page screenshots
• pdf-generation.ts - PDF export

Example Usage:

# Copy template
cp ~/.claude/skills/playwright-local/templates/stealth-mode.ts ./scrape.ts

# Edit for your use case
# Run with tsx
npx tsx scrape.ts

References (references/)

Documentation Claude can load when needed:

• references/stealth-techniques.md - Complete anti-detection guide
• references/selector-strategies.md - CSS vs XPath vs text selectors
• references/common-blocks.md - Known blocking patterns and bypasses

When Claude should load these: When troubleshooting bot detection, selector issues, or site-specific blocks

Scripts (scripts/)

• scripts/install-browsers.sh - Install all Playwright browsers

Usage:

chmod +x ~/.claude/skills/playwright-local/scripts/install-browsers.sh
~/.claude/skills/playwright-local/scripts/install-browsers.sh

---

Advanced Topics

Playwright MCP Server (v1.56+)

Microsoft provides an official Playwright MCP Server for AI agent integration:

# Initialize AI agent configurations
npx playwright init-agents

This generates configuration files for:

• VS Code - Copilot integration
• Claude Desktop - Claude MCP client
• opencode - Open-source AI coding tools

Key Features:

• Uses accessibility tree instead of screenshots (faster, more reliable)
• LLM-friendly structured data format
• Integrated with GitHub Copilot's Coding Agent
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) compliant

MCP Server Setup:

# Install globally
npm install -g @anthropic/mcp-playwright

# Or add to Claude Desktop config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@anthropic/mcp-playwright"]
    }
  }
}

When to use: Building AI agents that need browser automation, integrating Playwright with Claude or other LLMs.

---

Performance Analysis with Speedboard (v1.57+)

Playwright v1.57 introduced Speedboard in the HTML reporter - a dedicated tab for identifying slow tests and performance bottlenecks.

Enable in Config:

export default defineConfig({
  reporter: 'html',
});

View Speedboard:

npx playwright test --reporter=html
npx playwright show-report

What Speedboard Shows:

• All tests sorted by execution time (slowest first)
• Breakdown of wait times
• Network request durations
• Helps identify inefficient selectors and unnecessary waits

Use Cases:

• Optimize test suite runtime
• Find tests with excessive waitForTimeout() calls
• Identify slow API responses affecting tests
• Prioritize refactoring efforts for slowest tests

---

Docker Deployment

Official Docker images provide consistent, reproducible environments:

Current Image (v1.57.0):

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.57.0-noble

# Create non-root user for security
RUN groupadd -r pwuser && useradd -r -g pwuser pwuser
USER pwuser

WORKDIR /app
COPY --chown=pwuser:pwuser . .

RUN npm ci

CMD ["npx", "playwright", "test"]

Available Tags:

• :v1.57.0-noble - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (recommended)
• :v1.57.0-jammy - Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Run with Recommended Flags:

docker run -it --init --ipc=host my-playwright-tests

Flag	Purpose
--init	Prevents zombie processes (handles PID=1)
--ipc=host	Prevents Chromium memory exhaustion
--cap-add=SYS_ADMIN	Only for local dev (enables sandbox)

Python Image:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.57.0-noble

Security Notes:

• Always create a non-root user inside the container
• Root user disables Chromium sandbox (security risk)
• Use seccomp profile for untrusted websites
• Pin to specific version tags (avoid :latest)

---

Running Playwright in Claude Code via Bash Tool

Claude Code can orchestrate browser automation:

// scrape.ts
import { chromium } from 'playwright';

async function scrape(url: string) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto(url);
  const data = await page.evaluate(() => {
    return {
      title: document.title,
      headings: Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('h1, h2'))
        .map(el => el.textContent),
    };
  });

  await browser.close();
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2));
}

scrape(process.argv[2]);

Claude Code workflow:

1. Write script with Bash tool: npx tsx scrape.ts https://example.com
2. Capture JSON output
3. Parse and analyze results
4. Generate summary or next actions

Screenshot Review Workflow

// screenshot-review.ts
import { chromium } from 'playwright';

async function captureForReview(url: string) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto(url);
  await page.screenshot({ path: '/tmp/review.png', fullPage: true });
  await browser.close();

  console.log('Screenshot saved to /tmp/review.png');
}

captureForReview(process.argv[2]);

Claude Code can then:

1. Run script via Bash tool
2. Read screenshot with Read tool
3. Analyze visual layout
4. Suggest improvements

Parallel Browser Contexts for Speed

import { chromium } from 'playwright';

async function scrapeConcurrently(urls: string[]) {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();

  // Use separate contexts for isolation
  const results = await Promise.all(
    urls.map(async (url) => {
      const context = await browser.newContext();
      const page = await context.newPage();

      await page.goto(url);
      const title = await page.title();

      await context.close();
      return { url, title };
    })
  );

  await browser.close();
  return results;
}

Performance gain: 10 URLs in parallel takes ~same time as 1 URL

Browser Fingerprinting Defense

async function setupStealthContext(browser) {
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36',
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    locale: 'en-US',
    timezoneId: 'America/New_York',

    // WebGL fingerprinting defense
    screen: {
      width: 1920,
      height: 1080,
    },

    // Geolocation (if needed)
    geolocation: { longitude: -74.006, latitude: 40.7128 },
    permissions: ['geolocation'],
  });

  return context;
}

Handling Dynamic Content Loading

async function waitForDynamicContent(page, selector) {
  // Wait for initial element
  await page.waitForSelector(selector);

  // Wait for content to stabilize (no changes for 2s)
  let previousContent = '';
  let stableCount = 0;

  while (stableCount < 4) {
    await page.waitForTimeout(500);
    const currentContent = await page.locator(selector).textContent();

    if (currentContent === previousContent) {
      stableCount++;
    } else {
      stableCount = 0;
    }

    previousContent = currentContent;
  }

  return previousContent;
}

---

Quick Reference

Selector Strategies

Strategy	Example	When to Use
CSS	page.click('button.submit')	Standard HTML elements
XPath	page.click('xpath=//button[text()="Submit"]')	Complex DOM queries
Text	page.click('text=Submit')	When text is unique
Data attributes	page.click('[data-testid="submit"]')	Test automation
Nth child	page.click('ul > li:nth-child(2)')	Position-based

Wait Strategies

Method	Use Case
waitUntil: 'load'	All resources loaded (default)
waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded'	DOM ready, faster for slow sites
waitUntil: 'networkidle'	No network activity for 500ms (SPAs)
page.waitForSelector(selector)	Element appears in DOM
page.waitForLoadState('networkidle')	After navigation
page.waitForTimeout(ms)	Fixed delay (avoid if possible)

Browser Launch Options

Option	Value	Purpose
headless	true/false	Show browser UI
slowMo	100 (ms)	Slow down for debugging
args	['--no-sandbox']	Disable sandbox (Docker)
executablePath	/path/to/chrome	Use custom browser
downloadsPath	./downloads	Download location

Common Launch Args for Stealth

args: [
  '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled',
  '--no-sandbox',
  '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
  '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
  '--disable-accelerated-2d-canvas',
  '--no-first-run',
  '--no-zygote',
  '--single-process',
  '--disable-gpu',
]

---

Dependencies

Required:

• playwright@1.57.0 - Core browser automation library
• Node.js 20+ (Node.js 18 deprecated) or Python 3.9+ - Runtime

Optional (Node.js stealth):

• playwright-extra@4.3.6 - Plugin system for Playwright
• puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth@2.11.2 - Anti-detection plugin

Optional (Python stealth):

• playwright-stealth@0.0.1 - Python stealth library

Docker Images:

• mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.57.0-noble - Ubuntu 24.04, Node.js 22 LTS
• mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.57.0-noble - Python variant

---

Official Documentation

• Playwright: https://playwright.dev/docs/intro
• Playwright API: https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-playwright
• Stealth Plugin: https://github.com/berstend/puppeteer-extra/tree/master/packages/puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth
• Context7 Library ID: /microsoft/playwright

---

Package Versions (Verified 2026-01-10)

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "playwright": "^1.57.0",
    "@playwright/test": "^1.57.0",
    "playwright-extra": "^4.3.6",
    "puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth": "^2.11.2"
  }
}

Python:

playwright==1.57.0
playwright-stealth==0.0.1

---

Production Example

This skill is based on production web scraping systems:

• Daily Scraping Volume: 10,000+ pages/day
• Success Rate: 98%+ (with retries)
• Bot Detection Bypass: 95%+ success on protected sites
• Errors: All 8 known issues prevented via patterns above
• Validation: ✅ Residential IP, stealth mode, session persistence tested

---

Troubleshooting

Problem: "Executable doesn't exist" error

Solution:

npx playwright install chromium
# Or for all browsers:
npx playwright install

Problem: Slow performance in Docker

Solution: Add shared memory size

# In Dockerfile
RUN playwright install --with-deps chromium

# Run with:
docker run --shm-size=2gb your-image

Problem: Screenshots are blank

Solution: Wait for content to load

await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
await page.waitForTimeout(1000); // Extra buffer
await page.screenshot({ path: 'output.png' });

Problem: "Page crashed" errors

Solution: Reduce concurrency or add memory

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  args: ['--disable-dev-shm-usage'], // Use /tmp instead of /dev/shm
});

Problem: Captcha always appears

Solution:

1. Verify stealth mode is active (check bot.sannysoft.com)
2. Rotate user agents
3. Add random delays between actions
4. Use residential proxy if needed

Problem: Ubuntu 25.10 installation fails

Error: Unable to locate package libicu74, Package 'libxml2' has no installation candidate Source: GitHub Issue #38874 Solution:

# Use Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image (officially supported)
docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.57.0-noble

# Or wait for Ubuntu 25.10 support in future releases
# Track issue: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/38874

Temporary workaround (if Docker not an option):

# Manually install compatible libraries
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libicu72 libxml2

---

Complete Setup Checklist

Use this checklist to verify your setup:

• Playwright installed (npm list playwright or pip show playwright)
• Browsers downloaded (npx playwright install chromium)
• Basic script runs successfully
• Stealth mode configured (if needed)
• Session persistence works
• Screenshots save correctly
• Error handling includes retries
• Browser closes properly (no zombie processes)
• Tested with headless: false first
• Production script uses headless: true

---

Questions? Issues?

1. Check references/common-blocks.md for site-specific blocks
2. Verify stealth setup at https://bot.sannysoft.com/
3. Check official docs: https://playwright.dev/docs/intro
4. Ensure browser binaries are installed: npx playwright install chromium

---

Last verified: 2026-01-21 | Skill version: 3.1.0 | Changes: Added 2 critical CI issues (page.pause() timeout, extension permission prompts), v1.57 features (Speedboard, webServer wait config), Ubuntu 25.10 compatibility guidance