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)

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/

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

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:

Write script with Bash tool: npx tsx scrape.ts https://example.com
Capture JSON output
Parse and analyze results
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:

Run script via Bash tool
Read screenshot with Read tool
Analyze visual layout
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:

Verify stealth mode is active (check bot.sannysoft.com)
Rotate user agents
Add random delays between actions
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?

Check references/common-blocks.md for site-specific blocks
Verify stealth setup at https://bot.sannysoft.com/
Check official docs: https://playwright.dev/docs/intro
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

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