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Cross-browser test automation on 3500+ real browser/OS combinations
Puppeteer
Control Chrome and Firefox programmatically with a high-level JavaScript API
Puppeteer offers a high-level JavaScript API to automate Chrome or Firefox via DevTools Protocol, supporting headless operation and full browser control for testing and scraping.
Overview
Overview
Puppeteer is a TypeScript‑written library that gives developers a concise, promise‑based API to drive Chrome or Firefox browsers through the DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi. By default it launches browsers in headless mode, making it ideal for CI pipelines, but it also supports full UI operation when needed. The library handles browser binary management—puppeteer downloads a matching Chromium build, while puppeteer-core lets you connect to an existing browser, keeping the footprint small.
Capabilities & Deployment
With Puppeteer you can script navigation, manipulate the DOM, capture screenshots, generate PDFs, and extract data from pages that rely on client‑side JavaScript. Its TypeScript definitions provide strong typing for IDE assistance. Installation is a single npm i puppeteer (or puppeteer-core) command, after which the library can be used in any Node.js environment, including Docker containers and serverless functions. The extensive documentation and active community help teams integrate browser automation into testing suites, scraping pipelines, and content generation workflows.
Highlights
High‑level promise‑based API for Chrome and Firefox
Default headless mode with optional headful execution
Automatic Chromium download (puppeteer) or lightweight core package
Supports DevTools Protocol and WebDriver BiDi
Pros
- Mature ecosystem with extensive documentation
- Strong TypeScript typings for developer productivity
- Precise control over browser internals
- Cross‑platform support for all major OSes
Considerations
- Bundled Chromium increases install size
- Firefox support is newer and less feature‑complete
- Node.js‑only runtime limits language choices
- Not suited for high‑concurrency load testing
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Fit guide
Great for
- End‑to‑end UI testing and regression suites
- Web scraping of JavaScript‑rendered sites
- Generating PDFs and screenshots from live pages
- Automating repetitive browser tasks in CI pipelines
Not ideal when
- Mobile app UI testing
- Projects requiring non‑JavaScript language bindings
- Large‑scale performance or load testing
- Real‑time user interaction simulations
How teams use it
Automated regression testing
Detect UI changes across releases with reliable screenshot and DOM comparisons
Dynamic data extraction
Scrape content from pages that rely on client‑side rendering
PDF generation
Create printable PDFs from web pages with exact layout fidelity
Visual monitoring
Capture pixel‑perfect screenshots for dashboard reporting
Tech snapshot
TypeScript93%
JavaScript5%
HTML1%
CSS1%
Dockerfile1%
Shell1%
Frequently asked questions
Which browsers does Puppeteer support?
Chrome (and Chromium) are fully supported; Firefox support is available via the DevTools Protocol.
How can I avoid downloading Chromium during installation?
Use the `puppeteer-core` package, which provides the API without bundling a browser binary.
Can I run Puppeteer with a visible UI?
Yes, set the `headless` launch option to `false` to run in headful mode.
Is Puppeteer compatible with TypeScript?
Absolutely; the library includes built‑in TypeScript definitions for full type safety.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 93,347
- Watchers
- 93,347
- Forks
- 9,367
LicenseApache-2.0
Repo age8 years old
Last commityesterday
Primary languageTypeScript
Last synced yesterday