Puppeteer

Category: Classic Browser Automation

Puppeteer is a Node.js library maintained by the Chrome DevTools team that provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Firefox over the DevTools Protocol (CDP) or WebDriver BiDi. It runs headless by default, meaning no visible browser UI unless you opt in.

At a Glance

Property	Value
Category	Classic
Cloud / Local	Local (runs in your Node process)
Headless	Yes (default)
Headful	Yes (headless: false)
Proxies	Supply your own
CAPTCHA solving	No
Stealth / Anti-detect	Weak (detectable by default)
Cost	Free, open source (Apache-2.0)
Current version	25.2.1 (June 2026)
Used by	576,000+ projects

When to Use Puppeteer

• Fast local scripting: screenshots, PDFs, form fills, data extraction from JS-rendered pages
• CI pipeline integration where you control the environment
• Prototyping automation flows before moving to a cloud browser (Steel, Browserbase, Hyperbrowser)
• Generating PDFs or screenshots of internal/preview URLs (localhost allowed)

When NOT to Use Puppeteer

• Scraping against bot-detection: use Browserbase or Hyperbrowser instead
• Geo-targeted SERP capture: pair with a residential proxy + UULE and route through Steel or Browserbase
• Unattended always-on workloads on Mike's Windows machine: use a cloud browser backend

Official Links

• Site: https://pptr.dev
• GitHub: https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer
• Examples: https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/tree/main/examples

Safety and ToS Notes

Puppeteer is a general-purpose browser automation library with no built-in restrictions. Standard responsible-use rules apply:

• Do not use to bypass paywalls, access controls, or CAPTCHAs on sites that prohibit automated access.
• Respect each target site's robots.txt and ToS.
• Never run high-volume scraping or download-heavy tasks from Mike's home IP -- route those through proxies.
• puppeteer (full package) downloads a pinned Chromium build on install. puppeteer-core does not; you supply the browser path.