puppeteer/docs/index.md

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# Puppeteer

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#### [API](https://pptr.dev/api) | [FAQ](https://pptr.dev/faq) | [Contributing](https://pptr.dev/contributing) | [Troubleshooting](https://pptr.dev/troubleshooting)

> Puppeteer is a Node.js library which provides a high-level API to control
> Chrome/Chromium over the
> [DevTools Protocol](https://chromedevtools.github.io/devtools-protocol/).
> Puppeteer runs in
> [headless](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome)
> mode by default, but can be configured to run in full (non-headless)
> Chrome/Chromium.

#### What can I do?

Most things that you can do manually in the browser can be done using Puppeteer!
Here are a few examples to get you started:

- Generate screenshots and PDFs of pages.
- Crawl a SPA (Single-Page Application) and generate pre-rendered content (i.e.
  "SSR" (Server-Side Rendering)).
- Automate form submission, UI testing, keyboard input, etc.
- Create an automated testing environment using the latest JavaScript and
  browser features.
- Capture a
  [timeline trace](https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/evaluate-performance/reference)
  of your site to help diagnose performance issues.
- Test Chrome Extensions.

## Getting Started

### Installation

To use Puppeteer in your project, run:

```bash
npm i puppeteer
# or `yarn add puppeteer`
# or `pnpm i puppeteer`
```

When you install Puppeteer, it automatically downloads a recent version of
Chromium (~170MB macOS, ~282MB Linux, ~280MB Windows) that is
[guaranteed to work](https://pptr.dev/faq#q-why-doesnt-puppeteer-vxxx-work-with-chromium-vyyy)
with Puppeteer. For a version of Puppeteer without installation, see
[`puppeteer-core`](#puppeteer-core).

#### Environment Variables

Puppeteer looks for certain
[environment variables](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable) for
customizing behavior. If Puppeteer doesn't find them in the environment during
the installation step, a lowercased variant of these variables will be used from
the [npm config](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/config).

- `HTTP_PROXY`, `HTTPS_PROXY`, `NO_PROXY` - defines HTTP proxy settings that are
  used to download and run the browser.
- `PUPPETEER_CACHE_DIR` - defines the directory to be used by Puppeteer for
  caching. Defaults to
  [`os.homedir()/.cache/puppeteer`](https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_homedir).
- `PUPPETEER_SKIP_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD` - do not download bundled Chromium during
  installation step.
- `PUPPETEER_TMP_DIR` - defines the directory to be used by Puppeteer for
  creating temporary files. Defaults to
  [`os.tmpdir()`](https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_tmpdir).
- `PUPPETEER_DOWNLOAD_HOST` - specifies the URL prefix that is used to download
  Chromium. Note: this includes protocol and might even include path prefix.
  Defaults to `https://storage.googleapis.com`.
- `PUPPETEER_DOWNLOAD_PATH` - specifies the path for the downloads folder.
  Defaults to `<cache>/chromium`, where `<cache>` is Puppeteer's cache
  directory.
- `PUPPETEER_BROWSER_REVISION` - specifies a certain version of the browser
  you'd like Puppeteer to use. See
  [`puppeteer.launch`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch) on
  how executable path is inferred.
- `PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH` - specifies an executable path to be used in
  [`puppeteer.launch`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch).
- `PUPPETEER_PRODUCT` - specifies which browser you'd like Puppeteer to use.
  Must be either `chrome` or `firefox`. This can also be used during
  installation to fetch the recommended browser binary. Setting `product`
  programmatically in
  [`puppeteer.launch`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch)
  supersedes this environment variable.
- `PUPPETEER_EXPERIMENTAL_CHROMIUM_MAC_ARM` — specify Puppeteer download
  Chromium for Apple M1. On Apple M1 devices Puppeteer by default downloads the
  version for Intel's processor which runs via Rosetta. It works without any
  problems, however, with this option, you should get more efficient resource
  usage (CPU and RAM) that could lead to a faster execution time.

Environment variables except for `PUPPETEER_CACHE_DIR` are not used for
[`puppeteer-core`](#puppeteer-core) since core does not automatically handle
browser downloading.

#### `puppeteer-core`

Every release since v1.7.0 we publish two packages:

- [`puppeteer`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/puppeteer)
- [`puppeteer-core`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/puppeteer-core)

`puppeteer` is a _product_ for browser automation. When installed, it downloads
a version of Chromium, which it then drives using `puppeteer-core`. Being an
end-user product, `puppeteer` supports a bunch of convenient `PUPPETEER_*` env
variables to tweak its behavior.

`puppeteer-core` is a _library_ to help drive anything that supports DevTools
protocol. `puppeteer-core` doesn't download Chromium when installed. Being a
library, `puppeteer-core` is fully driven through its programmatic interface.

You should only use `puppeteer-core` if you are
[connecting to a remote browser](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteer.connect)
or [managing browsers yourself](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.browserfetcher).
If you are managing browsers yourself, you will need to call
[`puppeteer.launch`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch) with
an explicit
[`executablePath`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.launchoptions.executablepath)
or [`channel`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.launchoptions.channel).

When using `puppeteer-core`, remember to change the import:

```ts
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer-core';
```

### Usage

Puppeteer follows the latest
[maintenance LTS](https://github.com/nodejs/Release#release-schedule) version of
Node.

Puppeteer will be familiar to people using other browser testing frameworks. You
[launch](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch)/[connect](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.connect)
a [browser](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.browser),
[create](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.browser.newpage) some
[pages](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.page), and then manipulate them with
[Puppeteer's API](https://pptr.dev/api).

For more in-depth usage, check our [guides](https://pptr.dev/guides) and
[examples](https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/tree/main/examples).

#### Example

The following example searches
[developers.google.com/web](https://developers.google.com/web) for articles
tagged "Headless Chrome" and scrape results from the results page.

```ts
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://developers.google.com/web/');

  // Type into search box.
  await page.type('.devsite-search-field', 'Headless Chrome');

  // Wait for suggest overlay to appear and click "show all results".
  const allResultsSelector = '.devsite-suggest-all-results';
  await page.waitForSelector(allResultsSelector);
  await page.click(allResultsSelector);

  // Wait for the results page to load and display the results.
  const resultsSelector = '.gsc-results .gs-title';
  await page.waitForSelector(resultsSelector);

  // Extract the results from the page.
  const links = await page.evaluate(resultsSelector => {
    return [...document.querySelectorAll(resultsSelector)].map(anchor => {
      const title = anchor.textContent.split('|')[0].trim();
      return `${title} - ${anchor.href}`;
    });
  }, resultsSelector);

  // Print all the files.
  console.log(links.join('\n'));

  await browser.close();
})();
```

### Default runtime settings

**1. Uses Headless mode**

Puppeteer launches Chromium in
[headless mode](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome).
To launch a full version of Chromium, set the
[`headless`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.browserlaunchargumentoptions.headless)
option when launching a browser:

```ts
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({headless: false}); // default is true
```

**2. Runs a bundled version of Chromium**

By default, Puppeteer downloads and uses a specific version of Chromium so its
API is guaranteed to work out of the box. To use Puppeteer with a different
version of Chrome or Chromium, pass in the executable's path when creating a
`Browser` instance:

```ts
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/Chrome'});
```

You can also use Puppeteer with Firefox Nightly (experimental support). See
[`Puppeteer.launch`](https://pptr.dev/api/puppeteer.puppeteernode.launch) for
more information.

See
[`this article`](https://www.howtogeek.com/202825/what%E2%80%99s-the-difference-between-chromium-and-chrome/)
for a description of the differences between Chromium and Chrome.
[`This article`](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/refs/heads/main/docs/chromium_browser_vs_google_chrome.md)
describes some differences for Linux users.

**3. Creates a fresh user profile**

Puppeteer creates its own browser user profile which it **cleans up on every
run**.

#### Using Docker

See our [guide on using Docker](https://pptr.dev/guides/docker).

#### Using Chrome Extensions

See our
[guide on using Chrome extensions](https://pptr.dev/guides/chrome-extensions).

## Resources

- [API Documentation](https://pptr.dev/api)
- [Guides](https://pptr.dev/guides)
- [Examples](https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/tree/main/examples)
- [Community list of Puppeteer resources](https://github.com/transitive-bullshit/awesome-puppeteer)

## Contributing

Check out our [contributing guide](https://pptr.dev/contributing) to get an
overview of Puppeteer development.

## FAQ

Our [FAQ](https://pptr.dev/faq) has migrated to
[our site](https://pptr.dev/faq).