---
name: web-automation
description: Browse and scrape web pages using Playwright with Camoufox anti-detection browser. Use when automating web workflows, extracting rendered page content, handling authenticated sessions, or scraping websites with bot protection.
---

# Web Automation with Camoufox (Codex)

Automated web browsing and scraping using Playwright with two execution paths under one skill:

- one-shot extraction via `extract.js`
- broader stateful automation via Camoufox and the existing `auth.ts`, `browse.ts`, `flow.ts`, and `scrape.ts`

## When To Use Which Command

- Use `node scripts/extract.js "<URL>"` for one-shot extraction from a single URL when you need rendered content, bounded stealth behavior, and JSON output.
- Use `npx tsx scrape.ts ...` when you need markdown output, Readability extraction, full-page cleanup, or selector-based scraping.
- Use `npx tsx browse.ts ...`, `auth.ts`, or `flow.ts` when the task needs interactive navigation, persistent sessions, login handling, click/type actions, or multi-step workflows.

## Requirements

- Node.js 20+
- pnpm
- Network access to download browser binaries

## First-Time Setup

```bash
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/web-automation/scripts
pnpm install
npx playwright install chromium
npx camoufox-js fetch
pnpm approve-builds
pnpm rebuild better-sqlite3 esbuild
```

## Prerequisite Check (MANDATORY)

Before running any automation, verify Playwright + Camoufox dependencies are installed and scripts are configured to use Camoufox.

```bash
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/web-automation/scripts
node -e "require.resolve('playwright/package.json');require.resolve('playwright-core/package.json');require.resolve('camoufox-js/package.json');console.log('OK: playwright + playwright-core + camoufox-js installed')"
node -e "const fs=require('fs');const t=fs.readFileSync('browse.ts','utf8');if(!/camoufox-js/.test(t)){throw new Error('browse.ts is not configured for Camoufox')}console.log('OK: Camoufox integration detected in browse.ts')"
```

If any check fails, stop and return:

"Missing dependency/config: web-automation requires `playwright`, `playwright-core`, and `camoufox-js` with Camoufox-based scripts. Run setup in this skill, then retry."

If runtime fails with missing native bindings for `better-sqlite3` or `esbuild`, run:

```bash
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/web-automation/scripts
pnpm approve-builds
pnpm rebuild better-sqlite3 esbuild
```

## Quick Reference

- One-shot JSON extract: `node scripts/extract.js "https://example.com"`
- Browse page: `npx tsx browse.ts --url "https://example.com"`
- Scrape markdown: `npx tsx scrape.ts --url "https://example.com" --mode main --output page.md`
- Authenticate: `npx tsx auth.ts --url "https://example.com/login"`
- Natural-language flow: `npx tsx flow.ts --instruction 'go to https://example.com then click on "Login" then type "user@example.com" in #email then press enter'`

## One-shot extraction

Use `extract.js` when you need a single page fetch with JavaScript rendering and lightweight anti-bot shaping, but not a full automation session.

```bash
node scripts/extract.js "https://example.com"
WAIT_TIME=5000 node scripts/extract.js "https://example.com"
SCREENSHOT_PATH=/tmp/page.png SAVE_HTML=true node scripts/extract.js "https://example.com"
```

Output is JSON only and includes fields such as:

- `requestedUrl`
- `finalUrl`
- `title`
- `content`
- `metaDescription`
- `status`
- `elapsedSeconds`
- `challengeDetected`
- optional `screenshot`
- optional `htmlFile`

## General flow runner

Use `flow.ts` for multi-step commands in plain language (go/click/type/press/wait/screenshot).

Example:

```bash
npx tsx flow.ts --instruction 'go to https://search.fiorinis.com then type "pippo" then press enter then wait 2s'
```

## Notes

- Sessions persist in Camoufox profile storage.
- Use `--wait` for dynamic pages.
- Use `--mode selector --selector "..."` for targeted extraction.
- `extract.js` keeps stealth and bounded anti-bot shaping while keeping the Chromium sandbox enabled.