Dexter Browser Automation

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name: browser-automation description: "Browser automation via Playwright. Use when pages are JS-rendered, require user interaction (click/fill), or need screenshots. Part of the 3-layer web tool hierarchy: search (SearXNG) → extract (web_fetch) → interact (browser). This is the last resort layer."

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Browser Automation

When to Use This Skill

Trigger conditions:

web_fetch returned empty, garbled, or incomplete content

Target page is JavaScript-rendered (React/Vue/Angular SPAs)

Need to interact with UI: click buttons, fill forms, navigate flows

Need a screenshot of a page's current rendered state

Multi-step flows: login → navigate → scrape

Extracting structured data from dynamically loaded content

Do NOT use this skill when:

Page is static HTML — web_fetch is faster

Only need to find a URL — web_search is the right first step

You need API data — check if the site has a public API first

The page requires authentication you don't have

The 3-Layer Web Tool Hierarchy

Layer 1 — Search:    web_search → find URLs
Layer 2 — Extract:   web_fetch → get page content (static pages only!)
Layer 3 — Interact:  browser.py → JS rendering, interaction, screenshots

Always try Layer 1 and 2 before reaching for browser automation.

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Setup Check

python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/init.py

Should return {"ready": true}. If not, Playwright needs installation.

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Scripts

All scripts exit with code 0 on success, 1 on usage error, 2 on browser error.

screenshot.py — Capture a page

python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/screenshot.py  [path]
Default path: /tmp/screenshot.png

Returns: {success, saved, title}

scrape.py — Get rendered HTML

python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/scrape.py 

Returns: {success, title, url, html} (html truncated to 50k chars)

extract.py — Pull structured data

python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/extract.py  

CSS selector targets elements. Extracts up to 50 elements, each with text, href, src, alt.

Returns: {success, count, selector, items[]}

interact.py — Click and fill

# Click
python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/interact.py click  [url]
Fill input
python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/interact.py fill   [url]
Hover
python3 skills/browser-automation/scripts/interact.py hover  [url]

If url is provided, navigates there first. Returns: {success, action, selector, title, url}

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Reference Docs

references/selectors.md — CSS selector syntax and common patterns

references/patterns.md — Login flows, search pagination, infinite scroll, stealth mode, error recovery

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Examples

JS-rendered page (would fail web_fetch)

# web_fetch gives nothing on HN — use extract
python3 scripts/extract.py "https://news.ycombinator.com" ".titleline > a"

Screenshot a page

python3 scripts/screenshot.py "https://site.com/dashboard" "/tmp/dashboard.png"

Form login flow

python3 scripts/interact.py fill "#username" "user@example.com" "https://site.com/login"
python3 scripts/interact.py fill "#password" "secret123"
python3 scripts/interact.py click "button[type=submit]"
python3 scripts/scrape.py "https://site.com/dashboard"

Get structured data from a list

python3 scripts/extract.py "https://jobs.site.com/postings?q=engineer" ".job-listing h2"

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Quick Reference

| Task | Command | |---|---| | Screenshot | screenshot.py [path] | | HTML | scrape.py | | Data | extract.py | | Click | interact.py click [url] | | Fill | interact.py fill [url] | | Setup check | init.py |

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Skill Metadata

Scripts: init.py, screenshot.py, scrape.py, extract.py, interact.py

References: selectors.md, patterns.md

Requires: Playwright (pip install playwright && playwright install chromium)

Exit codes: 0=success, 1=usage error, 2=browser error

JS-rendered page (would fail web_fetch)

# web_fetch gives nothing on HN — use extract
python3 scripts/extract.py "https://news.ycombinator.com" ".titleline > a"

Screenshot a page

python3 scripts/screenshot.py "https://site.com/dashboard" "/tmp/dashboard.png"

Form login flow

python3 scripts/interact.py fill "#username" "user@example.com" "https://site.com/login"
python3 scripts/interact.py fill "#password" "secret123"
python3 scripts/interact.py click "button[type=submit]"
python3 scripts/scrape.py "https://site.com/dashboard"

Get structured data from a list

python3 scripts/extract.py "https://jobs.site.com/postings?q=engineer" ".job-listing h2"

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