Playwright Scraper Skill

# Playwright Scraper Skill

A Playwright-based web scraping OpenClaw Skill with anti-bot protection. Choose the best approach based on the target website's anti-bot level.

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🎯 Use Case Matrix

| Target Website | Anti-Bot Level | Recommended Method | Script | |---------------|----------------|-------------------|--------| | Regular Sites | Low | web_fetch tool | N/A (built-in) | | Dynamic Sites | Medium | Playwright Simple | `scripts/playwright-simple.js` | | Cloudflare Protected | High | Playwright Stealth ⭐ | `scripts/playwright-stealth.js` | | YouTube | Special | deep-scraper | Install separately | | Reddit | Special | reddit-scraper | Install separately |

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📦 Installation

```bash cd playwright-scraper-skill npm install npx playwright install chromium ```

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🚀 Quick Start

1️⃣ Simple Sites (No Anti-Bot)

Use OpenClaw's built-in `web_fetch` tool:

```bash # Invoke directly in OpenClaw Hey, fetch me the content from https://example.com ```

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2️⃣ Dynamic Sites (Requires JavaScript)

Use Playwright Simple:

```bash node scripts/playwright-simple.js "https://example.com" ```

Example output: ```json { "url": "https://example.com", "title": "Example Domain", "content": "...", "elapsedSeconds": "3.45" } ```

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3️⃣ Anti-Bot Protected Sites (Cloudflare etc.)

Use Playwright Stealth:

```bash node scripts/playwright-stealth.js "https://m.discuss.com.hk/#hot" ```

• Features:
• Hide automation markers (`navigator.webdriver = false`)
• Realistic User-Agent (iPhone, Android)
• Random delays to mimic human behavior
• Screenshot and HTML saving support

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4️⃣ YouTube Video Transcripts

Use deep-scraper (install separately):

```bash # Install deep-scraper skill npx clawhub install deep-scraper

# Use it cd skills/deep-scraper node assets/youtube_handler.js "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" ```

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📖 Script Descriptions

`scripts/playwright-simple.js` - **Use Case:** Regular dynamic websites - **Speed:** Fast (3-5 seconds) - **Anti-Bot:** None - **Output:** JSON (title, content, URL)

`scripts/playwright-stealth.js` ⭐ - **Use Case:** Sites with Cloudflare or anti-bot protection - **Speed:** Medium (5-20 seconds) - **Anti-Bot:** Medium-High (hides automation, realistic UA) - **Output:** JSON + Screenshot + HTML file - **Verified:** 100% success on Discuss.com.hk

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🎓 Best Practices

1. Try web_fetch First If the site doesn't have dynamic loading, use OpenClaw's `web_fetch` tool—it's fastest.

2. Need JavaScript? Use Playwright Simple If you need to wait for JavaScript rendering, use `playwright-simple.js`.

3. Getting Blocked? Use Stealth If you encounter 403 or Cloudflare challenges, use `playwright-stealth.js`.

4. Special Sites Need Specialized Skills - YouTube → deep-scraper - Reddit → reddit-scraper - Twitter → bird skill

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🔧 Customization

All scripts support environment variables:

```bash # Set screenshot path SCREENSHOT_PATH=/path/to/screenshot.png node scripts/playwright-stealth.js URL

# Set wait time (milliseconds) WAIT_TIME=10000 node scripts/playwright-simple.js URL

# Enable headful mode (show browser) HEADLESS=false node scripts/playwright-stealth.js URL

# Save HTML SAVE_HTML=true node scripts/playwright-stealth.js URL

# Custom User-Agent USER_AGENT="Mozilla/5.0 ..." node scripts/playwright-stealth.js URL ```

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📊 Performance Comparison

| Method | Speed | Anti-Bot | Success Rate (Discuss.com.hk) | |--------|-------|----------|-------------------------------| | web_fetch | ⚡ Fastest | ❌ None | 0% | | Playwright Simple | 🚀 Fast | ⚠️ Low | 20% | | Playwright Stealth | ⏱️ Medium | ✅ Medium | 100% ✅ | | Puppeteer Stealth | ⏱️ Medium | ✅ Medium-High | ~80% | | Crawlee (deep-scraper) | 🐢 Slow | ❌ Detected | 0% | | Chaser (Rust) | ⏱️ Medium | ❌ Detected | 0% |

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🛡️ Anti-Bot Techniques Summary

Lessons learned from our testing:

✅ Effective Anti-Bot Measures 1. **Hide `navigator.webdriver`** — Essential 2. **Realistic User-Agent** — Use real devices (iPhone, Android) 3. **Mimic Human Behavior** — Random delays, scrolling 4. **Avoid Framework Signatures** — Crawlee, Selenium are easily detected 5. **Use `addInitScript` (Playwright)** — Inject before page load

❌ Ineffective Anti-Bot Measures 1. **Only changing User-Agent** — Not enough 2. **Using high-level frameworks (Crawlee)** — More easily detected 3. **Docker isolation** — Doesn't help with Cloudflare

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🔍 Troubleshooting

Issue: 403 Forbidden **Solution:** Use `playwright-stealth.js`

Issue: Cloudflare Challenge Page **Solution:** 1. Increase wait time (10-15 seconds) 2. Try `headless: false` (headful mode sometimes has higher success rate) 3. Consider using proxy IPs

Issue: Blank Page **Solution:** 1. Increase `waitForTimeout` 2. Use `waitUntil: 'networkidle'` or `'domcontentloaded'` 3. Check if login is required

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📝 Memory & Experience

2026-02-07 Discuss.com.hk Test Conclusions - ✅ **Pure Playwright + Stealth** succeeded (5s, 200 OK) - ❌ Crawlee (deep-scraper) failed (403) - ❌ Chaser (Rust) failed (Cloudflare) - ❌ Puppeteer standard failed (403)

Best Solution: Pure Playwright + anti-bot techniques (framework-independent)

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🚧 Future Improvements

• [ ] Add proxy IP rotation
• [ ] Implement cookie management (maintain login state)
• [ ] Add CAPTCHA handling (2captcha / Anti-Captcha)
• [ ] Batch scraping (parallel URLs)
• [ ] Integration with OpenClaw's `browser` tool

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📚 References

• Playwright Official Docs
• puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth
• deep-scraper skill