Scrapling - Stealth Web Scraper

# Scrapling Skill

Source: https://github.com/D4Vinci/Scrapling (open source, MIT-like license) PyPI: `scrapling` — install before first use (see below)

> ⚠️ Only scrape sites you have permission to access. Respect `robots.txt` and Terms of Service. Do not use stealth modes to bypass paywalls or access restricted content without authorization.

Installation (one-time, confirm with user before running)

```bash pip install scrapling[all] patchright install chromium # required for stealth/dynamic modes ```

• `scrapling[all]` installs `patchright` (a stealth fork of Playwright, bundled as a PyPI package — not a typo), `curl_cffi`, MCP server deps, and IPython shell.
• `patchright install chromium` downloads Chromium (~100 MB) via patchright's own installer (same mechanism as `playwright install chromium`).
• Confirm with user before running — installs ~200 MB of dependencies and browser binaries.

Script

`scripts/scrape.py` — CLI wrapper for all three fetcher modes.

```bash # Basic fetch (text output) python3 ~/skills/scrapling/scripts/scrape.py <url> -q

# CSS selector extraction python3 ~/skills/scrapling/scripts/scrape.py <url> --selector ".class" -q

# Stealth mode (Cloudflare bypass) — only on sites you're authorized to access python3 ~/skills/scrapling/scripts/scrape.py <url> --mode stealth -q

# JSON output python3 ~/skills/scrapling/scripts/scrape.py <url> --selector "h2" --json -q ```

Fetcher Modes

• http (default) — Fast HTTP with browser TLS fingerprint spoofing. Most sites.
• stealth — Headless Chrome with anti-detect. For Cloudflare/anti-bot.
• dynamic — Full Playwright browser. For heavy JS SPAs.

When to Use Each Mode

• `web_fetch` returns 403/429/Cloudflare challenge → use `--mode stealth`
• Page content requires JS execution → use `--mode dynamic`
• Regular site, just need text/data → use `--mode http` (default)

Python Inline Usage

• For custom logic beyond the CLI, write inline Python. See `references/patterns.md` for:
• Adaptive scraping (`auto_save` / `adaptive` — saves element fingerprints locally)
• Session/cookie handling
• Async usage
• XPath, find_similar, attribute extraction

Notes

• MCP server (`scrapling mcp`): starts a local network service for AI-native scraping. Only start if explicitly needed and trusted — it exposes a local HTTP server.
• `auto_save=True`: persists element fingerprints to disk for adaptive re-scraping. Creates local state in working directory.
• Stealth/dynamic modes use Chromium headless — no `xvfb-run` needed.
• For large-scale crawls, use the Spider API (see Scrapling docs).