Introduction
# 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](https://playwright.dev/) - [puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth](https://github.com/berstend/puppeteer-extra/tree/master/packages/puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth) - [deep-scraper skill](https://clawhub.com/opsun/deep-scraper)