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

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:

# 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:

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

Example output:

{
  "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:

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):

# 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:

# 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