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What is Puppeteer?

Puppeteer is Google’s Node.js library for controlling headless Chrome or Chromium browsers via the DevTools Protocol. It provides a high-level API for browser automation, making it one of the most widely adopted tools for web scraping, testing, and automated interactions.

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Why Puppeteer + Anchor Browser?

Anchor Browser leverages Puppeteer’s mature CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) integration to provide seamless cloud browser automation. While Puppeteer handles the low-level browser control, Anchor Browser adds:
  • Cloud-hosted browser instances - No local browser management required
  • AI-powered interactions - Natural language task execution beyond traditional scripting
  • Enterprise security - Isolated environments with authentication and proxy support
  • Self-healing automations - Built-in error recovery and adaptation to website changes

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Key Puppeteer Capabilities

  • CDP Native - Direct Chrome DevTools Protocol integration for precise browser control
  • Lightweight & Fast - Minimal overhead with direct browser communication
  • Extensive Ecosystem - Rich plugin ecosystem and community support
  • Network Interception - Capture and modify network requests and responses
  • PDF Generation - Convert web pages to PDFs with full rendering support

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How It Works with Anchor Browser

When you connect to Anchor Browser, you’re using Puppeteer’s familiar API but with cloud-hosted browsers:
node.js
import AnchorClient from 'anchorbrowser';
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer-core';

const anchorClient = new AnchorClient({
  apiKey: process.env.ANCHOR_API_KEY,
});

// First create a session
const session = await anchorClient.sessions.create();
const cdpUrl = session.data.cdp_url;
const sessionId = session.data.id;

// Connect Puppeteer to the Anchor CDP session
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
  browserWSEndpoint: cdpUrl,
  defaultViewport: null,
});

// Open a page and navigate
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
console.log('Page title:', await page.title());

// Disconnect Puppeteer (doesn't close the Anchor session)
await browser.disconnect();

// Close the session via SDK
await anchorClient.sessions.delete(sessionId);
This gives you all of Puppeteer’s power while eliminating infrastructure complexity and adding enterprise features.

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Use Cases

  • Web Scraping - Extract data from dynamic JavaScript-heavy websites
  • PDF Generation - Generate PDFs from web pages with precise rendering
  • Screenshot Capture - Automated screenshot generation for monitoring and testing
  • Form Automation - Automate form submissions and multi-step workflows
  • Network Analysis - Intercept and analyze network traffic for debugging
  • Performance Profiling - Measure page load times and runtime performance

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Next Steps