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https://github.com/sebastiancarlos/beachpatrol

A CLI tool to replace and automate your everyday web browser.
https://github.com/sebastiancarlos/beachpatrol

automation browser browser-automation browser-extension chrome chromium cli extension javascript linux nodejs playwright pupeteer selenium selenium-webdriver terminal

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A CLI tool to replace and automate your everyday web browser.

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README 

        
# Beachpatrol: Browser's End-user Automation CLI Hub. Potentialize All Tasks Regarding Online Life.





  




_Essential software should be fully automatable. Web browsers aren't. Let's change that._



## Introduction



Beachpatrol is a CLI tool to replace and automate your everyday web browser.



Run `beachpatrol` to launch a Chromium browser which can be controlled

externally through [Playwright](https://playwright.dev/) scripts. You can use it as your daily driver; it works

like a regular Chromium browser. 



Use also `beachpatrol --profile ` to launch a specific profile,

or `beachpatrol --incognito`.



To automate it, create a custom Playwright script in the `beachpatrol/commands`

folder. Then, run `beachmsg  [...]`. It will run your

script by default on the currently focused tab, but you can use the Playwright

API to move to an existing tab, open a new one, or use a headless tab instead.



If you don't want to go back and forth to the CLI to automate your browser, you can

install the `beachpatrol-browser-extension`. Its UI allows you to select a

command and call it with arguments. It will call `beachmsg` itself through the

browser extension's Native Messaging feature. Also, the UI will highlight commands

which are meant to run on the current URL, will provide GUI elements for common

situations (such as pagination and dropdowns), and will support hotkeys:



![image](https://github.com/sebastiancarlos/beachpatrol/assets/88276600/751aec3f-284d-4563-ac0f-09bfa52034e2)



### What can you automate with Beachpatrol? The sky is the limit:

- Check your email.

- Check your bank transactions.

- Download a file from a website.

- Dump the text from the current tab into a file.

- Fill an online form.

- Check for messages in your social media or work communication platform.

- Integrate with your OS: Add browser task to your Bash/Python scripts.

- **All of this right there on your everyday browser!**



## Requirements



- Linux (Wayland or X11)

- Node.js and NPM

- Chromium



## Installation



- Clone the repo: `git clone https://github.com/sebastiancarlos/beachpatrol`

- Move to the folder: `cd beachpatrol`

- Run `npm install` to install dependencies.

- Run `make` to install symlinks to the executables (in `/usr/local/bin` by

  default, which should be in your `PATH`)



## Example



- Launch a browser with `beachpatrol`

  - Optionally launch it in the background with `beachpatrol &`

- Use it as your regular browser. 

  - Install browser extensions if you want.

  - If you close it. Run `beachpatrol` again and you should still be logged-in

    to all your sites.

  - If you want a different profile, use `beachpatrol --profile

    new-profile-name`

    - Note: Due to a Chromium's limitation, it is not possible to use the

      in-browser's profile features to switch profiles. However, this might be

      fixed in the future.

- Run `beachmsg smoke-test` to run the pre-installed test command, which

  performs the classic [Selenium smoke test](https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/getting_started/first_script/).

- If it reads "Form submitted", it worked correctly.

- Now create your own automation scripts!



## Technical details 



First and foremost, `beachpatrol` contains a customized Playwright script to

launch your browser. It passes arguments which closely recreate the experience

of using a non-automated browser. For example, it does not set a fixed viewport

(which is, otherwise, a sensible default for Playwright's main use-case of

automated testing.)



Beachpatrol also installs and loads the packages `playwright-extra` and

`puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth`. This is needed to hide the fact that the

browser is automated, which in turn is needed for basic features such as Google

Sign-in. 



Naturally, the above package is tangentially related to a cat-and-mouse game

between web-scrapers and web-masters. As such, it might stop working at any

time. Beachpatrol guarantees to find new automation-hiding techniques if that

happens. Beachpatrol also encourages users to respect every website's terms and

conditions.



After the browser is launched, it listens on a UNIX socket created on

`/tmp/beachpatrol.sock` for messages by `beachmsg`.



## Usage



```bash

Usage: beachpatrol [--profile ] [--incognito] [--headless]



Launches a Chromium browser with the specified profile.

Opens a socket to listen for commands. Commands can be sent with

the 'beachmsg' command.



Options:

  --profile   Use the specified profile. Default: default

  --incognito               Launch browser in incognito mode

  --headless                Launch browser in headless mode

```



```bash

Usage: beachmsg  [...]



Send commands to beachpatrol. The provided command must exist

in the commands directory of beachpatrol.

```



## F.A.Q.



### Isn't the claim that web browsers aren't automatable a bit far-fetched?



When we say that web browsers aren't automatable, we're thinking more along 

the lines of the depth of automation available with tools like Bash, Vim or Emacs 

(where virtually every interaction can be scripted and interwoven into custom

workflows without much resistance.)



Yes, we acknowledge there are existing ways to automate browser tasks like

autofill, mouse and keyboard macros, bookmarklets, extensions, and of course 

various tools like Playwright.



Beachpatrol aspires to bring a new spin to the state-of-the-art, re-imagining

automation tools not as a one-time task, but integrated into your daily

browser. Just as your favorite shell or extendable text editor.



In short, our aim is to take existing automation tools (currently designed for

testing or scraping) and tweak them for everyday browsing, while also providing

a UI which is both simple and power-user friendly.



### But what’s the point? Isn’t Beachpatrol just a wrapper around a Playwright browser?



True, but it offers several value-added features:



- **Automation Detection Evasion**: Beachpatrol carefully selects Playwright options and plugins to mirror the activity of a regular browser, helping to avoid detection mechanisms that websites use to identify and block automated browsers.

- **Client/Server Architecture**: `beachpatrol` launches a browser and listens on a socket. The separate client `beachmsg` can then be used to transmit Playwright commands to the controlled browser. This separation allows for greater flexibility and integration with other tools and scripts.

- **Browser Extension**: An accompanying browser extension is designed to also communicate with the socket and send commands. The extension provides a user-friendly graphical interface and contextual tools.



### Why Playwright instead of Selenium? Why Chromium instead of Firefox?



Initial browser launch benchmarks suggested us to prioritize the current selection:



| Browser                  | Launch time |

|--------------------------|-------------|

| Playwright Chrome        |       1.7s  |

| Selenium Node Chrome     |       1.8s  |

| Selenium Java Chrome     |       4s    |

| Playwright Firefox       |       4.3s  |

| Selenium Java Firefox    |       6s    |

| Selenium Node Firefox    |       9s    |



However, Firefox support is to be added soon.



### Why JavaScript/Node.js instead of Python?



While Python is a popular language for web automation, we decided for JavaScript 

to enable code sharing with the browser extension.



### Why use an external automation tool (Playwright) instead of a browser extension?



While Beachpatrol allows to control the browser from both the OS and from a browser

extension, our priority was the OS. Therefore, something like Playwright was

the natural choice.



Furthermore, while controlling the browser from an extensions is possible, [Manifest v3 removed the ability to execute third-party strings of code](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/improve-security). Popular automation extensions like Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey could also be affected by Manifest v3. The alternative is to embed the code into the extension, but that would requires re-bundling the extensions after every change. Other tricks do exist to make this approach work, and there is some hope for [future Manifest v3 solutions](https://github.com/w3c/webextensions/issues/279), but this path is certainly tricky.



It is more likely that Selenium and related tools will continue to work in the foreseeable future given the business demand for traditional browser testing.



### How does Beachpatrol compare to bookmarklets for quick tasks?



Bookmarklets are handy for executing scripts with a click, but they are

limited to user-triggered actions and may not handle complex workflows, such

as automation based on specific timing or interaction with operating system features.



Plus, there's a personal preference factor. For those who like to have finer

control, keeping automation scripts within their file system feels cleaner and

less bound to a particular browser ecosystem. However, we recognize that

bookmarklets have their place and can be the preferred choice for many users.



### Writing Playwright scripts for every task takes too long.



You can use [Chromium DevDool's Recorder tab](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/recorder/reference) to record actions and export them as

Puppeteer scripts, which use the same API as Playwright.



Also, given Playwright's popularity, you can describe your task in natural language

to an AI and ask for it as a Playwright script. With some practice, this should 

get you halfway to a working script.



## Project Status



This project is in **alpha**. 

- The API is subject to change.

- Currently only Linux is supported. MacOS support to be added soon.

- Currently only Chromium is supported. Other Chromium-based browsers and

  Firefox support to be added soon.

- The ability to run a command when a new URL matches a pattern will be added soon.

- The `beachpatrol-browser-extension` is in early-testing and **not publicly

  released.** It is expected to launch in a fully-functional state by the next

  release.

- Contributions welcome!



## License

MIT



## Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds. If you have a suggestion or fix, please feel free to open an issue or pull request.