Rod is a high-level Go driver built directly on the Chrome DevTools Protocol for browser automation and web scraping. Unlike wrappers around other tools, Rod communicates with the browser natively via CDP, providing thread-safe operations, chained context design for timeouts/cancellation, auto-wait for elements, correct iframe/shadow DOM handling, and zero zombie browser processes.
The companion library go-rod/stealth injects anti-bot-detection evasions based on puppeteer-extra stealth, hiding headless browser fingerprints from detection systems.
When to Use This Skill
Use when the user asks to scrape, automate, or test a website using Go.
Use when the user needs a headless browser for dynamic/SPA content (React, Vue, Angular).
Use when the user mentions stealth, anti-bot, avoiding detection, Cloudflare, or bot detection bypass.
Use when the user wants to work with the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) directly from Go.
Use when the user needs to intercept or hijack network requests in a browser context.
Use when the user asks about concurrent browser scraping or page pooling in Go.
Use when the user is migrating from chromedp or Playwright Go and wants a simpler API.
Safety & Risk
Risk Level: 🔵 Safe
Read-Only by Default: Default behavior is navigating and reading page content (scraping/testing).
Isolated Contexts: Browser contexts are sandboxed; cookies and storage do not persist unless explicitly saved.
Resource Cleanup: Designed around Go's defer pattern — browsers and pages close automatically.
No External Mutations: Does not modify external state unless the script explicitly submits forms or POSTs data.
Installation
# Core rod library
go get github.com/go-rod/rod@latest
go get github.com/go-rod/stealth@latest
# Stealth anti-detection plugin (ALWAYS include for production scraping)
Rod auto-downloads a compatible Chromium binary on first run. To pre-download:
go run github.com/nichochar/go-rod.github.io/cmd/launcher@latest
Core Concepts
Browser Lifecycle
Rod manages three layers: Browser → Page → Element.
// Launch and connect to a browser
browser := rod.New().MustConnect()
defer browser.MustClose()
// Create a page (tab)
page := browser.MustPage("https://example.com")
// Find an element
el := page.MustElement("h1")
fmt.Println(el.MustText())
Must vs Error Patterns
Rod provides two API styles for every operation:
Style
Method
Use Case
Must
MustElement(), MustClick(), MustText()
Scripting, debugging, prototyping. Panics on error.
Error
Element(), Click(), Text()
Production code. Returns error for explicit handling.
Production pattern:
el, err := page.Element("#login-btn")
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("login button not found: %w", err)
}
if err := el.Click(proto.InputMouseButtonLeft, 1); err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("click failed: %w", err)
}
Rod uses Go's context.Context for cancellation and timeouts. Context propagates recursively to all child operations.
// Set a 5-second timeout for the entire operation chain
page.Timeout(5 * time.Second).
MustWaitLoad().
MustElement("title").
CancelTimeout(). // subsequent calls are not bound by the 5s timeout
Timeout(30 * time.Second).
MustText()
Element Selectors
Rod supports multiple selector strategies:
// CSS selector (most common)
page.MustElement("div.content > p.intro")
// CSS selector with text regex matching
page.MustElementR("button", "Submit|Send")
// XPath
page.MustElementX("//div[@class='content']//p")
// Search across iframes and shadow DOM (like DevTools Ctrl+F)
page.MustSearch(".deeply-nested-element")
Auto-Wait
Rod automatically retries element queries until the element appears or the context times out. You do not need manual sleeps:
// This will automatically wait until the element exists
el := page.MustElement("#dynamic-content")
// Wait until the element is stable (position/size not changing)
el.MustWaitStable().MustClick()
// Wait until page has no pending network requests
wait := page.MustWaitRequestIdle()
page.MustElement("#search").MustInput("query")
wait()
Stealth & Anti-Bot Detection (go-rod/stealth)
IMPORTANT: For any production scraping or automation against real websites, ALWAYS use stealth.MustPage() instead of browser.MustPage(). This is the single most important step for avoiding bot detection.
How Stealth Works
The go-rod/stealth package injects JavaScript evasions into every new page that:
Remove navigator.webdriver — the primary headless detection signal.
Spoof WebGL vendor/renderer — presents real GPU info (e.g., "Intel Inc." / "Intel Iris OpenGL Engine") instead of headless markers like "Google SwiftShader".
Fix Chrome plugin array — reports proper PluginArray type with realistic plugin count.
Patch permissions API — returns "prompt" instead of bot-revealing values.
Set realistic languages — reports en-US,en instead of empty arrays.
Fix broken image dimensions — headless browsers report 0x0; stealth fixes this to 16x16.
Usage
Creating a stealth page (recommended for all production use):
import (
"github.com/go-rod/rod""github.com/go-rod/stealth"
)
browser := rod.New().MustConnect()
defer browser.MustClose()
// Use stealth.MustPage instead of browser.MustPage
page := stealth.MustPage(browser)
page.MustNavigate("https://bot.sannysoft.com")
With error handling:
page, err := stealth.Page(browser)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("failed to create stealth page: %w", err)
}
page.MustNavigate("https://example.com")
Using stealth.JS directly (advanced — for custom page creation):
// If you need to create the page yourself (e.g., with specific options),// inject stealth.JS manually via EvalOnNewDocument
page := browser.MustPage()
page.MustEvalOnNewDocument(stealth.JS)
page.MustNavigate("https://example.com")
Verifying Stealth
Navigate to a bot detection test page to verify evasions:
// Wait for page load event
page.MustWaitLoad()
// Wait for no pending network requests (AJAX idle)
wait := page.MustWaitRequestIdle()
page.MustElement("#search").MustInput("query")
wait()
// Wait for element to be stable (not animating)
page.MustElement(".modal").MustWaitStable().MustClick()
// Wait for element to become invisible
page.MustElement(".loading").MustWaitInvisible()
// Wait for JavaScript condition
page.MustWait(`() => document.title === 'Ready'`)
// Wait for specific navigation/event
wait := page.WaitEvent(&proto.PageLoadEventFired{})
page.MustNavigate("https://example.com")
wait()
6. Race Selectors (Multiple Outcomes)
Handle pages where the result can be one of several outcomes (e.g., login success vs error):
page.MustElement("#username").MustInput("user")
page.MustElement("#password").MustInput("pass").MustType(input.Enter)
// Race between success and error selectors
elm := page.Race().
Element(".dashboard").MustHandle(func(e *rod.Element) {
fmt.Println("Login successful:", e.MustText())
}).
Element(".error-message").MustDo()
if elm.MustMatches(".error-message") {
log.Fatal("Login failed:", elm.MustText())
}
pool := rod.NewPagePool(5) // max 5 concurrent pages
create := func() *rod.Page {
return browser.MustIncognito().MustPage()
}
var wg sync.WaitGroup
for _, url := range urls {
wg.Add(1)
gofunc(u string) {
defer wg.Done()
page := pool.MustGet(create)
defer pool.Put(page)
page.MustNavigate(u).MustWaitLoad()
fmt.Println(page.MustInfo().Title)
}(url)
}
wg.Wait()
pool.Cleanup(func(p *rod.Page) { p.MustClose() })
9. Event Handling
// Listen for console.log outputgo page.EachEvent(func(e *proto.RuntimeConsoleAPICalled) {
if e.Type == proto.RuntimeConsoleAPICalledTypeLog {
fmt.Println(page.MustObjectsToJSON(e.Args))
}
})()
// Wait for a specific event before proceeding
wait := page.WaitEvent(&proto.PageLoadEventFired{})
page.MustNavigate("https://example.com")
wait()
// Execute JS on the page
page.MustEval(`() => console.log("hello")`)
// Pass parameters and get return value
result := page.MustEval(`(a, b) => a + b`, 1, 2)
fmt.Println(result.Int()) // 3// Eval on a specific element ("this" = the DOM element)
title := page.MustElement("title").MustEval(`() => this.innerText`).String()
// Direct CDP calls for features Rod doesn't wrap
proto.PageSetAdBlockingEnabled{Enabled: true}.Call(page)
See the examples/ directory for complete, runnable Go files:
examples/basic_scrape.go — Minimal scraping example
examples/stealth_page.go — Anti-detection with go-rod/stealth
examples/request_hijacking.go — Intercepting and modifying network requests
examples/concurrent_pages.go — Page pool for concurrent scraping
Best Practices
✅ ALWAYS use stealth.MustPage(browser) instead of browser.MustPage() for real-world sites.
✅ ALWAYS defer browser.MustClose() immediately after connecting.
✅ Use the error-returning API (not Must*) in production code.
✅ Set explicit timeouts with .Timeout() — never rely on defaults for production.
✅ Use browser.MustIncognito().MustPage() for isolated sessions.
✅ Use PagePool for concurrent scraping instead of spawning unlimited pages.
✅ Use MustWaitStable() before clicking elements that might be animating.
✅ Use MustWaitRequestIdle() after actions that trigger AJAX calls.
✅ Use launcher.New().Headless(false).Devtools(true) for debugging.
❌ NEVER use time.Sleep() for waiting — use Rod's built-in wait methods.
❌ NEVER create a new Browser per task — create one Browser, use multiple Page instances.
❌ NEVER use browser.MustPage() for production scraping — use stealth.MustPage().
❌ NEVER ignore errors in production — always handle them explicitly.
❌ NEVER forget to defer-close browsers, pages, and hijack routers.
Common Pitfalls
Problem: Element not found even though it exists on the page.
Solution: The element may be inside an iframe or shadow DOM. Use page.MustSearch() instead of page.MustElement() — it searches across all iframes and shadow DOMs.
Problem: Click doesn't work because the element is animating.
Solution: Call el.MustWaitStable() before el.MustClick().
Problem: Bot detection despite using stealth.
Solution: Combine stealth.MustPage() with: randomized viewport sizes, realistic User-Agent strings, human-like input delays between keystrokes, and random idle behaviors (scroll, hover).
Problem: Browser process leaks (zombie processes).
Solution: Always defer browser.MustClose(). Rod uses leakless to kill zombies after main process crash, but explicit cleanup is preferred.
Problem: Timeout errors on slow pages.
Solution: Use chained context: page.Timeout(30 * time.Second).MustWaitLoad(). For AJAX-heavy pages, use MustWaitRequestIdle() instead of MustWaitLoad().
Problem: HijackRequests router not intercepting requests.
Solution: You must call go router.Run() after setting up routes, and defer router.MustStop() for cleanup.
Limitations
CAPTCHAs: Rod does not include CAPTCHA solving. External services (2captcha, etc.) must be integrated separately.
Extreme Anti-Bot: While go-rod/stealth handles common detection (WebDriver, plugin fingerprints, WebGL), extremely strict systems (some Cloudflare configurations, Akamai Bot Manager) may still detect automation. Additional measures (residential proxies, human-like behavioral patterns) may be needed.
DRM Content: Cannot interact with DRM-protected media (e.g., Widevine).
Resource Usage: Each browser instance consumes significant RAM (~100-300MB+). Use PagePool and limit concurrency on memory-constrained systems.
Extensions in Headless: Chrome extensions do not work in headless mode. Use Headless(false) with XVFB for server environments.
Platform: Requires a Chromium-compatible browser. Does not support Firefox or Safari.
