| name | playwright |
| description | Use when you need to scrape pages, extract structured data or interact with web interfaces via headless browser automation without using screenshots. |
| status | active |
| tier | operational |
Playwright Skill
Purpose: Browser automation via headless Chromium. Scrape pages, extract structured data, and interact with web interfaces. Returns clean JSON, not screenshots.
Token efficiency: ~200-500 tokens per page vs 20,000-30,000 for screenshot-based approaches.
When to Use
- Tech Watch repo checks: retrieve changelogs, release notes, README updates from GitHub
- Scraping any page for structured data (pricing tables, product lists, article text)
- Checking if a URL loads and what it contains
- Extracting links, headings or specific content from a page
How to Use
The run.js script accepts a URL argument and returns JSON. Run it from your vault root using the vault-relative path to this skill's scripts directory.
node "Council Chamber/Skills/Playwright/scripts/run.js" https://example.com
Output format:
{
"url": "https://example.com",
"title": "Page title",
"text": "Cleaned body text...",
"links": [
{ "text": "Link text", "href": "https://..." }
]
}
Requirements
Playwright must be installed before first use. Run these once with explicit approval from your vault root:
npm install playwright --prefix "Council Chamber/scripts"
npx playwright install chromium
Chromium binary installs to Council Chamber/scripts/node_modules/. Add this path to your AI interface's ignore configuration so it does not appear in context reads.
Troubleshooting
- Empty text: If a page returns empty text, switch
waitUntil to networkidle and retry.
- Browser binary not found: Run
npx playwright install chromium from the scripts directory.
- Cloudflare blocking: Add
playwright-extra and puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth if a site blocks the script.
- Timeout: Increase all timeouts to 15 seconds and switch to
networkidle for slow pages.
- Always close the browser in a
finally block. This is already handled in run.js.
Invocation
Tell your AI interface what you need in plain English. Example prompts:
- "Scrape the changelog from github.com/[repo] and summarize what's new."
- "Check the releases page at [URL] and tell me what shipped since [date]."
- "Extract the pricing table from [URL] as a JSON array."
Your AI reads this SKILL.md, runs the script, and returns the data.
Related
- Script:
Council Chamber/Skills/Playwright/scripts/run.js
External Orientation
[!info] Ambassador Doctrine Active
This skill operates under the [[Council Chamber/Protocols/Governance/Ambassador Doctrine]].
Primary strategy: Āsana: browser automation is an intelligence retrieval tool; extract, clean, and return before acting.
Secondary: Vigraha (assert data quality; surface failed or blocked scrapes rather than returning corrupted output), Saṃśraya (the browser always closes in a finally block; no persistent external state).
Playwright does not write to external surfaces. It reads. The read-before-act posture is the doctrine embodied.
Refinements
(Empty, populated when execution mistakes occur during sessions.)
Also installs standalone from https://www.infinitegameos.io/skills/playwright (dual-distribution: this copy lives in your vault, the public plugin updates independently).
