lightpanda

name	lightpanda
requires_mcps	["lightpanda"]
description	Use when the user says "lightpanda", "scrape this page", "headless browse", or "dump the DOM". Fast headless browser for rendering URLs without Chromium, scraping, and CDP automation.
metadata	{"category":"browser","domain":"browser-automation","tags":["browser","headless","cdp","scraping","mcp","lightpanda"]}

Lightpanda: fast headless browser for agents

Lightpanda is a lightweight, JavaScript-capable headless browser (CDP-compatible) built for AI agents and automation. It starts far faster and uses far less memory than Chromium because it renders the DOM and runs JS but does not paint pixels. Treat it as the default engine for headless navigation, scraping, and DOM extraction. Reach for full Chromium (Webwright or browser/playwright) only when you need a real pixel screenshot to visually verify a page.

The binary lives at /home/deadpool/lightpanda. Move it to ~/.local/bin/lightpanda to put it on PATH. Confirm it works with lightpanda version.

Three modes

Mode	Command	Use it for
mcp	lightpanda mcp	MCP server over stdio. Claude gets browser tools directly. This is how the lightpanda MCP is wired into the browser profile.
serve	lightpanda serve --port 9222	WebSocket CDP server. Point Playwright, Puppeteer, or Webwright at it via connectOverCDP as a low-memory Chromium replacement.
fetch	lightpanda fetch <url> --dump markdown	One-shot: render a page and dump HTML, Markdown, or a semantic tree to stdout. No server, no session. Fastest path for scraping.

When to use lightpanda (default)

• "Scrape this page" or "what's on this URL" maps to lightpanda fetch <url> --dump markdown.
• "Give me the cleaned text of this article" maps to --dump semantic_tree_text.
• "Drive this site headlessly" or CDP automation maps to serve plus a CDP client.
• Any headless navigation where you do not need a pixel screenshot.

When NOT to use lightpanda

• Visual verification ("does the button look right?", "screenshot the checkout"): use Webwright or browser/playwright. Lightpanda does not paint pixels.
• Pure JSON or API checks: curl via Bash is faster.
• Reading a docs page for its text: WebFetch is fine and needs no binary.

Example

User: "scrape get-ryze.ai and give me the clean text"

/home/deadpool/lightpanda fetch https://get-ryze.ai --dump semantic_tree_text

User: "drive the checkout flow headlessly with Playwright"

# Terminal 1: start the CDP backend
/home/deadpool/lightpanda serve --port 9222

// Your Playwright script connects instead of launching Chromium
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP("ws://127.0.0.1:9222");

Mode 1: fetch (one-shot scrape)

/home/deadpool/lightpanda fetch https://example.com --dump markdown
/home/deadpool/lightpanda fetch https://example.com --dump semantic_tree_text
/home/deadpool/lightpanda fetch https://example.com --dump html --strip-mode js,css,ui
/home/deadpool/lightpanda fetch https://example.com --dump markdown --json

--dump values: html, markdown, semantic_tree, semantic_tree_text. --strip-mode removes noise: js, css, ui, or full.

Mode 2: serve (CDP backend)

/home/deadpool/lightpanda serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 9222

The CDP endpoint is discoverable at http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/version. Connect Playwright with chromium.connectOverCDP("ws://127.0.0.1:9222") or Puppeteer with puppeteer.connect({ browserWSEndpoint: "ws://127.0.0.1:9222" }). Preload cookies read-only with --cookie <path.json>.

Mode 3: mcp (tools inside Claude)

The browser profile registers lightpanda mcp. After a Claude restart its tools appear as mcp__lightpanda__*. Prefer these for headless navigation and extraction over shelling out, since they keep one browser session warm across tool calls. Persist cookies across runs with lightpanda mcp --cookie-jar ~/.lightpanda/cookies.json.

Rules

• Default to lightpanda for headless work. Switch to Chromium (Webwright or playwright) the moment the task needs a real screenshot, since lightpanda cannot paint pixels.
• One action per step when driving via CDP. Verify the DOM or semantic tree before declaring success.
• Confirm with the user before any login, form submit, or destructive action. Lightpanda hits real sites and real accounts just like Chromium.
• When fetching untrusted or user-supplied URLs, add --block-private-networks to avoid SSRF into internal services.
• Never enable --insecure-disable-tls-host-verification without explicit user consent.