Patchright Docker

Patchright Docker

Stealth browser in Docker. Patchright (undetected Playwright fork) + xvfb. Bypasses Cloudflare, bot detection, and headless browser fingerprinting without opening a Chrome window.

When to Use

• webfetch or curl returns 403, Cloudflare challenge, or "Access Denied"
• A site requires JavaScript rendering that webfetch can't handle
• You need to interact with a page (click, fill, scroll) before extracting data
• You need a screenshot of a protected page

When NOT to Use

• URL works fine with webfetch or curl (use those first, they're faster)
• Complex multi-step automation with login, 2FA, or session management (use dedicated scripts like SW or AA)
• You need to run many requests quickly (each invocation starts a fresh browser, ~10-15s overhead)

Prerequisites

docker pull ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker

Fetch Mode (Default)

Pass a URL and get back page content. Stealth curl replacement.

# Basic fetch (returns body text)
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com"

# Extract specific element(s)
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" --selector "table"
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" --selector "h1" --selector ".content"

# Get HTML instead of text
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" --selector "table" --html

# JSON output (title, url, content)
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" --json

# Execute JavaScript
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" --js "document.title"

Cloudflare Bypass

Use --warmup to visit the site's homepage first. This establishes cookies and passes Cloudflare challenges before navigating to the protected page.

docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://protected-site.com/data" \
  --warmup "https://protected-site.com"

Interactions Before Extraction

Click buttons, fill forms, then extract the result.

# Click a button, wait, extract
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" \
  --click "#load-more" --wait 3000 --selector ".results"

# Fill a search form and submit
docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker "https://example.com" \
  --fill "#search" "query text" --click "#submit" --wait 3000 --selector ".results"

Screenshots

# Viewport screenshot
docker run --rm -v ./output:/output ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://example.com" --screenshot /output/page.png

# Full page screenshot
docker run --rm -v ./output:/output ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://example.com" --screenshot /output/page.png --full-page

Script Mode

Mount any Python script for complex automation. The container has Patchright and Chromium pre-installed. xvfb is already running.

docker run --rm -v ./my_script.py:/scripts/my_script.py \
  ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker script /scripts/my_script.py [args...]

Your script can use the full Patchright API:

from patchright.sync_api import sync_playwright
import tempfile

with sync_playwright() as p:
    ctx = p.chromium.launch_persistent_context(
        user_data_dir=tempfile.mkdtemp(),
        headless=False,  # xvfb handles display
        viewport={"width": 1440, "height": 900},
    )
    page = ctx.pages[0] if ctx.pages else ctx.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")
    print(page.title())
    ctx.close()

All Options

Common Patterns

Cloudflare-protected table

docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://seats.aero/tools/releases?source=aeroplan" \
  --warmup "https://seats.aero" \
  --selector "table" 2>/dev/null

JSON + jq pipeline

docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://example.com" --json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.content'

Multiple selectors combined

docker run --rm ghcr.io/borski/patchright-docker \
  "https://example.com" \
  --selector "h1" --selector "article" --json 2>/dev/null

Performance

• ~10-15 seconds per invocation (browser startup + page load + Cloudflare challenge if present)
• Each run creates a fresh browser context (no cookie persistence between runs)
• Redirect stderr to /dev/null to suppress Chromium/xvfb noise: 2>/dev/null
• For repeated access to the same site, a custom script with session reuse will be faster

Troubleshooting

• "Cloudflare challenge did not resolve": Some sites have aggressive bot detection that even Patchright can't bypass. Try adding --wait 10000 for more time, or --user-agent with a realistic string.
• Timeout: Increase --timeout 60000 for slow pages.
• Empty output: The selector might not exist. Try without --selector first to see the full page text, then narrow down.
• stderr noise: Chromium and xvfb print warnings to stderr. Pipe 2>/dev/null for clean output.