Lightpanda

Lightpanda

Use instead of Chrome/Chromium and Openclaw default browser for data extraction and web automation when you don't need graphical rendering.

Lightpanda is a headless browser optimized for speed and low resource usage. It exposes a CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) endpoint that works with standard automation libraries.

Alternative to built-in web search

When the built-in Web Search tool is unavailable, or when you need more control over search results (e.g., following links to extract full page content), you can use Lightpanda with DuckDuckGo as an alternative. Prefer the built-in Web Search tool when it is available and sufficient for your needs.

Install

bash scripts/install.sh

Lightpanda is available on Linux and macOS only. Windows is not supported.

The binary is a nightly build that evolves quickly. If you encounter crashes or issues, run scripts/install.sh again to update to the latest version (max once per day).

If issues persist after updating, open a GitHub issue at https://github.com/lightpanda-io/browser/issues including:

• The crash trace/error output, or a description of the unexpected behavior (e.g., missing or incorrect data)
• The Playwright/Puppeteer script that reproduces the issue
• The target URL and expected vs actual results

Start the Browser Server

$HOME/.local/bin/lightpanda serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 9222

Options:

• --log_level info|debug|warn|error - Set logging verbosity
• --log_format pretty|json - Output format for logs

Usage

You can connect directly to the CDP websocket via ws://127.0.0.1:9222. You can also get the WebSocket URL via http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/version.

Use the browser as a drop-in replacement for Chrome and the Openclaw default browser. Send CDP commands directly or use Playwright or Puppeteer.

Important to note:

• Lightpanda executes JavaScript, making it suitable for dynamic websites and SPAs. However, it is under heavy development and may have occasional issues.
• For web searches, use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. Google blocks Lightpanda due to browser fingerprinting.
• Lightpanda supports only 1 CDP connection per process. Each connection can create 1 context and 1 page only. No multi-contexts are available. If you need multiple navigations at the same time, start another process with a new port number. Lightpanda is fast to start and stop, so using multiple processes is more performant than multiple tabs on Chrome.
• The browser resets all context/page on CDP connection close. So keep the websocket connection open throughout a browsing session. You can reuse an existing process for a subsequent connection; you will start with a clean state.
• On connection, always create a new context and a new page. At the end, close both.

Using with playwright-core

Connect to Lightpanda using playwright-core (not the full playwright package):

const { chromium } = require('playwright-core');

(async () => {
  // Connect to Lightpanda via CDP
  const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP({
    endpointURL: 'ws://127.0.0.1:9222',
  });

  const context = await browser.newContext({});
  const page = await context.newPage();

  // Navigate and extract data
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  const title = await page.title();
  const content = await page.textContent('body');

  console.log(JSON.stringify({ title, content }));

  await page.close();
  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
})();

Using with puppeteer-core

Connect to Lightpanda using puppeteer-core (not the full puppeteer package):

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
    browserWSEndpoint: 'ws://127.0.0.1:9222'
  });

  const context = await browser.createBrowserContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle0' });
  const title = await page.title();

  console.log(JSON.stringify({ title }));

  await page.close();
  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
})();

Scripts

• scripts/install.sh - Install Lightpanda binary