Pandascript

Writing Lightpanda agent scripts

Run with:

./lightpanda agent script.js

Mental model (get this right first)

The script runs in its own V8 context — neither the page nor Node.js:

• Page is the only global. new Page() makes a page and await page.goto(url) navigates it; every other primitive is a method on that page: const page = new Page(); await page.goto(url); page.extract({...}); page.click(sel);.
• No window, document, DOM, localStorage — read pages with page.extract(...), run page-side JS only via page.evaluate("...").
• No require, process, fs, npm. Standard ECMAScript built-ins only (JSON, Map, template literals, …).
• page.goto(...) is async — always await it. Page methods are synchronous: const data = page.extract({...}), never await page.extract(...). The script body runs as an async function, so top-level await is allowed.
• Re-navigating reuses the same page: await page.goto(url2) keeps page valid and points it at the new URL, discarding the old page — read it before navigating away. Independent URLs don't share a page: make a new Page() for each and load them in parallel (fan-out, best practice 2).
• Page evaluate("...") cannot see script variables — interpolate values into the string. Script code cannot see page variables.
• Variables persist across navigations within one run, so cross-page aggregation is plain JS.
• return <value> is the script's output, printed automatically (objects/arrays as JSON). End with return page.extract({...}); or return results;. A bare trailing expression is NOT printed; neither is console.log(JSON.stringify(...)).

Primitives

Page is the only global; new Page() makes a page and everything else is a method on it.

Options (the trailing { … } object; every option may be omitted):

• goto: timeout — Optional timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 10000.
• evaluate: url — Optional URL to navigate to before evaluating. timeout — Optional timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 10000. save — Optional bridge-store key. The evaluate's return value is stored under this name and re-exposed as lp.<name> to subsequent evaluates. Objects, arrays, and strings are serialized automatically — no JSON.stringify needed.
• scroll: x — Optional: The horizontal scroll offset. y — Optional: The vertical scroll offset.
• waitForSelector: timeout — Optional timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 5000.
• waitForScript: timeout — Optional timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 5000.
• waitForState: timeout — Optional timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 5000.

Calling convention: leading positionals + optional trailing options object, or one object with everything (page.waitForSelector("#row", { timeout: 2000 }) ≡ page.waitForSelector({ selector: "#row", timeout: 2000 })). A bare option positional (page.waitForSelector("#row", 2000)) and a field passed both ways are invalid arguments. null skips a positional. Arguments must be JSON-serializable.

CSS selectors only — backendNodeIds don't exist here. Standard CSS only: no jQuery :contains() or Playwright :has-text().

extract schema

Keys = output field names; values pick what to lift (not a JSON Schema):

const { stories } = page.extract({
  stories: [{
    selector: "tr.athing",          // one record per match
    limit: 5,
    fields: {                        // resolved relative to each match
      title: ".titleline > a",      // first match's text (null if missing)
      url: { selector: ".titleline > a", attr: "href" },
      text: ""                       // "" = the matched element's own text
    }
  }]
});

• "sel" → first match's text; ["sel"] → all matches' text; { selector, attr } / [{ selector, attr }] → attribute(s); limit: N caps any array form.
• Every value is a string or null — parse numbers in script logic.
• Empty arrays are valid results; if every field misses, extract throws ("no schema selector matched any element") → your selectors are wrong, not the page empty.
• An object schema always returns an object (destructure it); a bare array schema returns the array directly.
• No save: option in scripts — keep results in variables.

Best practices

1. Navigate, settle, read. After await page.goto on a dynamic page (feeds, search results, comment threads), call page.waitForState("networkidle") or page.waitForSelector(...) before extracting. Most static pages are complete at load — don't wait blindly.
2. List-to-detail — fan out independent pages. Extract the list, then open one page per item and start every navigation together so the detail pages load in parallel instead of one-after-another:

   const list = new Page();
   await list.goto(listUrl);
   const { items } = list.extract({ items: [{ selector: "a.row", fields: { url: { attr: "href" } } }] });
   
   const pages = items.map(() => new Page());
   await Promise.all(pages.map((p, i) => p.goto(items[i].url)));   // all in flight at once
   return pages.map((p, i) => ({ ...items[i], ...p.extract({ /* schema */ }) }));
   

   • Concurrency is bounded by the HTTP connection pool: 40 total (--http-max-concurrent) and 6 per host (--http-max-host-open, the browser default — raising it much higher risks overwhelming the target server). Extra navigations queue rather than fail, so a same-site fan-out loads ~6 pages at a time. For long lists, fan out in batches and page.close() each page once read so its memory is reclaimed.
   • Promise.all rejects the whole batch if any goto fails (a timeout does not reject); use Promise.allSettled when partial results are fine.
   • Walk serially on one page (for (const it of items) { await page.goto(it.url); … }) only when the steps depend on each other — each page decides the next URL, or they share login/session state.
3. evaluate is a last resort, not a reading tool. A querySelectorAll-and-parse page.evaluate block is always wrong: lift the raw strings with page.extract, then trim/split/parse them in top-level JS. Reserve page.evaluate for behavior that must run inside the page and no builtin covers — and remember its state dies on every navigation/reload, while script variables persist.
4. Credentials via $LP_* placeholders in any string argument (page.fill("#pw", "$LP_HN_PASSWORD")). Never inline a real secret; placeholders resolve inside the Lightpanda process.
5. Unique selectors. Disambiguate with attributes/position: input[type="submit"][value="login"], not input[type="submit"].
6. Let failures fail. Primitives throw on error and stop the script — only try/catch where you have a real fallback (e.g. optional cookie banner: try { page.click("#accept") } catch {}).
7. End with return <result>. console.log is for debug output only and doesn't JSON-format objects.
8. Modern, readable JS: const/let, for (const x of xs), template literals, destructuring, 2-space indent.
9. Comment the intent of each block. Put a one-line // comment above each logical step describing what it accomplishes toward the goal (not restating the call). One comment per block, not per line — skip self-evident lines:

   // Load the Hacker News front page
   const page = new Page();
   await page.goto("https://news.ycombinator.com");
   
   // Pull the top 5 stories (title + link)
   const { stories } = page.extract({ stories: [{ selector: "tr.athing", limit: 5, fields: { title: ".titleline > a", url: { selector: ".titleline > a", attr: "href" } } }] });
   
   // Open each story page in parallel and read its text
   const pages = stories.map(() => new Page());
   await Promise.all(pages.map((p, i) => p.goto(stories[i].url)));
   

Common errors