Playwright Headless Browser (Chromium)

Set up headless browser automation in Clawdbot using Playwright Chromium. Use when configuring browser tools for WSL/Linux environments, installing browser d...

Security Scan

The skill is internally consistent: it installs Playwright/Chromium, ensures OS libraries, and patches Clawdbot configuration; the requested actions and files align with that purpose and there are no unexplained credentials or external endpoints.

Purpose & Capability

The name/description match the provided scripts and instructions. The scripts install Playwright/Chromium, check for system libraries, and patch Clawdbot to point to the Playwright-managed Chromium executable — all expected for the described purpose.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md and scripts instruct running npx to install Playwright, invoking package managers (sudo apt/dnf/pacman/apk) and patching Clawdbot config. These are within scope, but the configuration sets noSandbox: true (explicitly required for WSL/containers), which weakens Chromium sandboxing — a security tradeoff the user should be aware of before applying the patch.

Install Mechanism

There is no formal install spec in the registry (instruction-only), but the scripts rely on npx (which will download Playwright artifacts from npm/microsoft-hosted locations) and native package managers. This is expected for Playwright; no obscure or third-party URLs or archive extracts are used. Users should be aware npx will fetch packages at runtime.

Credentials

No environment variables or credentials are requested. The scripts access expected local paths (e.g., ~/.cache/ms-playwright and ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json) and the clawdbot CLI if present. No unrelated secrets or external tokens are referenced.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request always:true and does not modify other skills. It will patch the Clawdbot configuration (either via clawdbot CLI or by instructing manual edits to the user's config file), which is appropriate for its purpose. It also requires sudo for package installs — a normal privilege for system-level package management.

Assessment

This skill appears to do exactly what it says: install Playwright-managed Chromium, ensure system libraries, and configure Clawdbot to use it. Before running: (1) ensure you have Node.js/npx installed and trust npm/Microsoft Playwright downloads; (2) review and back up your Clawdbot config (~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json) because the script will patch it (it also sets noSandbox: true, which reduces Chromium sandbox protections — acceptable for WSL but a security tradeoff); (3) be prepared to run commands with sudo to install OS packages; (4) if you do not have the clawdbot CLI, follow the printed manual config steps rather than letting an automated CLI modify your config. If you want extra caution, run the setup in a disposable or test environment first.

Playwright Browser Setup

Configure Clawdbot's browser tool to use Playwright-managed Chromium for headless automation in WSL/Linux environments.

Quick Setup

Run the setup script to install everything:

./scripts/setup.sh

This will:

1. Install Playwright and Chromium
2. Install required system libraries (requires sudo)
3. Patch Clawdbot config to use the Playwright browser

Manual Setup

1. Install Playwright Chromium

npx playwright install chromium

2. Install System Dependencies

Chromium requires NSS and ALSA libraries:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y libnss3 libasound2t64

# If libasound2t64 doesn't exist (older Ubuntu):
sudo apt-get install -y libnss3 libasound2

3. Find Chromium Path

find ~/.cache/ms-playwright -name "chrome" -path "*/chrome-linux64/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1

4. Configure Clawdbot

Patch the gateway config:

clawdbot config patch '{"browser": {"executablePath": "<path-from-step-3>", "headless": true, "noSandbox": true}}'

Or use the provided script:

./scripts/configure-clawdbot.sh

Verification

Test the browser works:

~/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-*/chrome-linux64/chrome --headless --no-sandbox --disable-gpu --dump-dom https://example.com

Notes

• noSandbox: true is required for WSL/container environments
• headless: true runs without a visible window (faster, no display needed)
• For visible browser, set headless: false and ensure WSLg or X11 is configured