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Pydoll Logo

Async-native, fully typed, built for evasion and performance.

Tests Ruff CI MyPy CI Python >= 3.10 Ask DeepWiki

Documentation · Getting Started · Features · Support

Pydoll automates Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge) by connecting directly to the Chrome DevTools Protocol over WebSocket. No WebDriver binary, no navigator.webdriver flag, no compatibility issues.

It combines a high-level API for stealthy automation with low-level CDP access for fine-grained control over network, fingerprinting, and browser behavior. And with its new Pydantic-powered extraction engine, it maps the DOM directly to structured Python objects, delivering an unmatched Developer Experience (DX).

Top Sponsors

The Web Scraping Club

Read a full review of Pydoll on The Web Scraping Club, the #1 newsletter dedicated to web scraping.

Sponsors

Thordata CapSolver LambdaTest

Learn more about our sponsors · Become a sponsor

Why Pydoll

  • Structured extraction: Define a Pydantic model, call tab.extract(), get typed and validated data back. No manual element-by-element querying.
  • Async and typed: Built on asyncio from the ground up, 100% type-checked with mypy. Full IDE autocompletion and static error checking.
  • Stealth built in: Human-like mouse movement, realistic typing, and granular browser preference control for fingerprint management.
  • Network control: Intercept requests to block ads/trackers, monitor traffic for API discovery, and make authenticated HTTP requests that inherit the browser session.
  • Shadow DOM and iframes: Full support for shadow roots (including closed) and cross-origin iframes. Discover, query, and interact with elements inside them using the same API.

Installation

pip install pydoll-python

No WebDriver binaries or external dependencies required.

Getting Started

1. Stateful Automation & Evasion

When you need to navigate, bypass challenges, or interact with dynamic UI, Pydoll's imperative API handles it with humanized timing by default.

import asyncio
from pydoll.browser import Chrome
from pydoll.constants import Key

async def google_search(query: str):
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()
        await tab.go_to('https://www.google.com')

        # Find elements and interact with human-like timing
        search_box = await tab.find(tag_name='textarea', name='q')
        await search_box.insert_text(query)
        await tab.keyboard.press(Key.ENTER)

        first_result = await tab.find(
            tag_name='h3',
            text='autoscrape-labs/pydoll',
            timeout=10,
        )
        await first_result.click()
        print(f"Page loaded: {await tab.title}")

asyncio.run(google_search('pydoll site:github.com'))

2. Structured Data Extraction

Once you reach the target page, switch to the declarative engine. Define what you want with a model, and Pydoll extracts it — typed, validated, and ready to use.

from pydoll.browser.chromium import Chrome
from pydoll.extractor import ExtractionModel, Field

class Quote(ExtractionModel):
    text: str = Field(selector='.text', description='The quote text')
    author: str = Field(selector='.author', description='Who said it')
    tags: list[str] = Field(selector='.tag', description='Tags')
    year: int | None = Field(selector='.year', description='Year', default=None)

async def extract_quotes():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()
        await tab.go_to('https://quotes.toscrape.com')

        quotes = await tab.extract_all(Quote, scope='.quote', timeout=5)

        for q in quotes:
            print(f'{q.author}: {q.text}')  # fully typed, IDE autocomplete works
            print(q.tags)                    # list[str], not a raw element
            print(q.model_dump_json())       # pydantic serialization built-in

asyncio.run(extract_quotes())

Models support CSS/XPath auto-detection, HTML attribute targeting, custom transforms, and nested models.

Nested models, transforms, and attribute extraction
from datetime import datetime
from pydoll.extractor import ExtractionModel, Field

def parse_date(raw: str) -> datetime:
    return datetime.strptime(raw.strip(), '%B %d, %Y')

class Author(ExtractionModel):
    name: str = Field(selector='.author-title')
    born: datetime = Field(
        selector='.author-born-date',
        transform=parse_date,
    )

class Article(ExtractionModel):
    title: str = Field(selector='h1')
    url: str = Field(selector='.source-link', attribute='href')
    author: Author = Field(selector='.author-card', description='Nested model')

article = await tab.extract(Article, timeout=5)
article.author.born.year  # int — types are preserved all the way down

Features

Humanized Mouse Movement

Mouse operations produce human-like cursor movement by default:

  • Bezier curve paths with asymmetric control points
  • Fitts's Law timing: duration scales with distance
  • Minimum-jerk velocity: bell-shaped speed profile
  • Physiological tremor: Gaussian noise scaled with velocity
  • Overshoot correction: ~70% chance on fast movements, then corrects back
await tab.mouse.move(500, 300)
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300)
await tab.mouse.drag(100, 200, 500, 400)

button = await tab.find(id='submit')
await button.click()

# Opt out when speed matters
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300, humanize=False)

Mouse Control Docs

Shadow DOM Support

Full Shadow DOM support, including closed shadow roots. Because Pydoll operates at the CDP level (below JavaScript), the closed mode restriction doesn't apply.

shadow = await element.get_shadow_root()
button = await shadow.query('.internal-btn')
await button.click()

# Discover all shadow roots on the page
shadow_roots = await tab.find_shadow_roots()
for sr in shadow_roots:
    checkbox = await sr.query('input[type="checkbox"]', raise_exc=False)
    if checkbox:
        await checkbox.click()

Highlights:

  • Closed shadow roots work without workarounds
  • find_shadow_roots() discovers every shadow root on the page
  • timeout parameter for polling until shadow roots appear
  • deep=True traverses cross-origin iframes (OOPIFs)
  • Standard find(), query(), click() API inside shadow roots

Shadow DOM Docs

HAR Network Recording

Record network activity during a browser session and export as HAR 1.2. Replay recorded requests to reproduce exact API sequences.

from pydoll.browser.chromium import Chrome

async with Chrome() as browser:
    tab = await browser.start()

    async with tab.request.record() as capture:
        await tab.go_to('https://example.com')

    capture.save('flow.har')
    print(f'Captured {len(capture.entries)} requests')

    responses = await tab.request.replay('flow.har')

HAR Recording Docs

Page Bundles

Save the current page and all its assets (CSS, JS, images, fonts) as a .zip bundle for offline viewing. Optionally inline everything into a single HTML file.

await tab.save_bundle('page.zip')
await tab.save_bundle('page-inline.zip', inline_assets=True)

Screenshots, PDFs & Bundles Docs

Hybrid Automation (UI + API)

Use UI automation to pass login flows (CAPTCHAs, JS challenges), then switch to tab.request for fast API calls that inherit the full browser session: cookies, headers, and all.

# Log in via UI
await tab.go_to('https://my-site.com/login')
await (await tab.find(id='username')).type_text('user')
await (await tab.find(id='password')).type_text('pass123')
await (await tab.find(id='login-btn')).click()

# Make authenticated API calls using the browser session
response = await tab.request.get('https://my-site.com/api/user/profile')
user_data = response.json()

Hybrid Automation Docs

Network Interception and Monitoring

Monitor traffic for API discovery or intercept requests to block ads, trackers, and unnecessary resources.

import asyncio
from pydoll.browser.chromium import Chrome
from pydoll.protocol.fetch.events import FetchEvent, RequestPausedEvent
from pydoll.protocol.network.types import ErrorReason

async def block_images():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()

        async def block_resource(event: RequestPausedEvent):
            request_id = event['params']['requestId']
            resource_type = event['params']['resourceType']

            if resource_type in ['Image', 'Stylesheet']:
                await tab.fail_request(request_id, ErrorReason.BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT)
            else:
                await tab.continue_request(request_id)

        await tab.enable_fetch_events()
        await tab.on(FetchEvent.REQUEST_PAUSED, block_resource)

        await tab.go_to('https://example.com')
        await asyncio.sleep(3)
        await tab.disable_fetch_events()

asyncio.run(block_images())

Network Monitoring | Request Interception

Browser Fingerprint Control

Granular control over browser preferences: hundreds of internal Chrome settings for building consistent fingerprints.

options = ChromiumOptions()

options.browser_preferences = {
    'profile': {
        'default_content_setting_values': {
            'notifications': 2,
            'geolocation': 2,
        },
        'password_manager_enabled': False
    },
    'intl': {
        'accept_languages': 'en-US,en',
    },
    'browser': {
        'check_default_browser': False,
    }
}

Browser Preferences Guide

Concurrency, Contexts and Remote Connections

Manage multiple tabs and browser contexts (isolated sessions) concurrently. Connect to browsers running in Docker or remote servers.

async def scrape_page(url, tab):
    await tab.go_to(url)
    return await tab.title

async def concurrent_scraping():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab_google = await browser.start()
        tab_ddg = await browser.new_tab()

        results = await asyncio.gather(
            scrape_page('https://google.com/', tab_google),
            scrape_page('https://duckduckgo.com/', tab_ddg)
        )
        print(results)

Multi-Tab Management | Remote Connections

Retry Decorator

The @retry decorator supports custom recovery logic between attempts (e.g., refreshing the page, rotating proxies) and exponential backoff.

from pydoll.decorators import retry
from pydoll.exceptions import ElementNotFound, NetworkError

@retry(
    max_retries=3,
    exceptions=[ElementNotFound, NetworkError],
    on_retry=my_recovery_function,
    exponential_backoff=True
)
async def scrape_product(self, url: str):
    # scraping logic
    ...

Retry Decorator Docs


Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Support

If you find Pydoll useful, consider sponsoring the project on GitHub.

License

MIT License