Prexel Browser API

A powerful, high-performance Screenshot API built on Next.js, Playwright, and Puppeteer Stealth. Designed as a local, customizable alternative to premium APIs like ScreenshotOne.

Features at a Glance

• 📸 High-Fidelity Captures: PNG and JPEG with retina device scaling support (device_scale_factor).
• 🎥 Animated Captures (WebM): Record smooth video of web pages scrolling and loading.
• 🗂 Bulk API: Process multiple snapshot requests concurrently via a single JSON packet.
• 🌙 Force Dark Mode: Aggressively forces standard light/dark modes on uncooperative frameworks.
• 🚫 Built-in Ad & Cookie Blocker: Automatically snipes GDPR/CCPA consent banners and standard ad-networks.
• 📜 Advanced Scrolling Strategy: Capable of custom scrolling into views or pacing scrolls to trigger lazy loading.
• 👻 Stealth Modifiers: Injects Puppeteer stealth plugins to heavily mitigate bot detection.

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Getting Started

1. Installation

Ensure you have Node.js installed, then clone the repository and run:

npm install
# Install required browser binaries for Playwright
npx playwright install chromium

2. Running the Server

Start the local development server:

npm run dev

The server will spin up the API at http://localhost:3000.

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The /api/screenshot Endpoint (GET)

Handles individual URL screenshot requests by passing customization flags through URL query parameters.

Basic Usage:

GET http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot?url=https://github.com&full_page=true

Supported Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
url	string	Required	The target website URL.
format	png | jpeg | webm	png	File format to return. webm triggers video mode!
width	number	1280	Browser viewport width.
height	number	800	Browser viewport height.
full_page	boolean	false	Take a screenshot of the entire scrollable page.
quality	number	80	Image compression quality (only applies to jpeg).
dark_mode	boolean	false	Aggressively override site CSS with dark mode themes.
block_cookie_banners	boolean	true	Snipes and hides cookie/GDPR pop-ups.
block_ads_trackers	boolean	true	Intercepts routing calls to ad-networks (Google Analytics, etc).
device_scale_factor	number	2	Device pixel ratio (1-3).
omit_background	boolean	false	Sets transparent backgrounds (PNG only).
wait_until	load | domcontentloaded | networkidle	load	The event Playwright waits for before proceeding.
wait_for_timeout	number	none	Explicitly stall the capture by X milliseconds.

Scrolling Capabilities (for Lazy Loading & WebM)

If you need the page to scroll down slowly (to trigger images or record animation):

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
scroll_by	number	none	Triggers a smooth auto-scroll mechanic by X pixels incrementally.
scroll_delay	number	500	The delay between each incremental scan (milliseconds).
scroll_max_time	number	15000	Abort scrolling after this amount of time (milliseconds).
scroll_max_distance	number	none	Maximum vertical scroll distance allowed before halting.
scroll_to_element	string	none	CSS Selector to specifically scroll down into view.

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The /api/bulk Endpoint (POST)

Submits multiple screenshot tasks in a single JSON payload.

Basic Usage:

// POST http://localhost:3000/api/bulk
{
  "requests": [
    { "url": "https://example.com" },
    { "url": "https://github.com", "dark_mode": "true", "format": "jpeg" }
  ],
  "options": {
    "width": 1920,
    "height": 1080
  }
}

The options object defines the default parameters for all items. Individual requests objects override the globals!

Response

Returns an array of results with pure base64 data values if successful:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com",
      "success": true,
      "content_type": "image/png",
      "data": "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgo..."
    }
  ]
}

Enjoy your streamlined screenshot engine!