Drift

Run Chrome from the Terminal

Install

$ npm install -g @sinclair/drift 

Usage

$ drift url http://localhost:5000

Overview

Drift is a command line tool that integrates the Chrome Developer Console into the terminal. It is built upon the Chrome DevTools Protocol and implements an interactive repl for running code in remote Chrome instances. Drift enables browser functionality to be developed and tested entirely from within a terminal window.

Drift works similar to Node but runs code in constrained browser environments. It can be used for browser automation, running browser code in CI environments or used as a general purpose scripting tool.

License MIT

Contents

• Install
• Commands
• Examples
• Testing
• Contribute

Commands

The Drift CLI accepts a series of commands which are run in sequence against a sandboxed Chrome instance. When all commands have completed, Drift will enter an interactive repl similar to the Chrome DevTools Console.

The following is the Drift command line interface

Format:

  $ drift [...command]

Examples:

  $ drift url https://domain.com
  $ drift run script.ts
  $ drift url https://domain.com run script.ts
  $ drift url https://domain.com wait 1000 save image.png
  $ drift window devtools url https://domain.com

Commands:

  url         url         Load page
  run         path        Add script to page
  css         path        Add style to page
  save        path        Save page as image or pdf
  args        [...args]   Adds args to Drift.args
  watch       [...path]   Watch and reload
  user        path        User directory
  mousedown   x y         Send mousedown event
  position    x y         Desktop window position
  size        w h         Desktop window size
  wait        ms          Wait timeout
  reload                  Reload page
  close                   Close drift

Flags:

  window                  Open window
  devtools                Open devtools
  incognto                Open incognito
  verbose                 Log Chrome messages
  reset                   Reset user directory
  fail                    Close drift on exceptions
  help                    Show this help message

Examples

The following are some examples

# starts with interactive repl

$ drift

# opens github.com

$ drift url http://github.com

# runs index.ts

$ drift run index.ts

# opens a window, runs index.ts, waits 5 seconds then closes

$ drift window run index.ts wait 5000 close

# opens github.com, waits 4 seconds then takes a screenshot

$ drift url https://github.com wait 4000 save screenshot.png

Testing

When testing browser code in CI environments, call close(...) to terminate the process with a non zero exit code on error. CI environments will interpret this is a failed process.

test().then(() => close(0)).catch(() => close(1))

Which can be run on CI environments with the following.

$ drift run test.ts

Contribute

Drift is open to community contribution. Please ensure you submit an open issue before submitting a pull request. The Drift project preferences open community discussion prior to accepting new features.