Pydoll is a library for automating chromium-based browsers without a WebDriver, offering realistic interactions.
pip install pydoll
The stealth-first browser automation library for Python.
No WebDriver, no navigator.webdriver flag, built to look human.
Documentation · Getting Started · Features · Support
Pydoll is a stealth-first browser automation library for Python. It talks straight to the Chrome DevTools Protocol over WebSocket, so there's no WebDriver binary and no navigator.webdriver flag to give you away. It clicks, types, and scrolls like a real person, which is often enough to sail through the bot-protection that stops ordinary automation cold. All of it behind a clean, async-native, fully typed API.
Be a good human, give it a star ⭐
No star, no bug fixes. Just kidding. Or not.Why Pydoll?
- Looks human, not like a bot: Human-like mouse movement (Bezier curves), realistic typing, and scroll physics. Enough to pass behavioral challenges like Cloudflare Turnstile or reCAPTCHA v3, depending on your browser and IP reputation.
- Zero WebDrivers: A direct CDP connection over WebSocket. No driver binary, no
navigator.webdriverflag, no version-matching headaches. - Stealth built in: Realistic interactions plus granular browser preference control for fingerprint management.
- Async and typed: Built on
asynciofrom the ground up, 100% type-checked withmypy. Full IDE autocompletion and static error checking. - 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.
- Structured extraction: Define a Pydantic model, call
tab.extract(), and get typed, validated data back. No manual element-by-element querying.
[!NOTE] A word from the maintainer. Pydoll is currently maintained by a single person, and I'm a bit stretched at the moment, so new releases and replies to issues may take a little longer than usual. To be clear: the project is not dead, and it is not going anywhere. Development continues; it's just moving at a calmer pace for now.
A goal to aim for: once the project reaches 10k stars, I plan to ship Firefox support, a big step that opens up a whole new range of possibilities for the library. Momentum like that is exactly the kind of incentive that makes a feature this large worth taking on, so if you'd like to see it happen, that's the push it needs.
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Installation
pip install pydoll-python
No WebDriver binaries or external dependencies required.
Getting Started
1. Solving Cloudflare Turnstile
Pydoll gets you past Cloudflare Turnstile the same way a person does: by placing a realistic, humanized click on the widget. It simulates a real user (humanized clicks and movements) and works to make the browser look genuine, so Turnstile assigns a high enough trust score to accept the click. Whether it succeeds depends on your browser and IP reputation.
import asyncio
from pydoll.browser.chromium import Chrome
async def solve_turnstile():
async with Chrome() as browser:
tab = await browser.start()
# Waits for the Turnstile widget, performs a realistic click,
# and continues once it settles.
async with tab.expect_and_bypass_cloudflare_captcha():
await tab.go_to('https://site-with-turnstile.com')
print('Turnstile handled, continuing...')
asyncio.run(solve_turnstile())
Pydoll getting past a Cloudflare Turnstile challenge with a realistic, humanized click.
[!NOTE] Despite the method name, this isn't a magic bypass. Pydoll performs the same click a real user would; whether it passes depends on your environment (browser fingerprint and IP reputation). See the Turnstile docs for details.
2. Stealthy Automation
When you need to navigate, get past challenges, or interact with dynamic UI, Pydoll's imperative API handles it. Pass humanize=True to add human-like timing for anti-bot evasion.
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 browser.set_window_maximized()
tab.mouse.debug = True
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.type_text(query, humanize=True)
await tab.keyboard.press(Key.ENTER)
first_result = await tab.find(
tag_name='h3',
text='autoscrape-labs/pydoll',
timeout=10,
)
await first_result.click(humanize=True)
await asyncio.sleep(5)
print(f"Page loaded: {await tab.title}")
asyncio.run(google_search('pydoll site:github.com'))
Features
Structured Data Extraction (Pydantic)
Define what you want with a Pydantic model and Pydoll maps the DOM straight into typed, validated Python objects, no manual element-by-element querying. Models support CSS/XPath auto-detection, HTML attribute targeting, custom transforms, and nested models.
import asyncio
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')
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.model_dump_json()) # pydantic serialization built-in
asyncio.run(extract_quotes())
Humanized Mouse Movement
Mouse operations can produce human-like cursor movement when you pass humanize=True:
- 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, humanize=True)
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300, humanize=True)
await tab.mouse.drag(100, 200, 500, 400, humanize=True)
button = await tab.find(id='submit')
await button.click(humanize=True)
# Default is fast, non-humanized movement
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300)
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 pagetimeoutparameter for polling until shadow roots appeardeep=Truetraverses cross-origin iframes (OOPIFs)- Standard
find(),query(),click()API inside shadow roots
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')
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)
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()
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())
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,
}
}
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)
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
...
Contributing
Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Support
If you find Pydoll useful, consider sponsoring the project on GitHub.