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Headless Recorder

Chrome extension that records your clicks and typing and turns them into a Playwright or Puppeteer script. Arc

GitHub Download v1.1.0
Stars
15.3k
Forks
729
Licence
MIT
Language
JavaScript
Last update
3.9 years ago
Type
App

This repository is archived and no longer maintained.

What it is

Headless Recorder is a Chrome extension that watches you use a web page and writes down what you did as a browser automation script, in either Playwright or Puppeteer format. It is meant to save time when you want a starting script for testing or automating a site without writing every step by hand. The project is archived: its README says it was fully deprecated on Dec 16, 2022, and no further changes or support are expected.

  • Record a login flow on a website and get a Puppeteer script for it
  • Record a form fill and export it as a Playwright script
  • Take full page or element screenshots while recording
  • Copy the generated script to the clipboard and edit it in your own project

Great for

  • Developers who want a rough starting script for a Playwright or Puppeteer flow
  • Learners who want to see how recorded clicks and inputs map to browser automation code
  • People who already use the Checkly platform and want to run generated scripts there
  • Anyone who only needs a one-off recording and can edit the output by hand

Not ideal for

  • Teams that need a maintained tool, since the README says no new changes, support, or fixes are expected
  • People who need the latest Playwright or Puppeteer APIs, because the project stopped updating in 2022
  • Anyone expecting a polished, production-ready test suite without editing the generated code

How to get it

  1. 1

    Install the browser extension

    You'll need: Google Chrome or a Chromium browser that supports unpacked extensions · Node.js (needed only if you build from source; version not stated in the README)

    Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/checkly/headless-recorder

    Install dependencies

    npm i

    Build for production

    npm run build
  2. 2

    Run it

    • Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, or build it locally and load the dist folder via chrome://extensions in developer mode.
    • Click the extension icon and press the red button to start recording.
    • Click links, type into inputs, and press Tab after typing in an input element.
    • Press Pause when you want to navigate without recording, then Resume to continue.
    • Open the generated script, copy it, and edit it for your project.
  3. 3

    Get the most out of it

    • Use the alt + k shortcut to toggle the overlay and preview CSS selectors
    • Use alt + shift + F for full page screenshots and alt + shift + E for element screenshots during a recording
    • Add waitForNavigation or setViewPort clauses from the options to make scripts more reliable
    • Use the data-id configuration option if your site uses custom attributes for element selection
    • Check the Checkly docs for running generated scripts on the Checkly platform

Downloads

Source code (.zip)main branch · straight from GitHubRelease v1.1.0Release notes and sourceOfficial website & docschecklyhq.com/headless-recorder

Strengths

  • Produces readable Playwright or Puppeteer code from real browser actions
  • Includes useful extras such as CSS selector preview and screenshot shortcuts
  • MIT licensed, so the code can be read, forked, and reused

Trade-offs

  • Archived and deprecated as of Dec 16, 2022, so it will not get fixes for browser or library changes
  • Records only a fixed set of events (for example click, change, keydown, submit), so complex interactions may be missed
  • Generated scripts usually need manual cleanup before they are reliable

How it compares

ProjectStarsTypeLevelUpdatedBest for
headless-recorder (this)15.3kAppbeginner3.9 years agoDevelopers who want a rough starting script for a Playwright or Puppeteer flow
FlareSolverr16.1kAppintermediate12 days agoDevelopers whose scripts are blocked by Cloudflare challenges on pages they are allowed to access
ext-saladict13.4kAppbeginner6 days agoLanguage learners who read foreign-language websites or PDFs
camofox-browser12.1kAppintermediate4 days agoDevelopers building AI agents that need to read or interact with websites
linux-command37.2kLearning resourcebeginner6 days agoPeople learning the Linux command line who want quick, readable command explanations
gotenberg13.5kAppintermediate4 days agoDevelopers who need to turn HTML or web pages into PDFs from their own application

Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.