<2-3 sentences summarising what the project addresses and solves, the target audience, and the benefit.> Rustwright offers a Rust-based Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) engine for Playwright's API, targeting Python and Node.js developers. It aims to replace Playwright's Node.js driver with a faster, more memory-efficient native engine, claiming 2.55x speedup and 70% less client memory. Key benefits include reduced automation fingerprinting and direct CDP interaction for enhanced performance and stealth.

How It Works

A core Rust engine built on Tokio handles raw CDP communication directly with Chromium. Thin PyO3 (Python) and napi-rs (Node.js) bindings expose this engine in-process, eliminating the Node.js driver subprocess. This architecture enables direct CDP interaction, boosting performance, reducing memory overhead, and avoiding Playwright's specific automation signatures. It also supports cross-origin iframes (OOPIF) and trusted input events by default.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation:
  • Python: pip install rustwright
  • Node.js: npm install rustwright
• Browser Setup:
  • Python requires python -m rustwright install chromium for a one-time Chromium download.
  • Node.js can use existing binaries via environment variables like RUSTWRIGHT_CHROMIUM.
• Prerequisites: Python 3.8+, Node.js.
• Docs: API parity details are available at docs/PARITY.md.

Highlighted Details

• Performance: Benchmarks indicate up to 2.55x speedup and ~70% reduction in client memory footprint compared to playwright-python.
• Stealth: Avoids Playwright's specific automation fingerprint and common detection vectors.
• AI Integration: Features rustwright-agent CLI and an MCP server for AI agents, enabling interaction via stable element references and accessibility snapshots.
• OOPIF: Alpha support for auto-attaching out-of-process iframes with flattened CDP sessions.
• Remote Sessions: Integrates with Skyvern's paid hosted browser sessions for persistent, cloud-based automation.

Maintenance & Community

Rustwright is currently in an alpha state, developed by Skyvern. Community support and discussion are available via their Discord server.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is released under the permissive MIT License, suitable for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

As an alpha project, Rustwright has limitations:

• Browser Support: Strictly limited to Chromium; Firefox and WebKit are not supported.
• API Coverage: While Python sync API coverage is high (~96%), Node.js bindings are experimental and cover only a subset of features. Python async API uses threads, limiting high fan-out concurrency.
• OOPIF: Support is in alpha with known gaps.
• Automation Detection: While it removes Playwright's fingerprint, it is not fully undetectable and may still be flagged by certain advanced detection methods. It does not offer CAPTCHA or Cloudflare bypass capabilities.