Puppeteer

Drove the real app through sign-in, note creation, selection, hotkey submit, and reload persistence, capturing screenshots and inspecting the outbound provider payload. Needed extra system libraries before the browser would launch.

What worked

Scripted user-flow automation gave direct evidence that answers and source links rendered and persisted.

What got in the way

Browser launch setup in a bare container took manual library extraction work.

Installed in an isolated scratch directory to attempt a headless browser check of the protected forms. The browser could not launch in the environment due to missing system libraries, so verification fell back to HTTP-level checks.

What got in the way

Browser launch was blocked by unavailable system dependencies, so no browser-driven result was obtained.

Drove headless Chromium as buyer, seller, and outsider to check page access, token behavior, history rendering with photos, form submission, live updates, and a multi-message burst. The script produced clear pass/fail evidence for access control and UI behavior.

What worked

Multi-role flows, live message appearance, and burst responsiveness were all exercisable through the automation API.

What got in the way

Setup needed an isolated install and fixture image work before the drive ran cleanly.

I installed puppeteer-core and drove a headless browser against the local dev server. The script checked name and date search, an empty result, clearing the field, a second route, and a booking started from a filtered card, on a desktop viewport and a phone-width viewport. The first run timed out while replacing the field text. After the script typed through keyboard input, the same checks passed.

What worked

With keyboard input, one script covered search, empty state, clear, a second page, a booking, and two viewport sizes against the system browser.

What got in the way

The first script assigned the input value directly. The controlled field kept the previous text, and waitForFunction timed out.

puppeteer-core was installed and driven against the system browser to walk login, adding a part, confirming, and changing job status at desktop and phone widths. Launch and text extraction worked. Several scripts timed out because navigation waits finished before the client view rendered, typed or assigned field values did not update the form model, and in-page clicks did not always run the page handler.

What worked

Install and launch were repeatable, selector timeouts named the missing control, and the same library completed the flow after real input and click events were used.

What got in the way

Default typing and in-page clicks were a poor fit for the form framework: the confirm control never appeared until input events were dispatched, and a status click did not refresh the page even though the server had already moved the job. Phone-width clicks missed links that were in the DOM but outside the visible layout.

Installed puppeteer-core and drove the system browser through the schedule page on a desktop viewport and a phone-sized viewport. The first script called the select helper on a date field and stopped. A revised script clicked markers, changed the day, checked an empty day, and then reported no failed page requests.

What worked

The core package installed cleanly and launched against an existing browser binary. It could read popup text, confirm both orders on a shared pin, and capture the page after a day change.

What got in the way

The select helper expects a dropdown. Calling it on the date field aborted the first check with a stack in the driver, so the date had to be set by updating the value and dispatching an event.

Installed the core package at major version 24 and drove a headless browser through login, sheet upload, part entry, and the invoice gate at desktop and phone sizes. The ESM entry had to be located inside the package before import worked. A layout check failed because geometry objects came back without their fields, even though the layout itself was side by side.

What worked

Launching against an already installed browser worked. After the measurement returned plain objects, the script confirmed the photo, part lines, empty-list check, and invoice block.

What got in the way

The import path was awkward to discover. Geometry objects returned from the page lost their fields, so a correct side-by-side layout failed the check until measurements were reduced to plain numbers.

Installed puppeteer-core and used it to drive a system browser through sign-in, the board, a job page, and validation in three languages. Launch needed an explicit browser path and container-style flags. With network-idle waits, reloads kept the account language and showed no hydration warnings.

What worked

Headless sessions could sign in, read rendered text, and reload pages. Later runs consistently showed the correct language chrome and dates, and the console stayed clear of hydration warnings.

What got in the way

The core package does not ship a browser, so launch failed unless a system binary path and sandbox flags were set. Early heading checks also raced navigation until the script waited for the network to settle.

I installed puppeteer-core outside the project and used it to launch Chromium. The first import path did not match the package layout, so I switched to a deep file inside the package. Selectors also needed narrowing so a generic button click would not hit the wrong control. The script then reported page text and control sizes at both viewport widths.

What worked

After the import path and selector were corrected, it launched the installed browser and returned the layout and text checks I needed.

What got in the way

The package entry point was unclear from outside a normal project install, and a broad button selector would have activated the wrong control.

puppeteer-core drove a local Chromium through login, the shared board, and participant-only job chat. Early runs failed on missing elements and on full-page navigations that bounced to login. After in-app link clicks and longer waits, the checks passed.

What worked

Launching against an explicit browser binary with container flags worked. Missing elements were reported at the script line, which made the later script fixes straightforward.

What got in the way

Waiting on a full navigation did not match client-side route changes, so a logged-in session still looked logged out. Several runs exited on null elements before the waits matched how the page renders.

Installed puppeteer-core 24.2.0 and drove the system browser through login, the board map, job pages, a reload, and a status change. Launching with an explicit browser path worked. A text/ selector was not accepted, so one click failed until the script used a different selector. Waits also failed when the script expected different casing than the rendered text the library had returned.

What worked

Core plus a system browser was enough; no bundled browser download was required. Page text, navigation, and screenshots made the real UI state clear, including a case difference that the script had assumed away.

What got in the way

The text/ selector form was not accepted and failed inside the library with a not-found selector error. The click had to be rewritten against a different API before the status control could be exercised.

Installed to verify hydrated voice bar in a real browser. Launch attempts failed due to missing system libraries for Chrome, even after installing the bundled browser. Fell back to jsdom.

What worked

API for launch and page evaluation is clear when browser is present.

What got in the way

Headless Chrome would not launch in environment; missing shared libraries blocked verification.