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Getting started - Library

Installation​

Pip​

PyPI version

pip install --upgrade pip
pip install copilotbrowser
copilotbrowser install

Conda​

Anaconda version

conda config --add channels conda-forge
conda config --add channels microsoft
conda install copilotbrowser
copilotbrowser install

These commands download the copilotbrowser package and install browser binaries for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit. To modify this behavior see installation parameters.

Usage​

Once installed, you can import copilotbrowser in a Python script, and launch any of the 3 browsers (chromium, firefox and webkit).

from copilotbrowser.sync_api import sync_copilotbrowser

with sync_copilotbrowser() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://copilotbrowser.dev")
    print(page.title())
    browser.close()

copilotbrowser supports two variations of the API: synchronous and asynchronous. If your modern project uses asyncio, you should use async API:

import asyncio
from copilotbrowser.async_api import async_copilotbrowser

async def main():
    async with async_copilotbrowser() as p:
        browser = await p.chromium.launch()
        page = await browser.new_page()
        await page.goto("https://copilotbrowser.dev")
        print(await page.title())
        await browser.close()

asyncio.run(main())

First script​

In our first script, we will navigate to https://dayour.github.io/copilotbrowser/ and take a screenshot in WebKit.

from copilotbrowser.sync_api import sync_copilotbrowser

with sync_copilotbrowser() as p:
    browser = p.webkit.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://dayour.github.io/copilotbrowser/")
    page.screenshot(path="example.png")
    browser.close()

By default, copilotbrowser runs the browsers in headless mode. To see the browser UI, set BrowserType.launch.headless option to False. You can also use BrowserType.launch.slowMo to slow down execution. Learn more in the debugging tools section.

firefox.launch(headless=False, slow_mo=50)

Interactive mode (REPL)​

You can launch the interactive python REPL:

python

and then launch copilotbrowser within it for quick experimentation:

from copilotbrowser.sync_api import sync_copilotbrowser
copilotbrowser = sync_copilotbrowser().start()
# Use copilotbrowser.chromium, copilotbrowser.firefox or copilotbrowser.webkit
# Pass headless=False to launch() to see the browser UI
browser = copilotbrowser.chromium.launch()
page = browser.new_page()
page.goto("https://dayour.github.io/copilotbrowser/")
page.screenshot(path="example.png")
browser.close()
copilotbrowser.stop()

Async REPL such as asyncio REPL:

python -m asyncio
from copilotbrowser.async_api import async_copilotbrowser
copilotbrowser = await async_copilotbrowser().start()
browser = await copilotbrowser.chromium.launch()
page = await browser.new_page()
await page.goto("https://dayour.github.io/copilotbrowser/")
await page.screenshot(path="example.png")
await browser.close()
await copilotbrowser.stop()

Pyinstaller​

You can use copilotbrowser with Pyinstaller to create standalone executables.

main.py
from copilotbrowser.sync_api import sync_copilotbrowser

with sync_copilotbrowser() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://dayour.github.io/copilotbrowser/")
    page.screenshot(path="example.png")
    browser.close()

If you want to bundle browsers with the executables:

copilotbrowser_BROWSERS_PATH=0 copilotbrowser install chromium
pyinstaller -F main.py
set copilotbrowser_BROWSERS_PATH=0
copilotbrowser install chromium
pyinstaller -F main.py
$env:copilotbrowser_BROWSERS_PATH="0"
copilotbrowser install chromium
pyinstaller -F main.py
note

Bundling the browsers with the executables will generate bigger binaries. It is recommended to only bundle the browsers you use.

Known issues​

time.sleep() leads to outdated state​

Most likely you don't need to wait manually, since copilotbrowser has auto-waiting. If you still rely on it, you should use page.wait_for_timeout(5000) instead of time.sleep(5) and it is better to not wait for a timeout at all, but sometimes it is useful for debugging. In these cases, use our wait (wait_for_timeout) method instead of the time module. This is because we internally rely on asynchronous operations and when using time.sleep(5) they can't get processed correctly.

incompatible with SelectorEventLoop of asyncio on Windows​

copilotbrowser runs the driver in a subprocess, so it requires ProactorEventLoop of asyncio on Windows because SelectorEventLoop does not supports async subprocesses.

On Windows Python 3.7, copilotbrowser sets the default event loop to ProactorEventLoop as it is default on Python 3.8+.

Threading​

copilotbrowser's API is not thread-safe. If you are using copilotbrowser in a multi-threaded environment, you should create a copilotbrowser instance per thread. See threading issue for more details.