I’m looking for ways to run headless browsers directly in the browser environment without needing any server setup. I want to automate web tasks and scraping but everything needs to happen on the client side.
Has anyone worked with browser-based headless solutions before? I’m trying to avoid setting up Puppeteer or Selenium on a server since I need this to work in a serverless environment.
What are the best options for running automated browser tasks directly in the user’s browser? Are there any libraries or tools that can simulate browser interactions without requiring backend infrastructure? I need something that can handle DOM manipulation and page navigation while staying completely client-side.
Been there, done that - client-side automation has some serious walls you’ll hit. Browsers block cross-origin requests and automated interactions on purpose for security. You can’t scrape external sites from the client side because of CORS policies, period.
If you’re staying within the same domain or control the target pages, you’ve got options. I’ve had good luck mixing Intersection Observer API with MutationObserver to watch for page changes, then using fetch API for same-origin requests.
For anything more complex, skip the web app route and build a browser extension instead. Extensions get elevated permissions - they can make cross-origin requests and interact with any page users visit. That’s probably your best shot at real client-side automation without spinning up server infrastructure.
Check out Playwright’s experimental browser support or try a hybrid approach with service workers. I’ve run automation scripts through service workers before - they stick around across page loads and handle background tasks without needing a server. WebAssembly browser engines are another option. Some early projects are compiling lightweight browser engines to WASM, but they’re still pretty limited. For client-side DOM automation on the same origin, I’ve had luck with Puppeteer-core plus custom injection scripts. You can bundle a minimal version that works with your existing page instead of spinning up new browser instances. But honestly, if you’re scraping anything real, you’ll hit CORS restrictions and need to proxy through serverless functions anyway. Sometimes it’s easier to just accept that limitation from the start.
yea, it’s a bit tricky. headless options like you said need more resources, but u could try using web workers with iframes. jsdom is also good for light DOM stuff. just keep in mind, CORS might get in ur way for scraping. good luck!