Selenium

Selenium talks to a Surfsky browser over HTTP through a ChromeDriver that runs next to it. Start the browser with enable_chromedriver: true (the default is false). No local ChromeDriver or Chrome is needed.

ChromeDriver can leave script artifacts that detection scripts identify. For sites with bot protection, use a patched fork of Playwright or Puppeteer, or use a Surfsky SDK.

Prerequisites

Set your API token and base URL, then install the packages:

pip install selenium requests

Other than enable_chromedriver, the example uses default start options, including your account’s default proxy pool. Proxy, fingerprint, and other options are in the API reference.

Run an example

The example starts a one-time browser, connects, opens a page, prints its title, and stops the session. To keep cookies and login state between runs, start a persistent profile instead; the connection code is the same. Save as surfsky_selenium.py:

import os
import requests
from selenium import webdriver

base_url = os.environ["SURFSKY_API_BASE_URL"].rstrip("/")
headers = {"X-Cloud-Api-Token": os.environ["SURFSKY_API_TOKEN"]}

response = requests.post(
    f"{base_url}/profiles/one_time",
    json={"enable_chromedriver": True},
    headers=headers,
    timeout=120,
)
response.raise_for_status()
session = response.json()

driver = webdriver.Remote(
    command_executor=f"{base_url}/chromedriver/{session['internal_uuid']}",
    options=webdriver.ChromeOptions(),
)
driver.get("https://example.com")
print(driver.title)
driver.quit()

requests.post(f"{base_url}/profiles/{session['internal_uuid']}/stop", headers=headers, timeout=120)

python surfsky_selenium.py

Expected output:

Example Domain

Connection settings

Use /chromedriver/{internal_uuid} as command_executor, not the CDP ws_url. The URL grants access to the browser, so keep it private. Do not pass local launch arguments for proxy or fingerprint; those are set in the start request. chromedriver_not_enabled means the browser was started without the flag.

Stop the session

driver.quit() ends the WebDriver session but leaves the browser running, because ChromeDriver attached to a browser it did not launch. Stop the session through the API with the internal_uuid from the start response, as the example does:

curl --fail-with-body -X POST \
  "$SURFSKY_API_BASE_URL/profiles/INTERNAL_UUID/stop" \
  -H "X-Cloud-Api-Token: $SURFSKY_API_TOKEN"

Otherwise the browser stops after the inactivity timeout, 30 seconds by default.

Get started

Connect your tools

Browser sessions

Browser actions

CAPTCHA guides

Debugging

Performance and limits

About Surfsky

Prerequisites

Run an example

Connection settings

Stop the session

​Prerequisites

​Run an example

​Connection settings

​Stop the session

Prerequisites

Run an example

Connection settings

Stop the session