Opensteer Browser Automation

Opensteer provides persistent browser automation via a CLI and TypeScript SDK. It maintains browser sessions across calls and caches resolved element paths for deterministic replay.

CRITICAL: Always Use Opensteer Methods Over Playwright

Opensteer methods are optimized for scraping — they handle waiting, element resolution, and selector caching automatically. Never use raw Playwright when an Opensteer method exists.

Wrong (raw Playwright)	Right (Opensteer)
`page.evaluate(() => [...document.querySelectorAll('.item')].map(...))`	`opensteer.extract({ description: "product listing" })`
`page.click('.submit')`	`opensteer.click({ description: "the submit button" })`
`page.fill('#search', 'query')`	`opensteer.input({ description: "search input", text: "q" })`

Why: opensteer.extract() caches structural selectors that work across pages sharing the same template. Raw querySelectorAll is brittle, non-replayable, and bypasses the caching system. The only valid use of opensteer.page.evaluate() is calling fetch() for API-based extraction when a site has internal REST/GraphQL endpoints.

Default Workflow

Always use the CLI for exploration first. Only write scripts when the user asks.