What is puppeteer-extra?

berstend/puppeteer-extra — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 7,323JavaScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Plugin framework
      Browser automation
      Extends Puppeteer
    Plugins
      Stealth plugin
      CAPTCHA solver
      Ad blocker
    Related Tools
      Puppeteer
      Playwright
      playwright-extra
    Use Cases
      Web scraping
      Bot bypass
      Form automation

mindmap root((repo)) What it does Plugin framework Browser automation Extends Puppeteer Plugins Stealth plugin CAPTCHA solver Ad blocker Related Tools Puppeteer Playwright playwright-extra Use Cases Web scraping Bot bypass Form automation

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Scrape websites that block automated bots by adding the stealth plugin so your Puppeteer session looks like a real browser user

USE CASE 2

Automatically handle reCAPTCHA challenges on forms without manual intervention using the built-in CAPTCHA solver plugin

USE CASE 3

Control a Playwright browser with the same plugin system using playwright-extra for cleaner, blocked-site scraping

What is it built with?

JavaScriptNode.jsPuppeteerPlaywright

How does it compare?

	berstend/puppeteer-extra	hotwired/turbo	thomaspark/flexboxfroggy
Stars	7,323	7,314	7,339
Language	JavaScript	JavaScript	JavaScript
Setup difficulty	easy	easy	easy
Complexity	2/5	3/5	1/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

The reCAPTCHA plugin requires a paid third-party solving service API key such as 2captcha.

So what is it?

puppeteer-extra is a plugin framework built on top of Puppeteer, a Node.js tool that controls a Chrome or Chromium browser automatically. Puppeteer lets developers write code that opens web pages, clicks buttons, fills in forms, takes screenshots, and extracts content, all without a person at the keyboard. It is widely used for testing websites, scraping data, and automating repetitive browser tasks. puppeteer-extra wraps Puppeteer with a plugin system so additional capabilities can be added cleanly without forking or modifying the core library. The most widely used plugin included in this repository is the stealth plugin, which modifies the browser's behavior to reduce the chance that a website detects it as an automated bot rather than a real person. Other available plugins include one that handles reCAPTCHA challenges automatically, an ad blocker, and a plugin that alters the user agent string (the label a browser sends to websites to identify itself). This GitHub repository is organized as a monorepo, meaning it holds multiple related packages in one place. The main puppeteer-extra library and each of its plugins each live in their own subfolder under the packages/ directory. The root README is intentionally brief and points to those individual packages for full documentation. New plugins can be contributed by extending a base class that the project provides. The repository also includes playwright-extra, a companion package that brings the same plugin system to Playwright, a similar browser automation tool developed by Microsoft.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I want to scrape a website that blocks regular Puppeteer bots. Show me how to install puppeteer-extra and the stealth plugin, and write a Node.js script that opens the page with stealth mode enabled.

Prompt 2

I'm automating a form submission with Puppeteer that has a reCAPTCHA on it. Show me how to use the puppeteer-extra-plugin-recaptcha plugin with my 2captcha API key to solve it automatically.

Prompt 3

I want to use puppeteer-extra's plugin system with Playwright instead of Puppeteer. Show me how to set up playwright-extra with the stealth plugin and open a browser page.

Frequently asked questions