browser-stealth

browser-stealth

Patterns for running Playwright (via patchright) through a residential proxy without triggering bot detection. Covers the critical proxy configuration level bug, sticky session IDs, webdriver masking, and the page.evaluate fetch fallback when context.request can't authenticate through the proxy.

Patchright vs Playwright

Patchright is a drop-in Playwright fork with stealth patches applied at the Chromium level. Use it for targets with aggressive bot detection.

npm install -g patchright
npx patchright install chromium --with-deps

// Replace this:
const { chromium } = require('playwright');

// With this — same API, stealth patches applied:
const { chromium } = require('patchright');

Proxy at Context Level — Not Launch Level

The most common mistake: setting proxy at chromium.launch() affects page navigation but context.request (Playwright's APIRequestContext) does NOT inherit it. You get 407 Proxy Authentication Required on all context.request.get() calls.

// WRONG — context.request gets 407
browser = await chromium.launch({
  proxy: { server: 'http://proxy:8080', username: 'user', password: 'pass' },
});
context = await browser.newContext({});  // ← no proxy here, context.request fails

// CORRECT — proxy must be on newContext() for context.request to work
browser = await chromium.launch({ /* no proxy here */ });
context = await browser.newContext({
  proxy: { server: 'http://proxy:8080', username: 'user', password: 'pass' },
});

If you need both page navigation AND context.request through the proxy, set proxy at both levels or at context level only:

const proxy = proxyConfig();  // returns null if no creds configured

browser = await chromium.launch({
  ...(proxy ? { proxy } : {}),   // page navigation proxy
  args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled'],
});

context = await browser.newContext({
  ...(proxy ? { proxy } : {}),   // context.request proxy — must repeat
  viewport: { width: 1440, height: 900 },
  userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) ...',
});