Browserless — Overview

What Is Browserless?

Browserless is a cloud-hosted headless Chrome service (also self-hostable) that exposes a REST API for programmatic browser control without running a local browser. BizFirstAI's Browserless node wraps this API so that workflow designers can automate any browser task — rendering JavaScript-heavy pages, capturing screenshots, generating PDFs, extracting structured data, or running arbitrary Puppeteer-style code — without writing a single line of infrastructure code.

A single Browserless connection (one BaseUrl + optional Token) supports all eight operations. Pick the operation that matches your goal, configure the fields in the node panel, and connect the output port to the next step in your workflow.

Cloud vs. self-hosted: The BaseUrl for the cloud service is https://chrome.browserless.io. For a self-hosted instance, use your internal URL (e.g. http://browserless:3000). Self-hosted instances typically do not require a token.

Operations

HTML

content

Navigate to a URL and return the fully rendered HTML after JavaScript execution. Ideal for scraping single-page applications.

Image

screenshot

Capture a PNG or JPEG screenshot of a page or a specific element. Supports full-page, viewport clip, and element selector modes.

Document

pdf

Print a page to PDF with configurable paper format, orientation, margins, and background rendering.

Structured Data

scrape

Extract structured data from one or more CSS selectors — returns text, HTML, and attributes for every matched element.

Custom JS

execute

Run arbitrary Puppeteer-style JavaScript inside the browser context and return any JSON, text, or binary result.

Anti-Bot

unblock

Bypass Cloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, and similar bot-protection layers. Returns HTML, a screenshot, or a live WebSocket endpoint.

File

download

Trigger a file download inside the browser (click a button, submit a form) using custom JS and capture the resulting file bytes.

Lighthouse

performance

Run a Lighthouse audit and return Core Web Vitals, category scores, and the full report object for monitoring or alerting workflows.

Authentication

Field	Required	Description
`BaseUrl`	Required	The Browserless instance URL. Cloud: `https://chrome.browserless.io`. Self-hosted: your internal address.
`Token`	Optional	API token for cloud Browserless. Passed as the `token` query-string parameter on every request. Not required for self-hosted instances without authentication.

Common Fields (all operations)

Field	Required	Description
`operation`	Required	Selects the operation: `content`, `screenshot`, `pdf`, `scrape`, `execute`, `unblock`, `download`, or `performance`.
`continueOnError`	Optional	Default `false`. When `true`, routing goes to the success port even when the Browserless call fails — the output data will contain `status: "error"`.
`timeout`	Optional	Request timeout in milliseconds. `0` uses the Browserless instance default (typically 30 s). Applied as both the HTTP client timeout and the `timeout` query-string parameter.
`blockAds`	Optional	Default `true`. Instructs Browserless to block ad networks during page load, reducing noise in screenshots and content results.
`useCustomBody`	Optional	When `true`, the value of `customBodyJson` is sent verbatim as the request body, bypassing all individual field mapping.
`customBodyJson`	Optional	Raw JSON body used when `useCustomBody` is `true`. Gives full access to every Browserless API option, including ones not exposed as individual fields.

Output Ports

Port	Contents
Success	Operation-specific result object. Always contains `status: "success"`, `errorCode: ""`, and `operation`. See each operation page for the full field list.
Error	Contains `status: "error"`, `errorCode`, `errorMessage`, `operation`, and optionally `httpStatusCode`. Activated when the Browserless API returns an error, the network request fails, or validation fails.

Quick-Start Example

Capture a screenshot of a dashboard and attach it to a Slack message:

{
  "operation": "screenshot",
  "baseUrl": "https://chrome.browserless.io",
  "token": "{{ $env.BROWSERLESS_TOKEN }}",
  "url": "https://app.example.com/dashboard",
  "options": {
    "fullPage": false,
    "type": "png"
  },
  "gotoOptions": { "waitUntil": "networkidle2", "timeout": 20000 },
  "blockAds": true
}

Rate limits: Cloud Browserless plans enforce concurrent session limits and monthly minute caps. Long-running operations (PDFs with many images, Lighthouse audits) consume more minutes than simple content fetches. Monitor your usage in the Browserless dashboard and set a realistic timeout to avoid runaway sessions.