Browserbase - Automate the Web with Stagehand (Open Source)

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you through the capabilities of Stagehand, an open-source tool from Browserbase that enhances web automation by integrating with existing frameworks like Playwright, Puppeteer, and Selenium. You'll learn how to use Stagehand's natural language interface to automate tasks in a web browser effectively.

Step 1: Understanding Stagehand's Purpose

• Stagehand aims to bridge the gap between web automation tools and large language models (LLMs), allowing for more expressive and fault-tolerant web interactions.
• It provides a simple command interface consisting of three primary commands:
  • act: Perform actions in the browser.
  • extract: Retrieve information from the web.
  • observe: Monitor web page behavior.

Step 2: Setting Up Stagehand

1. Installation:

   • Ensure you have Node.js installed on your machine.
   • Install Stagehand using npm:

     npm install stagehand
     

2. Basic Configuration:

   • Create a configuration file to define your browser settings.
   • Specify the browser type (e.g., Chrome, Firefox) and any necessary options (like headless mode).

Step 3: Using Natural Language Commands

• Utilize Stagehand's natural language commands to automate tasks. For example:
  • To create a to-do list automation, you might enter:

    act on the to-do list page to add a task "Buy groceries"
    

Step 4: Live Demo of To-Do List Automation

• Follow these steps to automate a simple task:
  1. Start the Stagehand session.
  2. Use the command:

     act on the to-do list to add "Read a book"
     

  3. Verify that the task has been added successfully by using:

     observe the to-do list
     

Step 5: Exploring Stagehand Code

• Dive deeper into the code structure to understand how Stagehand operates. Look into:
  • The core components of the Stagehand library.
  • How commands are parsed and executed.

Step 6: Browserbase Observability Features

• Leverage Browserbase's observability tools to monitor your automation tasks:
  • Session recordings: Capture interactions for review.
  • Logs: Access detailed logs of actions performed during automation.

Step 7: Advanced Usage Scenarios

• Explore advanced automation scenarios such as:
  • Automating data extraction from web pages.
  • Handling dynamic content and user interactions.
• Example command for data extraction:

  extract the price from the product page
  

Step 8: Discussing Exciting AI Use Cases

• Consider how AI can enhance your automation tasks:
  • Natural language processing to interpret user commands.
  • Machine learning models to optimize automation efficiency.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you've learned how to set up and utilize Stagehand for web automation, including its natural language commands, code structure, and observability features. As a next step, explore more complex automation scenarios and integrate AI to enhance your web automation tasks. Keep experimenting with Stagehand to discover its full potential in your projects!