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w3c
webdriver
HTML2020–2022
w3c / webdriver

webdriver

Remote control interface that enables introspection and control of user agents.

2Distinct people
2Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
722GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Remote control interface that enables introspection and control of user agents.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 12:54:37 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month2 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2020-02-26 01:32:54 UTC to 2022-02-12 06:12:57 UTC.

012020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsFeb 20202020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsFeb 20212021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsFeb 2022

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Feb 20202020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Mar 20202020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20202020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20202020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20202020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20202020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20202020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20202020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20202020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20202020-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20202020-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20212021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20212021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20212021-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20212021-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20212021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20212021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20212021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20212021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20212021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20212021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20212021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20222022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

2 sources
This is a simple, "electron alternative" (non-compatible API) and missing many cool things like "binary icons", and code signing etc. Like electron it has "client code" that runs in the "render process" (the browser, in this case, already on the system), and "main" code (in this case a server). Basically a bootstrap process starts the server, and the browser in "app" mode (so it looks almost like a 'native' desktop app), and renders the server's page in the browser. So the app architecture is basically a locally hosted "client-server" app that is bundled up in a single binary. It's built and based on the simple premise that most everyone has a browser installed (and if you don't we download Chrome ~~ not great for some of you, I know), and so we use the browser with the `--app` command line flag to remove any normal browser UI chrome (omn
Read the rest
ibox etc), and just have a GUI window. I'm looking to extensively update it this year to support pkg [a NodeJS -> binary tool by Vercel] (which will introduce code-signing and possibly more including, icons, almost for free). I'd also like to alter the API a bit, and eventually plan on building out a "chrome extensions" type of API but that lives outside the "purview" of the Chrome webstore. So people can basically build augmented browser "extension-like" experiences, but package them as binaries. Of course, security nightmare, I know...but no different to other binary apps. I even want to have a "store", because I like the idea of adopting all the trouble that the Chrome webstore must face, with vetting, security audits etc...I say this only half jokingly. I think it would be a good challenge, but at the same time a massive and daunting one. My first approximation for a metric of inclusion is: your code must be open source on GitHub. Anyhow, the store is basically ancillary to the platform for devs idea, where they can use the tool to build and distribute their own apps. Then I want to port some of my "popular" (1000s of stars, hey it's OK) GitHub projects that involve the browser, to this graderjs "architecture" -- to really prove that non-trivial things can work there, and as a way of stretching out and improving the graderjs API. The thing that excites me most about this project is: - the potential (old idea, been done before) to use the already installed browser (not the system webview, using a browser has advantage of both a simpler integration and more cross-platform homogeneity), as the GUI render layer to enable HTML, JS (and anything really, with wasm) as the client language. Plus enabling you to run a NodeJS server, and all the APIs. - eventually I'd love to extend this to: support other browsers (Firefox, Edge, etc...) should be possible by waiting for them all to catch up with the [webdriver] spec, or by using Playwright or some other abstraction for that instrumentation layer in the graderjs tool; also to support other server side languages. Like there are tools that exist to build binaries for python, etc, etc, etc, and equivalents of the WebDriver abstraction (like Puppeteer, and Playwright) in those languages--so why can't we just swap out NodeJS on the local server for something else? I think we can. - also I would love to really build a rich "extensions"-like API that does even more than extensions can do, centers the browsers as a first-class target for running local app code, and runs by a combination of: WebDriver protocol (e.g. the Chrome Remote DevTools protocol being the current most powerful and elaborated implementation of a similar concept); and a local app running from a language of your choice (say, NodeJS, with all its access to filesystem APIs) to flesh out the limitations of what you can do with just WebDriver alone. So basically having the "GraderJS" project be an extensible "GraderX" project that makes it possible to write a desktop app using server-client arch that runs locally, HTML/JS/CSS as GUI and fully integrates with the OS...would I think radically simplify development. I'm not saying it's game-changing even if I can do that...but it will be game-changing for me. I really want this...and I'm not satisfied with other current options. It's a little annoying that it won't be able to run as a "mobile" app for now...but that's OK. I just want to try and see if this is possible. This is one plan I have, and hopefully I will get to it, or a lot of it, in 2022! [webdriver]: https://github.com/w3c/webdriver
In Show HN: A simple cross-platform HTML to desktop-app builder using Chrome
The reason why it doesn't use the Chrome DevTools Protocol is that it (Helium) is a wrapper around Selenium WebDriver [0]. One advantage of wrapping WebDriver, rather than using something like the Chrome DevTools Protocol, is that WebDriver has an interface specified by an W3C Standard [1] [2], and can be implemented for any browser. The Chrome DevTools Protocol (obviously) only works with browsers based on Chrome. [0] https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/webdriver/ [1] https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/REC-webdriver1-20180605/ [2] https://github.com/w3c/webdriver
In Show HN: Helium – Lighter web automation based on Selenium

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