webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox — An evaluation of webframe found it to be a fast, lightweight browser-JavaScript runner suitable for scraping, with performance comparable to shot-scraper, but with important rough edges including CSP failures, a 0×0 viewport, hanging loads, missing HTTP metadata, and limited browser controls.
\nwebframe is a neat little project from Jeff Lindsay which lets you "run a web page like a program" - you point it at a URL or file and it executes it in a hidden headless web view and outputs console.log() to standard output and any exceptions to standard error.
It's written in Go on top of the glaze library, which provides access to a system browser ("WKWebView on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux, WebView2 on Windows") so it doesn't need to bundle its own browser engine.
\nIt reminds me of my own shot-scraper javascript tool, albeit in a much smaller package that doesn't depend on Playwright.
\nI had Claude Opus 5.5 put it through its paces and prepare a research report for me. Here's the prompt I used:
\n\n\n", "content_markdown": "[webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox](https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/webframe-evaluation#readme) — An evaluation of webframe found it to be a fast, lightweight browser-JavaScript runner suitable for scraping, with performance comparable to shot-scraper, but with important rough edges including CSP failures, a 0×0 viewport, hanging loads, missing HTTP metadata, and limited browser controls.\n\n[webframe](https://github.com/tractordev/webframe) is a neat little project from Jeff Lindsay which lets you \"run a web page like a program\" - you point it at a URL or file and it executes it in a hidden headless web view and outputs `console.log()` to standard output and any exceptions to standard error.\n\nIt's written in Go on top of the [glaze](https://github.com/crgimenes/glaze) library, which provides access to a system browser (\"WKWebView on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux, WebView2 on Windows\") so it doesn't need to bundle its own browser engine.\n\nIt reminds me of my own [shot-scraper javascript](https://shot-scraper.datasette.io/en/stable/javascript.html) tool, albeit in a much smaller package that doesn't depend on Playwright.\n\nI had Claude Opus 5.5 [put it through its paces](https://claude.ai/code/cshk_01MX3aJH8vDGmGSj1xH9BYhj2HviVvLDaJbiELHyDoReYT) and prepare a research report for me. Here's the prompt I used:\n\n> `Explore https://github.com/tractordev/webframe try running it and put it though its paces, build a few exploratory prototypes, then evaluate it as a potential sandboxing tool and as a tool for scraping web pages using the same patterns encouraged by the \"shot-scraper JavaScript\" command (see simonw/shot-scraper on GitHub, docs directory)`\n", "dateCreated": "2026-10-27T04:50:20.607730595+00:00", "date_created": "2026-10-26T16:15:00+00:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-26T16:15:00+00:00", "date_published": "2026-10-26T16:15:00+00:00", "description": "Research: webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox webframe is a neat little project from Jeff Lindsay which lets you \"run a web page like a program\" - you point it at a URL or file and it executes it in a hidden headless web view…", "external_url": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/26/webframe-evaluation/", "git": { "commit": "20068632b65d2830a2d54f25ca1d90d697bea2c0", "path": "items/simonwillison-net/2026/10/2026-10-26-webframe-evaluated-as-a-scraper-and-a-sandbox.md", "permalink": "https://github.com/aymericbeaumet/aggr-instance/blob/20068632b65d2830a2d54f25ca1d90d697bea2c0/items/simonwillison-net/2026/10/2026-10-26-webframe-evaluated-as-a-scraper-and-a-sandbox.md" }, "id": "urn:aggr:item:133852bf08c25650eb2235b3deea0f5dd9b0f95e", "isBasedOn": { "@id": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/26/webframe-evaluation/" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/26/webframe-evaluation/", "@type": "CreativeWork", "archivedAt": { "@id": "https://aggr.aymericbeaumet.com/items/simonwillison-net/2026-10-26-webframe-evaluated-as-a-scraper-and-a-sandbox/#webpage" }, "dateModified": "2026-10-26T16:15:00+00:00", "datePublished": "2026-10-26T16:15:00+00:00", "headline": "webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox", "timeRequired": "PT2M", "url": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/26/webframe-evaluation/", "wordCount": 234 }, "name": "Archived snapshot: webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox", "preview": null, "reading_minutes": 2, "replicated_at": null, "source": "simonwillison-net", "source_name": "Simon Willison's Weblog", "summary": "Research: webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox webframe is a neat little project from Jeff Lindsay which lets you \"run a web page like a program\" - you point it at a URL or file and it executes it in a hidden headless web view and outputs console.log() to standard output and any exceptions to standard error. It's written in Go on top of the glaze library, which provides access to a system browser (\"WKWebView on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux, WebView2 on Windows\") so it doesn't need to bundle its own browser engine. It reminds me of my own shot-scraper javascript tool, albeit in a much smaller package that doesn't depend on Playwright. I had Claude Opus 5.5 put it through its paces and prepare a research report for me. Here's the prompt I used: Explore https://github.com/tractordev/webframe try running it and put it though its paces, build a few exploratory prototypes, then evaluate it as a potential sandboxing tool and as a tool for scraping web pages using the same patterns encouraged by the \"shot-scraper JavaScript\" command (see simonw/shot-scraper on GitHub, docs directory) Tags: browsers, go, javascript, jeff-lindsay, shot-scraper", "tags": [ "browsers", "go", "javascript", "jeff-lindsay", "shot-scraper" ], "temporalCoverage": "2026-10-27T04:50:20.607730595+00:00", "title": "webframe: evaluated as a scraper and a sandbox", "url": "https://aggr.aymericbeaumet.com/items/simonwillison-net/2026-10-26-webframe-evaluated-as-a-scraper-and-a-sandbox/", "word_count": 234 }\n
Explore https://github.com/tractordev/webframe try running it and put it though its paces, build a few exploratory prototypes, then evaluate it as a potential sandboxing tool and as a tool for scraping web pages using the same patterns encouraged by the "shot-scraper JavaScript" command (see simonw/shot-scraper on GitHub, docs directory)