# Steel + Playwright Starter

This template shows you how to use Steel with Playwright to run browser automations in the cloud. It includes session management, error handling, and a basic example you can customize.

## Installation

Clone this repository, navigate to the `examples/steel-playwright-starter`, and install dependencies:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/steel-dev/steel-cookbook
cd steel-cookbook/examples/steel-playwright-starter
npm install
```

## Quick start

The example script in `index.js` shows you how to:

- Create and manage a Steel browser session
- Connect Playwright to the session
- Navigate to a website (Hacker News in this example)
- Extract data from the page (top 5 stories)
- Handle errors and cleanup properly
- View your live session in Steel's session viewer

To run it:

1. Create a `.env` file in the `examples/steel-playwright-starter` directory:

```bash
STEEL_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
```

2. Replace `your_api_key_here` with your Steel API key. Don't have one? Get a free key at [app.steel.dev/settings/api-keys](https://app.steel.dev/settings/api-keys)

3. From the same directory, run the command:

```bash
npm start
```

## Writing your automation

Find this section in `index.ts`:

```typescript
// ============================================================
// Your Automations Go Here!
// ============================================================

// Example automation (you can delete this)
await page.goto("https://news.ycombinator.com");
// ... rest of example code
```

You can replace the code here with whatever automation scripts you want to run.

## Configuration

The template includes common Steel configurations you can enable:

```typescript
const session = await client.sessions.create({
  useProxy: true, // Use Steel's proxy network
  solveCaptcha: true, // Enable CAPTCHA solving
  sessionTimeout: 1800000, // 30 minute timeout (default: 5 mins)
  userAgent: "custom-ua", // Custom User-Agent
});
```

## Error handling

The template includes error handling and cleanup:

```typescript
try {
  // Your automation code
} finally {
  // Cleanup runs even if there's an error
  if (browser) await browser.close();
  if (session) await client.sessions.release(session.id);
}
```

## Support

- [Steel Documentation](https://docs.steel.dev)
- [API Reference](https://docs.steel.dev/api-reference)
- [Discord Community](https://discord.gg/steel-dev)