Rodney - Chrome Automation

Rodney drives a persistent headless Chrome instance from the command line. Each command connects to the same long-running Chrome process, enabling multi-step browser interactions from shell scripts.

Quick Start

rodney start                    # Launch headless Chrome
rodney open https://example.com # Navigate to URL
rodney title                    # Print page title
rodney text "h1"                # Extract text from element
rodney screenshot page.png      # Take screenshot
rodney stop                     # Shut down Chrome

Installation

Before using this skill, ensure rodney is installed and in PATH.

Verify installation:

which rodney && rodney --version

If not found, install using one of these methods:

Option 1: uv (recommended)

uv tool install rodney

Update to latest:

uv tool upgrade rodney

Or with pipx:

pipx install rodney
pipx upgrade rodney

Option 2: Build from source (requires Go 1.21+)

git clone https://github.com/simonw/rodney
cd rodney
go build -o rodney .
sudo mv rodney /usr/local/bin/

Update to latest:

cd rodney
git pull
go build -o rodney .
sudo mv rodney /usr/local/bin/

Option 3: pip in virtual environment

uv pip install rodney
# Ensure venv is activated before using rodney
source .venv/bin/activate

Update to latest:

source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install --upgrade rodney

Chrome/Chromium Requirement

Rodney requires Chrome or Chromium. Set path if not at default:

# macOS
export ROD_CHROME_BIN="/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome"

# Linux (usually auto-detected)
export ROD_CHROME_BIN="/usr/bin/google-chrome"

Core Workflows

Web Scraping

rodney start
rodney open https://example.com
rodney waitstable
title=$(rodney title)
content=$(rodney text "article")
links=$(rodney js 'Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("a")).map(a => a.href)')
rodney stop

Form Interaction

rodney start
rodney open https://example.com/login
rodney input "#email" "user@example.com"
rodney input "#password" "secret"
rodney click "button[type=submit]"
rodney waitload
rodney stop

Screenshots & PDFs

rodney start
rodney open https://example.com
rodney screenshot -w 1920 -h 1080 full-page.png
rodney screenshot-el ".chart" chart.png
rodney pdf output.pdf
rodney stop

Accessibility Testing

rodney start
rodney open https://example.com
rodney ax-tree --depth 3           # Dump accessibility tree
rodney ax-find --role button       # Find all buttons
rodney ax-find --role button --json | python3 -c "
import json, sys
buttons = json.load(sys.stdin)
unnamed = [b for b in buttons if not b.get('name', {}).get('value')]
if unnamed:
    print(f'FAIL: {len(unnamed)} buttons missing accessible names')
    sys.exit(1)
print(f'PASS: all {len(buttons)} buttons have accessible names')
"
rodney stop

CI/CD Assertions

Rodney uses exit codes: 0=success, 1=check failed, 2=error.

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

rodney start
rodney open "https://myapp.com"
rodney waitstable

# These exit 1 if condition fails, 0 if passes
rodney exists "h1"
rodney visible "#main-content"
rodney assert 'document.title' 'My App'
rodney assert 'document.querySelector(".logged-in") !== null'

rodney stop

Session Types

Global session (default): State in ~/.rodney/

rodney start
rodney open https://example.com

Local session: State in ./.rodney/ (per-project isolation)

rodney start --local
rodney open https://example.com

Auto-detection: If ./.rodney/state.json exists, local session is used.

Waiting Strategies

Command	Use Case
wait <selector>	Wait for element to appear
waitload	Wait for page load event
waitstable	Wait for DOM to stop changing
waitidle	Wait for network idle
sleep <seconds>	Fixed delay

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
RODNEY_HOME	~/.rodney	Data directory
ROD_CHROME_BIN	/usr/bin/google-chrome	Chrome binary path
ROD_TIMEOUT	30	Element query timeout (seconds)

Full Command Reference

See references/commands.md for complete command list with all options.