Browser Manager

Functions for installing, detecting, and managing browsers.

One-Step Setup

ensureAll()

Installs system dependencies (Linux) and all browsers.

import { ensureAll } from "unibrowser";
ensureAll();

Install Browsers

ensureBrowsers(options?)

Download missing browsers.

import { ensureBrowsers } from "unibrowser";

// Install all missing browsers
ensureBrowsers();

// Install only specific browsers
ensureBrowsers({ browsers: ["chromium", "firefox"] });

// Force reinstall
ensureBrowsers({ force: true });

Option	Type	Default	Description
browsers	BrowserName[]	all 6 names	Which browsers to install
force	boolean	false	Reinstall even if present

Internally runs npx playwright install <types>. Timeout: 5 minutes.

ensureDependencies()

Install system-level dependencies (Linux only). On other platforms, logs a skip message.

import { ensureDependencies } from "unibrowser";
ensureDependencies();

Internally runs npx playwright install-deps.

Check Status

getBrowserStatus(browser)

Check if a single browser is installed.

const status = getBrowserStatus("chromium");
// { name: "chromium", type: "chromium", installed: true, path: "/home/..." }

Returns BrowserStatus:

Field	Type	Description
name	BrowserName	The browser name
type	BrowserType	Engine type: chromium/firefox/webkit
installed	boolean	Whether the executable exists
path	string | null	Path to executable, or null

getAllBrowserStatus()

Check all 6 browser names.

const statuses = getAllBrowserStatus();
// [
//   { name: "chromium", type: "chromium", installed: true, ... },
//   { name: "chrome", type: "chromium", installed: true, ... },
//   { name: "edge", type: "chromium", installed: true, ... },
//   { name: "firefox", type: "firefox", installed: true, ... },
//   { name: "safari", type: "webkit", installed: true, ... },
//   { name: "webkit", type: "webkit", installed: true, ... },
// ]

getMissingBrowsers()

Returns BrowserName[] of browsers not installed.

const missing = getMissingBrowsers();
// ["firefox"] or [] if all installed

isBrowserInstalled(browser)

Returns boolean.

if (isBrowserInstalled("chromium")) {
  // ready to launch
}

printBrowserStatus()

Print status to console via the logger.

printBrowserStatus();

Output:

[unibrowser] Platform: linux (x64)
[unibrowser] Browser status:
[unibrowser]   ✔ chromium (chrome, edge) - /home/.../chrome-linux64/chrome
[unibrowser]   ✔ firefox - /home/.../firefox/firefox
[unibrowser]   ✔ webkit (safari) - /home/.../webkit/pw_run.sh

Platform Info

getPlatformInfo()

Returns PlatformInfo.

const info = getPlatformInfo();
// { os: "linux", arch: "x64", supported: ["chromium", "firefox", "webkit"] }

Field	Type	Description
os	"linux" | "macos" | "windows"	Operating system
arch	string	CPU architecture
supported	BrowserType[]	Browsers available on this platform

Validate

validateBrowser(browser)

Throws an error with install instructions if the browser is not installed.

try {
  validateBrowser("chromium");
} catch (e) {
  // "Browser 'chromium' (chromium) is not installed. Run: npx playwright install chromium"
}

This is called automatically by UniBrowser.launch().