clearcote 0.5.0

Playwright drop-in for the Clearcote anti-fingerprint Chromium build. launch() returns a standard Playwright Browser backed by the verified Clearcote binary, which is auto-downloaded and SHA-256 checked.

clearcote (Python SDK)

A Playwright drop-in for Clearcote — the open, reproducible, anti-fingerprint Chromium build. launch() returns a standard Playwright Browser, so migrating is a one-line import change.

The verified Clearcote binary is auto-downloaded and SHA-256 checked on first use, then cached — no zips or paths to manage.

Platform: Clearcote currently ships a Windows x64 binary, so launch() runs on Windows. (The SDK will download + verify the binary on any OS — handy for packaging — but only launches it on Windows. Linux/macOS builds are on the roadmap.)

Install

pip install clearcote

playwright is pulled in as a dependency. You do not need to run playwright install (Clearcote uses its own browser binary, not Playwright's bundled Chromium).

Usage

from clearcote import launch

browser = launch(
    fingerprint="user-7423",        # per-eTLD+1 seed: same seed => same identity, different => unlinkable
    platform="windows",
    timezone="America/New_York",
    headless=False,
)
page = browser.new_page()
page.goto("https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/")
# ... standard Playwright (sync API) from here ...
browser.close()

Already using Playwright? Swap p.chromium.launch(...) for launch(...) from clearcote — the returned object is a normal Playwright Browser. (One shared Playwright driver is started lazily and stopped at interpreter exit.)

Through a proxy (report the proxy's IP, not your host's)

browser = launch(
    fingerprint="user-7423",
    proxy={"server": "http://host:8080", "username": "u", "password": "p"},  # standard Playwright option
    timezone="America/New_York",
    webrtc_ip="203.0.113.10",       # make WebRTC report the proxy egress IP, not your host's
)

WebRTC won't leak your real IP. The engine fabricates the WebRTC server-reflexive (srflx) candidate at webrtc_ip and sends no real STUN from your host — so WebRTC reports the proxy IP and your real IP never leaks at the packet level. A plain candidate "relabel" doesn't stop the leak (the real STUN packet still goes out from your host); Clearcote sends none. Raw host candidates are suppressed, and the candidate set stays coherent (not empty/disabled).

Auto geo-match (geoip)

Set geoip=True and Clearcote resolves the proxy's exit IP (looked up through the proxy) and auto-fills any unset timezone, accept_language, location, and webrtc_ip so the whole identity — clock, language, geo, and WebRTC IP — matches the proxy's region:

browser = launch(
    fingerprint="user-7423",
    proxy={"server": "http://host:8080", "username": "u", "password": "p"},
    geoip=True,              # timezone, languages, location, AND WebRTC IP all auto-set to the proxy's geo
)

Anything you set explicitly wins over geoip. With no proxy it uses your direct connection's IP. The lookup needs an http(s) proxy — SOCKS proxies are skipped (set timezone/accept_language yourself).

Geo data comes from the offline geoip-all-in-one MaxMind database (downloaded + cached on first use; GPL-3.0 data, the same source Camoufox uses) — more accurate than a single online API — with ip-api.com as a fallback.

Persistent profile

from clearcote import launch_persistent_context

context = launch_persistent_context(
    "./profile-7423",
    fingerprint="user-7423",
    platform="windows",
)

Fingerprint options

All optional. Anything not listed here is passed straight through to Playwright (headless, proxy, args, timeout, slow_mo, …).

Kwarg	Switch	Meaning
fingerprint	--fingerprint	Master seed (per-eTLD+1 farbling root). str or int.
platform	--fingerprint-platform	"windows" | "linux" | "macos".
platform_version	--fingerprint-platform-version	UA-CH platform version.
brand	--fingerprint-brand	"Chrome" | "Edge" | "Opera" | "Vivaldi".
brand_version	--fingerprint-brand-version	Brand version.
gpu_vendor	--fingerprint-gpu-vendor	WebGL UNMASKED vendor.
gpu_renderer	--fingerprint-gpu-renderer	WebGL UNMASKED renderer.
hardware_concurrency	--fingerprint-hardware-concurrency	navigator.hardwareConcurrency.
location	--fingerprint-location	"lat,lng" (only when geo permission is granted).
timezone	--timezone	IANA timezone, e.g. "America/New_York".
accept_language	--accept-lang	navigator.languages + Accept-Language header, e.g. "en-US,en".
webrtc_ip	--webrtc-ip	WebRTC IP to report. The engine fabricates the srflx candidate at this IP and sends no real STUN from the host, so the real IP never leaks (not merely relabeled).
disable_gpu_fingerprint	--disable-gpu-fingerprint	Turn off GPU/WebGL spoofing.
geoip	(directive)	True → resolve the proxy's exit-IP geo and auto-fill timezone/accept_language/location/webrtc_ip.

API

• launch(**options) → Playwright Browser.
• launch_persistent_context(user_data_dir, **options) → Playwright BrowserContext.
• executable_path(executable_path=None, cache_dir=None, quiet=False) → str — resolve (download/verify if needed) the chrome.exe path.
• download(cache_dir=None, quiet=False) → str — pre-fetch + verify without launching.
• RELEASE — the pinned release metadata (tag, version, sha256).

Binary resolution & verification

launch() resolves the browser in this order:

1. executable_path= argument, if given;
2. CLEARCOTE_BINARY environment variable, if set;
3. otherwise download the pinned release, verify its SHA-256 (the hash is baked into this package — it's the trust anchor), extract to a per-version cache, and verify the extracted chrome.exe hash too.

Cache location (override with CLEARCOTE_CACHE):

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\clearcote\Cache\<tag>
• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/clearcote/<tag>
• Linux: ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-~/.cache}/clearcote/<tag>

A SHA-256 mismatch is a hard error — the SDK refuses to run an unverified binary. You can independently confirm the published checksums and GPG signatures on the release page.

Stay on the latest build (auto_update)

By default the SDK installs the exact browser build pinned into this package — reproducible, and the baked-in SHA-256 is the trust anchor. To follow new browser releases without upgrading the package every time, opt in:

browser = launch(fingerprint="seed-123", auto_update=True)

or set the environment variable globally:

CLEARCOTE_AUTO_UPDATE=1

With auto_update, the SDK resolves the newest GitHub release, downloads its zip, and verifies it against that release's published SHA256SUMS.txt. When a gpg binary is available it additionally imports the release's public key, confirms its fingerprint equals the pinned CA96F185 F96A693A EDB3AC1F CB00D851 B7A86B0F, and verifies the signed checksum — so an auto-resolved build is cryptographically authenticated, not just downloaded. If GitHub is unreachable it falls back to the pinned release; if the latest release is the pinned one, the audited baked-in hashes are used. Each build is cached per tag, so this only downloads when a new version actually ships. (For locked-down/reproducible deployments, leave auto_update off and bump the package deliberately.)

License

BSD-3-Clause. See LICENSE.