Phantom

Stealth browser CLI that bypasses WAFs and bot detection. Built on Playwright with anti-detection patches so you can fetch pages that block headless browsers, curl, and wget.

Works as a CLI tool for humans and outputs structured JSON for AI agents.

Install

pip install phantom-browse

Chromium is installed automatically on first run. To install it manually:

python -m playwright install chromium

Usage

# Get page text
phantom https://example.com

# Structured JSON output (for agents)
phantom https://example.com --json

# Screenshot
phantom https://example.com --screenshot page.png

# Login flow
phantom https://app.com/login \
  --fill "input[name=email]=user@example.com" \
  --fill "input[name=password]=secret" \
  --click "button[type=submit]" \
  --session myapp \
  --json

# Reuse session (skip login next time)
phantom https://app.com/dashboard --session myapp --json

JSON Output

When using --json, Phantom returns:

{
  "ok": true,
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "title": "Example Domain",
  "text": "...",
  "screenshot": null,
  "console_errors": []
}

On failure:

{
  "ok": false,
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "error": "Navigation failed: net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED"
}

Interaction Flags

Actions execute in order, before the final page capture.

--click SELECTOR        # Click element (coordinate-based, human-like timing)
--fill SEL=VAL          # Fill input field (instant)
--type SEL=VAL          # Type into input (80ms per-character delay)
--wait SELECTOR         # Wait for element to appear

Chain them:

phantom https://app.com \
  --wait "form" \
  --fill "input[name=q]=test" \
  --click "button[type=submit]" \
  --json

Multi-Step Plans

For complex flows (login, navigate, interact, capture), use --actions with a JSON plan file:

phantom --actions plan.json --json
phantom https://app.com --actions plan.json --session myapp --json

Plan format — array of steps, each with action, params, and optional description/critical:

[
  {"action": "goto", "params": {"url": "https://app.com/login"}, "description": "Open login page"},
  {"action": "fill", "params": {"selector": "input[name=email]", "value": "me@x.com"}},
  {"action": "fill", "params": {"selector": "input[name=password]", "value": "secret"}},
  {"action": "click", "params": {"selector": "button[type=submit]"}, "critical": true},
  {"action": "wait_for", "params": {"selector": ".dashboard"}, "critical": true},
  {"action": "screenshot", "params": {"path": "/tmp/dashboard.png"}},
  {"action": "goto", "params": {"url": "https://app.com/profile"}},
  {"action": "get_text", "params": {"selector": ".profile-info"}}
]

If a step marked critical: true fails, remaining steps are skipped.

Supported actions: goto, click, fill, type_text, wait_for, wait_for_spa_idle, screenshot, get_text, evaluate, select_option, press_key, login, assert_visible, assert_text_contains, assert_url_contains, get_element_count, get_inner_html, get_table_data

Multi-step output:

{
  "ok": true,
  "steps_total": 8,
  "steps_executed": 8,
  "steps_passed": 8,
  "aborted_at": null,
  "url": "https://app.com/profile",
  "steps": [
    {"ok": true, "action": "goto", "description": "Open login page", "url": "https://app.com/login"},
    {"ok": true, "action": "fill", "description": "fill"},
    ...
  ]
}

Options

--json              Structured JSON output
--actions FILE      JSON file with multi-step action plan
--screenshot PATH   Save full-page screenshot
--session NAME      Cookie persistence (~/.phantom/sessions/)
--timeout MS        Navigation timeout (default: 30000)
--headless          Force headless mode
--headed            Force headed mode (requires display/Xvfb)
--locale LOCALE     Browser locale (default: en-US)
--timezone TZ       Browser timezone (default: America/New_York)
--viewport W H      Viewport size (default: 1366 768)
--min-delay SECS    Min seconds between requests to same domain (default: 2.0, 0 to disable)
--verbose           Debug logging

What It Bypasses

Phantom bundles these anti-detection techniques:

• playwright-stealth — masks automation fingerprints
• WebDriver spoofing — hides navigator.webdriver
• Blink feature flags — disables AutomationControlled
• Realistic fingerprint — Chrome 131 User-Agent, configurable locale/timezone/viewport
• Headed mode — uses real GUI via Xvfb when available (harder to detect than headless)
• Human-like input — variable click timing, coordinate-based clicks, realistic type delays

Using With AI Agents

Phantom is designed to be called by AI agents via subprocess. The --json flag gives structured output any agent can parse:

import subprocess, json

result = subprocess.run(
    ["phantom", "https://example.com", "--json"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
)
data = json.loads(result.stdout)
if data["ok"]:
    page_text = data["text"]

Rate Limiting

Phantom enforces a 2-second per-domain cooldown by default to prevent abuse. If you call Phantom twice against the same domain in quick succession, the second call waits automatically.

phantom https://example.com --json         # goes through immediately
phantom https://example.com --json         # waits ~2s before requesting

phantom https://other-site.com --json      # different domain, no wait

Adjust with --min-delay:

phantom https://example.com --min-delay 5   # 5s between requests (be polite)
phantom https://localhost:3000 --min-delay 0 # disable for local/owned apps

Responsible Use

Phantom is built for legitimate purposes: testing your own apps, accessing data you're authorized to retrieve, and building AI agents that browse the web respectfully.

Do:

• Test your own web applications
• Access sites and data you have permission to use
• Build agents that respect robots.txt and rate limits
• Use the default rate limiting

Don't:

• Scrape sites that prohibit it in their ToS
• Bypass authentication you're not authorized to use
• Use Phantom to overwhelm or degrade services
• Disable rate limiting against sites you don't own

The built-in rate limiter exists for a reason. If you find yourself setting --min-delay 0 against someone else's site, reconsider.

License

MIT