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feat: Add StagehandCrawler with AI-powered browser automation#1854

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Mantisus wants to merge 18 commits intoapify:masterfrom
Mantisus:crawlee-stagehand-crawler
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feat: Add StagehandCrawler with AI-powered browser automation#1854
Mantisus wants to merge 18 commits intoapify:masterfrom
Mantisus:crawlee-stagehand-crawler

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@Mantisus Mantisus commented Apr 22, 2026

Description

Adds StagehandCrawler - a new browser crawler powered by Stagehand that lets users interact with pages using natural language instead of CSS selectors or XPath. Extends PlaywrightCrawler and inherits all of its features: routing, sessions, autoscaling, proxies, and navigation hooks.

  • StagehandPage extends Playwright Page with four AI methods: act(), extract(), observe(), and execute().
  • StagehandOptions configures the AI model, execution environment (LOCAL / BROWSERBASE), and session parameters.
  • StagehandBrowserPlugin and StagehandBrowserController integrate Stagehand into the browser pool, managing session lifecycle and fingerprint header injection.
  • Because Stagehand controls the browser launch internally and Playwright connects via CDP, only Chromium is supported, and browser configuration is limited to the subset accepted by Stagehand's BrowserLaunchOptions.
  • Added a new guide covering basic usage, AI page operations, and Browserbase integration.

Issues

Testing

  • Added unit tests for the StagehandBrowserController, StagehandBrowserPlugin, and StagehandCrawler with Stagehand mocked out - no real LLM connection required to run the test suite.

@Mantisus Mantisus marked this pull request as ready for review May 3, 2026 22:52
@Mantisus Mantisus self-assigned this May 3, 2026
@Mantisus Mantisus requested a review from Copilot May 3, 2026 22:52
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Pull request overview

Adds first-class Stagehand integration to Crawlee Python by introducing a StagehandCrawler (built on PlaywrightCrawler) plus corresponding browser-pool plugin/controller, enabling AI-driven page actions (act, extract, observe, execute) while keeping Crawlee’s existing routing/sessions/proxy/navigation-hook features.

Changes:

  • Introduces StagehandCrawler + Stagehand-specific crawling contexts and exports them from crawlee.crawlers.
  • Adds StagehandBrowserPlugin/StagehandBrowserController, StagehandOptions, and StagehandPage, integrated with BrowserPool.
  • Adds Stagehand documentation + examples, updates architecture docs, and replaces the older “Playwright with Stagehand” guide; updates dependencies and adds unit tests.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 21 out of 23 changed files in this pull request and generated 8 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
uv.lock Locks new optional Stagehand dependency set and adds stagehand extra resolution entries.
pyproject.toml Adds stagehand optional dependency group and includes it in all.
src/crawlee/browsers/__init__.py Exposes Stagehand browser plugin/controller and types via optional imports.
src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_types.py Defines StagehandOptions and StagehandPage AI-method wrappers.
src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_plugin.py Implements StagehandBrowserPlugin lifecycle and Stagehand client initialization.
src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py Implements CDP connection + lazy session start, page creation, and header injection for Stagehand.
src/crawlee/crawlers/__init__.py Exposes Stagehand crawler + contexts via optional imports.
src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/__init__.py Adds Stagehand crawler module exports with optional-deps handling.
src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawler.py Adds StagehandCrawler built on PlaywrightCrawler and auto-configures a Stagehand BrowserPool.
src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawling_context.py Adds Stagehand-specific crawling context dataclasses and type-narrowed page.
src/crawlee/crawlers/_playwright/_playwright_crawler.py Refactors Playwright crawler to support overridable context classes and generic context typing via _build_context.
tests/unit/browsers/test_stagehand_browser_plugin.py Adds unit tests for plugin activation and Stagehand client init parameter wiring.
tests/unit/browsers/test_stagehand_browser_controller.py Adds unit tests for lazy session start, concurrency behavior, proxies, and header behavior.
tests/unit/crawlers/_stagehand/test_stagehand_crawler.py Adds unit tests verifying context types, hook contexts, and StagehandPage AI-method delegation.
docs/guides/stagehand_crawler.mdx New guide documenting StagehandCrawler, options, AI methods, and Browserbase usage.
docs/guides/code_examples/stagehand_crawler/basic_example.py Example demonstrating act() + extract() with JSON schema.
docs/guides/code_examples/stagehand_crawler/browserbase_example.py Example demonstrating Browserbase environment configuration.
docs/guides/playwright_crawler_stagehand.mdx Removes old guide that described manual Stagehand integration with PlaywrightCrawler.
docs/guides/code_examples/playwright_crawler_stagehand/support_classes.py Removes old example support classes for the manual Stagehand integration.
docs/guides/code_examples/playwright_crawler_stagehand/browser_classes.py Removes old example browser plugin/controller classes for the manual Stagehand integration.
docs/guides/code_examples/playwright_crawler_stagehand/stagehand_run.py Removes old “manual integration” runnable example.
docs/guides/architecture_overview.mdx Updates architecture diagrams/text to include StagehandCrawler + contexts.

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Comment thread docs/guides/stagehand_crawler.mdx Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawler.py Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawling_context.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_playwright/_playwright_crawler.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawler.py Outdated
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Mantisus commented May 3, 2026

Docs check fails due to the current versioning logic. ApiLink resolves to /api/class/<ClassName> instead of /api/next/class/<ClassName>, and since these classes don't exist in the stable API docs yet, it causes a broken link error.

@Mantisus Mantisus requested review from janbuchar and vdusek May 4, 2026 00:59
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Mostly doc-related / style things Maybe you could also align the `.rules.md. file (about the double backticks and line width for docstrings).

Comment thread docs/guides/code_examples/stagehand_crawler/browserbase_example.py
Comment thread docs/guides/architecture_overview.mdx Outdated
Comment thread docs/guides/stagehand_crawler.mdx Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_types.py Outdated
@Mantisus Mantisus requested a review from vdusek May 5, 2026 22:53
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LGTM

Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_types.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py Outdated
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_browser_controller.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_stagehand/_stagehand_crawling_context.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/browsers/_stagehand_types.py
Comment thread tests/unit/crawlers/_stagehand/test_stagehand_crawler.py
Comment thread src/crawlee/crawlers/_playwright/_playwright_crawler.py Outdated
"""Browserbase project ID, required when `env='BROWSERBASE'`. If not provided, read from
the `BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID` environment variable."""

model: str = 'openai/gpt-4.1-mini'
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That's a fairly dated model, wouldn't 5.4-nano work better?

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I used the same model as JS. But if we're ready to upgrade the model, then yes, I think the 5.4-nano would be better.

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I guess we should do that on both sides, any thoughts @B4nan?

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StagehandCrawler + Stagehand browser plugin

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