Simon Willison evaluates webframe, a lightweight Go-based tool by Jeff Lindsay that executes web pages headlessly and outputs JavaScript console results to stdout/stderr. Testing found it comparable in speed to shot-scraper but with notable rough edges including CSP failures, a 0x0 viewport, hanging loads, missing HTTP metadata, and limited browser controls.
Background
webframe is built on the glaze library which wraps system-native web views (WKWebView, WebKitGTK, WebView2) rather than bundling a full browser engine. It's positioned as a lightweight alternative to Playwright-based tools for headless JavaScript execution.
- Source
- Simon Willison
- Published
- Oct 27, 2026 at 12:15 AM
- Score
- 5.0 / 10