Questions
Questions people ask about automating a browser.
Each one starts with the answer, then the detail behind it.
Keep a Puppeteer session logged in
Save the browser's cookies and local storage after signing in, restore them before the first navigation of the next run, and send that run from the same IP and timezone. Sites tie a session to more than its cookie, so a restored cookie arriving from a new address often gets signed out.
How to give Claude a web browser
Use Claude's browser toolset or connect an MCP server that provides browser tools. Either way, something has to run an actual browser, carry out the calls Claude makes, and send back what the page shows — Scrappy is a hosted browser that does both.
Hosted browser with residential proxy
Scrappy includes a residential exit in the per-minute price of every session: 5 credits to start, then 1 a minute, with no separate charge per gigabyte. The other hosted browsers we compared bill residential traffic per GB on top of browser time.
Why browser automation gets blocked
Usually for three reasons that no fingerprint patch fixes: the browser runs headless, its IP is a datacenter address or one already flagged as a proxy, and its timezone or location disagrees with that IP. Fix those before spoofing anything.
Scrape a website that requires a login
Have a person sign in once in a real browser, save that signed-in session, and replay it on every later run from the same residential IP. Scripting the sign-in form on each run is what gets accounts challenged: a fresh login from a new address every time is the clearest automation signal a site sees.
Automate a login that uses two-factor
Don't automate the second factor itself. Let the account owner complete sign-in once in a live browser, save the signed-in session, and start later runs from it — a saved session cookie does not ask for the code again. Replay it from the same IP, because a session that suddenly moves is what makes a site ask again.
Know when an automated login expires
Watch for the three things a site does when it ends a session: it sends the browser to a sign-in page, it shows a password field, or it deletes the authentication cookie. Check for them during every run, because an expired login usually does not fail loudly — it returns signed-out pages that look like empty results.
Let a person take over a cloud browser
Use a hosted browser with a live viewer: a page that shows the session as it runs and passes a person's mouse and keyboard through to it. The person clears the CAPTCHA, the sign-in or the unexpected dialog in the same browser, and the automation carries on from where they left it.
MCP server for browser automation
Pick one whose browser can actually get through the sites your agent needs: real headful Chrome, a residential connection, logins that persist between runs, and a way for a person to step in. Scrappy's MCP server is hosted at https://scrappy.gg/api/mcp — add it with an API key and the agent gets 57 browser tools.
Start
Go get them. The first 100 credits are on us.
Enough for ten scrapes or a first hour in the cloud browser. No card, no call, no minimum.