simonw

simonw / rodney

Public

CLI tool for interacting with the web

466
33
100% credibility
Found Feb 11, 2026 at 99 stars 5x -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
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AI Analysis
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AI Summary

Rodney is a tool for automating web browser tasks like navigation, interaction, data extraction, screenshots, PDFs, and accessibility checks using simple persistent sessions.

How It Works

1
💡 Discover easy web automation

You hear about Rodney, a handy helper that lets you control a web browser with simple instructions, perfect for grabbing info or testing sites without complicated setups.

2
🚀 Wake up your browser buddy

You get Rodney ready and start your private browser session that stays open, waiting for your commands anytime.

3
🌐 Visit any website

Tell it to open your favorite site, and it loads the page just like you would, ready for action.

4
🖱️ Click, type, and capture

You click buttons, fill out forms, run quick calculations on the page, or snap perfect screenshots and PDFs effortlessly.

5
🔍 Pull out info or check details

Grab text, titles, or links from the page, or peek at how screen readers see the site to ensure it's friendly for everyone.

✅ All done, results saved

Your files, data, and screenshots are ready to use, and you shut down the browser helper cleanly, feeling accomplished.

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Star Growth

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AI-Generated Review

What is rodney?

Rodney is a Go CLI tool that launches a persistent headless Chrome instance via the DevTools Protocol, letting you script web interactions from the shell without restarting the browser each time. Fire up `rodney start`, then chain commands like `open` a URL, `click` elements, `input` text, `screenshot` pages, `pdf` export, or query accessibility trees—all connecting to the same Chrome process. It solves clunky browser automation for shell scripts, GitHub Actions, or cli tools linux workflows.

Why is it gaining traction?

Stands out with instant command reuse on a single Chrome session—sub-second ops for multi-step tasks, unlike spin-up-heavy alternatives. Killer features include auto proxy auth for CI (even authenticated HTTPS_PROXY), a11y dumps for frontend checks, file uploads/downloads, and JS eval that pretty-prints JSON. As a single-binary download cli tool, it slots into cli tools for mac, cli tools for windows, Ubuntu, or any GitHub repo without deps.

Who should use this?

DevOps engineers scripting dashboard screenshots or form tests in GitHub Actions; QA folks piping a11y queries into CI; backend devs extracting data via `js` or `text` in bash loops. Ideal for cli github ubuntu/linux automation where Python/Rust CLI tools feel bloated.

Verdict

Early project at 54 stars and 1.0% credibility—mature docs and tests punch above weight, but low adoption means vet for your env. Strong pick for lightweight browser scripting; build from source or grab the binary today.

(198 words)

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