Headless Mode

Kernel browsers ship in headful mode by default. In headful mode, the launched browser has a corresponding GUI. This enables features like live view and replays. headless mode runs without a visual interface. They generally run faster and have a lighter footprint (1 GB rather than headful’s 8 GB), resulting in significant cost savings. This is useful for short-lived or highly concurrent browser automations. Some bot detectors may detect headless mode. To launch a Kernel browser in headless mode, set its config:

import Kernel from '@onkernel/sdk';

const kernel = new Kernel();

const kernelBrowser = await kernel.browsers.create({
  headless: true,
});

from kernel import Kernel

kernel = Kernel()

kernel_browser = kernel.browsers.create(headless=True)

package main

import (
	"context"

	"github.com/kernel/kernel-go-sdk"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()
	client := kernel.NewClient()

	kernelBrowser, err := client.Browsers.New(ctx, kernel.BrowserNewParams{
		Headless: kernel.Bool(true),
	})
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	_ = kernelBrowser
}

Live View and Replays are not available in headless mode. Both capture the browser’s display, which headless doesn’t have. The same applies to the screenshot telemetry category and to computer controls screenshots.To capture what a headless page looked like, take screenshots through your automation framework — Playwright’s page.screenshot() renders in the page and works without a display. Every other telemetry category works headless.

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