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UI Automation activities

About Chromium Automation

Chromium Automation support for browser automation in UI Automation, how it works, which browsers it supports, and what it requires.

Chromium Automation is a browser automation method that controls Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers through the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) — the same protocol the browser's built-in Developer Tools use. Common automation tasks such as opening the browser, navigating, clicking elements, typing text, and exploring the DOM are performed by sending CDP commands to the browser.

Unlike the Browser Extension method, Chromium Automation does not require the UiPath browser extension to be installed. Unlike the WebDriver protocol, it does not require a browser-specific driver binary (such as chromedriver or msedgedriver) to be downloaded and kept in sync with the browser version. UiPath launches and manages the browser session internally, so Chromium Automation works out of the box on any machine that has a supported browser installed.

How UiPath implements it

When a workflow uses Chromium Automation, UiPath starts the target browser with remote debugging enabled (the --remote-debugging-port=0 launch flag) and connects to it over CDP. All subsequent automation — element lookup, interaction, and DOM inspection — is carried out through that connection.

Chromium Automation introduces support for headless browser automation, where the browser runs without a visible window. It can also run with a visible browser window for development, debugging, and attended-style scenarios. Both are exposed as separate modes (see Configuration Steps).

Supported browsers

Chromium Automation supports Chromium-based browsers:

  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Other Chromium-based browsers

Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari are not supported by this method, because CDP is specific to Chromium. For those browsers, the Browser Extension and the WebDriver protocol are the available automation methods.

Requirements

  • A supported Chromium-based browser installed on the machine.
  • No UiPath browser extension.
  • No WebDriver executable.

The browser must be able to start with the --remote-debugging-port=0 flag. This is blocked when the DeveloperToolsAvailability Group Policy is set to 2 (Disallow usage of the Developer Tools) — see Known Issues and Limitations.

Sessions and selectors

  • New session per run — Chromium Automation opens a new, isolated browser session with its own user-data-dir. It cannot attach to a browser instance already open on the user's desktop. Extensions, saved passwords, and session cookies from the default browser profile are not available in the session.
  • Incognito — private (Incognito) mode is supported without additional configuration.
  • Selectors — selectors generated for Chromium Automation are compatible with those used by the other browser automation methods, so you can build and validate your automation the same way. Chromium Automation activities can execute inside and outside Use Application/Browser containers.
Note:

Because Chromium Automation always starts a fresh session and does not reuse the user's profile, it is best suited to unattended automation. The Browser Extension method is the recommended option for attended automation where you need to work with the user's already-open browser. See Browser Automation Mode for a full comparison of methods.

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