Headless browser

Example

A script starts Chrome with --headless, opens a page, and reads the title, with no browser window appearing. The same page can still be opened in a normal visible window.

Why it matters

Chrome's developer docs say Headless mode runs the browser in an unattended environment, with no visible UI. You pass the --headless flag to the Chrome binary. The docs say that since Chrome 112, this mode creates platform windows and does not display them, and that the browser's other functions are available. Puppeteer turns that mode on with headless set to true.

An older headless implementation was a separate browser shipped inside the same Chrome binary. The docs say that older mode is now the standalone chrome-headless-shell binary, and that Puppeteer selects it with headless set to shell. A headless browser can still open pages and run their scripts. There is just no window on the screen.

How it shows up on bot.ski

On bot.ski, the pages you read are ordinary web pages in your browser. The Shared computer glossary page is about the browser on a Grok Bot account's cloud computer, which a person can open. This page is a browser that runs with no window on the screen. Opening this page does not launch one.

Common confusion

Headless means no visible window. It does not mean a different website, and it does not mean a person approved what the script did. Chrome's current Headless mode is not the older separate browser. That older mode is chrome-headless-shell. Interface chrome, the frame around a page, is a different glossary word.