Obscura: Open-Source Rust Headless Browser for AI Agents Hits 25k Stars, Uses 30MB vs Chrome's 200MB
alex_verem · x · 2026-09-06
Obscura is an Apache-2.0 headless browser engine in Rust (25.4k stars) that runs real JavaScript via V8 with no Chromium, claiming 30MB memory vs headless Chrome's 200+MB, a 70MB binary, and 50-85ms page loads. It offers parallel scraping with per-page JS and JSON output, renders to HTML/text/links/markdown, plus screenshots and PDF export. It speaks the Chrome DevTools Protocol so Puppeteer/Playwright work unchanged, and ships an MCP server for Claude Desktop and Cursor. Stealth mode randomizes fingerprints per session and blocks 3,520 tracker domains; sponsors are residential proxy vendors. The engine stays open while a hosted version becomes the business.
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