{"slug": "selenium", "name": "Selenium", "category": "productivity", "category_name": "Productivity", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 1, "score": 2.29, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-07-07", "why": "I'm specifically suggesting Selenium because it's been around so long so I assume there's a lot of Selenium in the LLMs training data", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I'm specifically suggesting Selenium because it's been around so long so I assume there's a lot of Selenium in the LLMs training data", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.selenium.dev", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Selenium"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 754164946, "item_id": 47135309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47135309", "by": "gregoryli360", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "combine the strengths of browser automation (Selenium) with agentic coding AIs (Claude Code)", "excerpt": "The biggest gap to bridge between browser automation and agentic AIs is the web-client interface. Perplexity\u2019s Comet attempted to do this, but their app quickly became a ram-hogging, flaming pile of garbage. Then, we had OpenClaw, which promised so much, but usually ended up gobbling tokens and making little progress. So, I thought of a lightweight alternative \u2013 why not combine the strengths of browser automation (Se", "context": "", "use_case": "browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN:Agentic Browser Automation \u2013 Lightweight Selenium and Claude Code Bridge"}, {"id": 751476370, "item_id": 46967273, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967273", "by": "samuelson", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm specifically suggesting Selenium because it's been around so long so I assume there's a lot of Selenium in the LLMs training data", "excerpt": "I love your content, but I wish you'd make your blog theme responsive for wider screens/non-mobile. I prefer to read content like this on a large screen. Showboat seems like it could actually be quite useful for humans too, just for making quick notes from a CLI without opening an editor. The \"pop\" command makes me wonder if there would be a benefit to also having an array-like in addition to the stack-like interface", "context": "", "use_case": "agent browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Showboat and Rodney, so agents can demo what they've built"}, {"id": 738100304, "item_id": 46131269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131269", "by": "reliefcrew", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why don't you just use Selenium to help recreate the test and save the 30-90 minutes?", "excerpt": "I understand what you're driving at but I don't find myself needing such a thing regularly. Perhaps it's because whenever I find myself taking that long to set up a test, I take a step back and rig a harness that eliminates the repetition to speed things along. That said, if you created a great tool perhaps it could eliminate the need to create a harness each time. However, I still feel this is most likely an instanc", "context": "", "use_case": "recreating test state", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Saving/restoring web-app state\u2013useful or pointless?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 775671680, "item_id": 48479480, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479480", "by": "hungryhobbit", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "isn't Selenium technology from the 90's?", "excerpt": "Ummm ... isn't Selenium technology from the 90's? We've already got tons of alternatives to it (Playwright, Puppeteer, etc.). If you're making a new product in that space, instead of referencing ancient technology, it'd make much more sense to present it as an alternative to them. Otherwise it's like saying \"I've got a great alternative to QBasic!\" Great, but I'm already using Python, I don't care about your alternat", "context": "", "use_case": "browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An Alternative to Selenium IDE"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["browser automation", "web app testing", "agent browser automation", "screenshots in tests", "browser test automation", "recreating test state"], "compared": [{"slug": "puppeteer", "name": "Puppeteer", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "playwright", "name": "Playwright", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48823359", "title": "We charge $10k a week to delete AI-generated code", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479169", "title": "Show HN: An Alternative to Selenium IDE", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47135308", "title": "Show HN:Agentic Browser Automation \u2013 Lightweight Selenium and Claude Code Bridge", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963887", "title": "Show HN: Showboat and Rodney, so agents can demo what they've built", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46518401", "title": "Visual regression tests for personal blogs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484805", "title": "Ask HN: What's the future of software testing and QA?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 781227588, "item_id": 48826724, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48826724", "by": "alightsoul", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "web app testing scripts written in java using JUnit and selenium", "excerpt": "I have Claude work on web app testing scripts written in java using JUnit and selenium. The scripts test a vibe maintained flight booking app for an airline I can't mention without doing myself. The app is maintained using copilot by another vender. Claude was given to our team by our employer. We aren't even employees of the airline just contractors under a vendor. Before Claude was adopted everyone secretly used wh", "context": "", "use_case": "web app testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "We charge $10k a week to delete AI-generated code"}, {"id": 775671680, "item_id": 48479480, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479480", "by": "hungryhobbit", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "isn't Selenium technology from the 90's?", "excerpt": "Ummm ... isn't Selenium technology from the 90's? We've already got tons of alternatives to it (Playwright, Puppeteer, etc.). If you're making a new product in that space, instead of referencing ancient technology, it'd make much more sense to present it as an alternative to them. Otherwise it's like saying \"I've got a great alternative to QBasic!\" Great, but I'm already using Python, I don't care about your alternat", "context": "", "use_case": "browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An Alternative to Selenium IDE"}, {"id": 754164946, "item_id": 47135309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47135309", "by": "gregoryli360", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "combine the strengths of browser automation (Selenium) with agentic coding AIs (Claude Code)", "excerpt": "The biggest gap to bridge between browser automation and agentic AIs is the web-client interface. Perplexity\u2019s Comet attempted to do this, but their app quickly became a ram-hogging, flaming pile of garbage. Then, we had OpenClaw, which promised so much, but usually ended up gobbling tokens and making little progress. So, I thought of a lightweight alternative \u2013 why not combine the strengths of browser automation (Se", "context": "", "use_case": "browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN:Agentic Browser Automation \u2013 Lightweight Selenium and Claude Code Bridge"}, {"id": 751476370, "item_id": 46967273, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967273", "by": "samuelson", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm specifically suggesting Selenium because it's been around so long so I assume there's a lot of Selenium in the LLMs training data", "excerpt": "I love your content, but I wish you'd make your blog theme responsive for wider screens/non-mobile. I prefer to read content like this on a large screen. Showboat seems like it could actually be quite useful for humans too, just for making quick notes from a CLI without opening an editor. The \"pop\" command makes me wonder if there would be a benefit to also having an array-like in addition to the stack-like interface", "context": "", "use_case": "agent browser automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Showboat and Rodney, so agents can demo what they've built"}, {"id": 744297794, "item_id": 46518612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46518612", "by": "Curiositry", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "compare", "quote": "integrate screenshoting into my tests script (via selenium or cutycapt)", "excerpt": "This is great. I frequently break my site in ways that aren't obvious. Right now, I use a combination of visualping and a homebrew tests.sh that hits various endpoints and runs checks, but I have been meaning to integrate screenshoting into my tests script (via selenium or cutycapt) rather than relying on a hosted service. Have you found a good way of diffing the screenshots? DiffPDF works pretty well, but I haven't ", "context": "", "use_case": "screenshots in tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Visual regression tests for personal blogs"}, {"id": 743760800, "item_id": 46485050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485050", "by": "Sevii", "date": "2026-01-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "LLMs writing Selenium tests", "excerpt": "LLMs writing test cases, LLMs writing Selenium tests, LLMs doing exploratory testing, LLMs used for canary deployments. All that testing that people didn't do before because it was too hard and took too long? LLMs will be used to do it.", "context": "", "use_case": "browser test automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the future of software testing and QA?"}, {"id": 738100304, "item_id": 46131269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131269", "by": "reliefcrew", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why don't you just use Selenium to help recreate the test and save the 30-90 minutes?", "excerpt": "I understand what you're driving at but I don't find myself needing such a thing regularly. Perhaps it's because whenever I find myself taking that long to set up a test, I take a step back and rig a harness that eliminates the repetition to speed things along. That said, if you created a great tool perhaps it could eliminate the need to create a harness each time. However, I still feel this is most likely an instanc", "context": "", "use_case": "recreating test state", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Saving/restoring web-app state\u2013useful or pointless?"}]}