Screenshot API

Capture screenshots of any website from Cloudflare's edge network using Browser Rendering and Puppeteer.

API Reference

GET /screenshot

Captures a PNG screenshot of the specified URL.

Example Request

curl "https://your-worker.workers.dev/screenshot?url=https://www.cloudflare.com" \
  --output screenshot.png

Success Response

Returns a PNG image with the following headers:

Content-Type: image/png
Cache-Control: public, max-age=60

Error Response

error string

Human-readable error message

code string

Error code indicating the failure type

{
  "error": "Missing or invalid query parameter: url",
  "code": "INVALID_URL"
}

Error Codes

• 400 - Missing or invalid url parameter (not http/https)
• 502 - Screenshot operation failed (navigation timeout, unreachable site, rendering error)

Implementation Details

The API uses the following configuration:

• Viewport: 1280x800 pixels
• Wait condition: networkidle0 (waits until network is idle)
• Navigation timeout: 20 seconds
• Image format: PNG

Use Cases

• Capture visual snapshots of web pages from the edge
• Generate thumbnails or previews for link-sharing tools
• Archive how a page looked at a point in time
• Learn Browser Rendering with Puppeteer on Workers

Limitations

• Requires Browser Rendering enabled on your Cloudflare account
• Fixed 1280×800 viewport; no custom dimensions in this experiment
• 20-second navigation timeout; networkidle0 may fail on busy sites
• Local development needs npx wrangler dev --remote

Deployment

Local Development

cd apps/experiments/screenshot-api
npm install
npx wrangler dev --remote

Test locally:

curl "http://localhost:8787/screenshot?url=https://www.cloudflare.com" \
  --output test.png

Cloudflare Features Used

• Workers - Edge compute runtime
• Browser Rendering - Headless Chromium via Puppeteer
• Fetch API - Network requests within the browser