No more "forgetting to start the Selenium server" errors on Monday morning. This is where selenium-standalone shines. Your pipeline becomes deterministic.
before(async function() { // Ensure drivers are installed (safe to call every time) await install(); // Start the server server = await start(); console.log('Selenium ready'); }); selenium-standalone
Run your test while selenium-standalone start is running in another terminal. They will connect automatically. The CLI is great, but the real power is using the API inside your test setup hooks. No more "forgetting to start the Selenium server"
name: E2E Tests on: [push] jobs: test: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: '20' - run: npm ci before(async function() { // Ensure drivers are installed
Enter —the npm package that turns that headache into a single line of code. What is selenium-standalone ? Despite the name, this isn't the old Java Selenium Server. The selenium-standalone npm package is a lightweight CLI tool and library that automatically installs and manages Selenium WebDriver binaries for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Internet Explorer.
npx selenium-standalone install Pro tip: Add --singleDriverInstall=chrome if you only need Chrome to save bandwidth. npx selenium-standalone start You will see output like: