Core Concepts
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The ordered steps one
Fetch call runs, from URL validation to the returned Result, with a link to the page that explains each step.The fetch pipeline
| # | Step | What happens | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Validate | Option defaults are filled in; the URL must have a scheme and a dotted hostname | Option Fields |
| 2 | Route | Headless or headed is chosen from Option.Headless, Option.Visible, the session domain list and GUI availability | Fetch Routing |
| 3 | Get a browser | A cached instance keyed by (headless, userAgent), or a throwaway one with cookies when SameSession is set | Browser Cache, Cookie Sessions |
| 4 | Acquire a slot | The page waits on the global concurrency semaphore | Browser Cache |
| 5 | Open the page | A blank tab gets the viewport and the stealth script, then navigates and waits for load | Anti-Detection |
| 6 | Check the URL | A 404 or 403 path segment or query value in the post-redirect URL ends the call with *Error | Troubleshooting |
| 7 | Short-circuit data | JSON and XML documents are returned as raw text with ContentType set | Output Formats |
| 8 | Settle | DOM stability wait, then SettleJS | Page Loading |
| 9 | Consent | Up to two passes of consent banner dismissal | Consent Banners |
| 10 | Scroll | Up to ScrollCount passes, one snapshot per pass | Page Loading |
| 11 | Convert | Snapshots become HTML, Markdown or a JSON tree | Output Formats |
Context and timeout
The
ctx passed to Fetch reaches every wait in the pipeline: the semaphore, settling, consent evaluation and scroll delays. A timeout above 0 wraps it in a child context for each attempt's page load, so a headed retry gets a fresh timeout of its own. SameSession cookie extraction and browser launch run before that child context exists and are bounded only by ctx. Settle and consent steps additionally cap each wait at IdleWait.What one call does not do
- It does not keep the tab open: every call creates a page and closes it before returning
- It does not click, type or run custom scripts beyond
StealthJSandSettleJS; the interactive tab API was removed in v0.3.2, see Removed API