# Vibium: A CLI Browser Automation Guide

> Source: <https://promptcube3.com/en/threads/2604/>
> Published: 2026-07-23 23:46:14+00:00

# Vibium: A CLI Browser Automation Guide

The core shift here is the "discovery" phase. Instead of hardcoding `#username-field-v2`

, you find an element and Vibium gives you a temporary reference like `@e1`

. You then act on that reference. It's a much more interactive, agentic way to handle the browser.

## Getting Started from Scratch

Setting this up is straightforward since it handles the browser binaries for you.

1. Install the CLI via npm:

```
npm install -g vibium
```

2. Test the connection:

```
vibium go https://example.com
```

(This will automatically pull a Chrome for Testing build if you don't have one).## Practical Tutorial: Automating a Login

I tested this on the OrangeHRM demo site to see if it actually removes the friction of selector management. Here is the raw workflow:

```
vibium record start

vibium go "https://opensource-demo.orangehrmlive.com"

# Scan the page for interactive elements
vibium map

# Use the assigned references (@e1, @e2, etc.) to interact
vibium fill "@e1" "Admin"
vibium fill "@e2" "admin123"
vibium click "@e3"

vibium record stop
```

By using `vibium map`

, the tool identifies elements using semantic signals—labels, placeholders, and the accessibility tree—rather than just brittle XPaths.

## Vibium vs. Playwright vs. Selenium

I'm naturally skeptical of "simpler" tools because they usually sacrifice power for ease of use. Here is how they stack up:

**Setup Overhead:** Vibium is the fastest (CLI based) vs. Playwright/Selenium (Framework based).**Element Targeting:** Vibium uses semantic references (@e1) vs. Playwright/Selenium using CSS/XPath.**Workflow:** Vibium is designed for agentic/CLI usage and[MCP](/en/tags/mcp/)servers vs. the others being designed for structured test suites.**Stability:** Playwright is the gold standard for enterprise CI/CD; Vibium is better for rapid prototyping and LLM-driven AI workflows.

If you're building a massive regression suite, stick to Playwright. But if you're building an LLM agent or need a quick hands-on guide to scrape/automate a site without writing a full project scaffold, this CLI approach is significantly faster.

[Next OpenAI vs Hugging Face: The Open-Source Tension →](/en/threads/2588/)