Headless vs Headed Mode

Cykani supports two browser modes. Headless runs without a visible window (faster, suitable for servers). Headed shows the browser window (useful for debugging, CAPTCHA solving, and avoiding detection).

Headless Mode

Default mode. No visible browser window.

const session = await strike({
  binary: "path/to/chrome",
  headless: true,
});

Under the hood, cykani uses Playwright's chromium.launch() with a temp profile. The User-Agent is overridden to remove the HeadlessChrome indicator that detection scripts look for.

When to use: Scraping, data extraction, automated testing, server-side automation.

Headed Mode

Shows the browser window. Uses launchPersistentContext() with a real user data directory — this avoids "Incognito Window" detection that pixelscan and similar tools flag.

const session = await strike({
  binary: "path/to/chrome",
  headless: false,
});

When to use: CAPTCHA solving, visual debugging, sessions that need to look like a real user, situations where detection sites flag incognito profiles.

Detection Behavior

Switching Modes

// Headless for batch processing
const headless = await strike({ headless: true });

// Headed for interactive tasks
const headed = await strike({ headless: false });

Both modes share the same stealth patches, fingerprint spoofing, and human-like behavior. The only difference is the browser window and profile management.