Coding a custom script

Before diving deeper into the way you can code a custom script, please take some time to read the main technical concepts living within Phantombuster. Those concepts really are all over the place, so you better understand them correctly 😄.

Why should I code a custom script?

At its core, Phantombuster allows you to script "web robots" in JavaScript. We call them scripts.

We provide more than 100 scripts to our users in our Store (which is basically Phantombuster's org catalog), but they obviously don't cover all the use-cases of the web. You can create any scraper you want, corresponding exactly to your use case!

Important concepts

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Script

A script The source code that will be executed by NodeJS in the cloud, using Puppeteers, Buster library, and more. It defines the behavior of your scraping and automations.

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Agent

An agent is an "instance of a script". It can be configured through its setup. An org's agents are listed in its dashboard. Every agent has its own page, where you can see details about the previous launches, debug your script live and so on...

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Phantom

⚠️ You might see the use of the word "Phantom" on our website.
A Phantom is a term intended for non-technical users which designates both a script (which is listed in an org's catalog) and an agent (which is an "instance of a script" listed in an org's dashboard). When developing on the Phantombuster platform, we recommend not using this term as it conflates both concepts.

Creating and configuring custom scripts is what we'll explain in this set of guides.

• Part 1: Script directives →
• Part 2: Packages & modules →
• Part 3: BusterJS agent module →
• Part 4: Agent & global objects →
• Part 5: Phantombuster SDK →