bright-data-best-practices

CLI Setup Reference

Install, authentication, and troubleshooting for the Bright Data CLI (bdata) are documented in a single canonical place:

→ references/cli-setup.md

Consult it before any task that shells out to bdata.

Bright Data APIs

Bright Data provides infrastructure for web data extraction at scale. Four primary APIs cover different use cases — always pick the most specific tool for the job.

Choosing the Right API

Authentication Pattern (All APIs)

All APIs share the same authentication model. The env vars below apply to direct REST API integrations — if you are using the bdata CLI, bdata login handles all of these automatically (see references/cli-setup.md).

export BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-api-key"         # From Control Panel > Account Settings
export BRIGHTDATA_UNLOCKER_ZONE="zone-name"       # Web Unlocker zone name
export BRIGHTDATA_SERP_ZONE="serp-zone-name"      # SERP API zone name
export BROWSER_AUTH="brd-customer-ID-zone-NAME:PASSWORD"  # Browser API credentials

REST API authentication header for Web Unlocker and SERP API:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

---

Web Unlocker API

HTTP-based scraping proxy. Best for simple page fetches without browser interaction.

Endpoint: POST https://api.brightdata.com/request

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "zone": "YOUR_ZONE_NAME",
        "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
        "format": "raw"
    }
)
html = response.text

Key Parameters

Quick Patterns

# Get markdown (best for LLM input)
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "data_format": "markdown"}
)

# Geo-targeted request
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "country": "de"}

# Screenshot for debugging
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "data_format": "screenshot"}

# Async for bulk processing
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "async": True}

Critical rule: Never use Web Unlocker with Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium, or anti-detect browsers. Use Browser API instead.

See references/web-unlocker.md for complete reference including proxy interface, special headers, async flow, features, and billing.

---

SERP API

Structured search engine result extraction for Google, Bing, Yandex, DuckDuckGo.

Endpoint: POST https://api.brightdata.com/request (same as Web Unlocker)

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "zone": "YOUR_SERP_ZONE",
        "url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=python+web+scraping&brd_json=1&gl=us&hl=en",
        "format": "raw"
    }
)
data = response.json()
for result in data.get("organic", []):
    print(result["rank"], result["title"], result["link"])

Essential Google URL Parameters

Note: num parameter is deprecated as of September 2025. Use start for pagination.

Parsed JSON Response Structure

{
  "organic": [{"rank": 1, "global_rank": 1, "title": "...", "link": "...", "description": "..."}],
  "paid": [],
  "people_also_ask": [],
  "knowledge_graph": {},
  "related_searches": [],
  "general": {"results_cnt": 1240000000, "query": "..."}
}

Bing Key Parameters

Async for Bulk SERP

# Submit
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    params={"async": "1"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"zone": SERP_ZONE, "url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=test&brd_json=1", "format": "raw"}
)
response_id = response.headers.get("x-response-id")

# Retrieve (retrieve calls are NOT billed)
result = requests.get(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/serp/get_result",
    params={"response_id": response_id},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
)

Billing: Pay per 1,000 successful requests only. Async retrieve calls are not billed.

See references/serp-api.md for complete reference including Maps, Trends, Reviews, Lens, Hotels, Flights parameters.

---

Web Scraper API

Pre-built scrapers for structured data extraction from 100+ platforms. No parsing logic needed.

Sync Endpoint: POST https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape Async Endpoint: POST https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger

# Sync (up to 20 URLs, returns immediately)
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape",
    params={"dataset_id": "YOUR_DATASET_ID", "format": "json"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"input": [{"url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X7M8TBQ"}]}
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()  # Results ready
elif response.status_code == 202:
    snapshot_id = response.json()["snapshot_id"]  # Poll for completion

Parameters

Request Body

{
  "input": [
    { "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X7M8TBQ" },
    { "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CTCPKN" }
  ]
}

Poll for Async Results

import time

# Trigger
snapshot_id = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger",
    params={"dataset_id": DATASET_ID, "format": "json"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"input": [{"url": u} for u in urls]}
).json()["snapshot_id"]

# Poll
while True:
    status = requests.get(
        f"https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/progress/{snapshot_id}",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    ).json()["status"]

    if status == "ready": break
    if status == "failed": raise Exception("Job failed")
    time.sleep(10)

# Download
data = requests.get(
    f"https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/snapshot/{snapshot_id}",
    params={"format": "json"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
).json()

Progress status values: starting → running → ready | failed Data retention: 30 days. Billing: Per delivered record. Invalid input URLs that fail are still billable.

See references/web-scraper-api.md for complete reference including scraper types, output formats, delivery options, and billing details.

---

Browser API (Scraping Browser)

Full browser automation via CDP/WebDriver. Handles CAPTCHA, fingerprinting, and anti-bot detection automatically.

Connection:

• Playwright/Puppeteer: wss://${AUTH}@brd.superproxy.io:9222
• Selenium: https://${AUTH}@brd.superproxy.io:9515

const { chromium } = require("playwright-core");

const AUTH = process.env.BROWSER_AUTH;
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(`wss://${AUTH}@brd.superproxy.io:9222`);
const page = await browser.newPage();
page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(120000); // Always set to 2 minutes

await page.goto("https://example.com", { waitUntil: "domcontentloaded" });
const html = await page.content();
await browser.close();

from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

async with async_playwright() as p:
    browser = await p.chromium.connect_over_cdp(f"wss://{AUTH}@brd.superproxy.io:9222")
    page = await browser.new_page()
    page.set_default_navigation_timeout(120000)
    await page.goto("https://example.com", wait_until="domcontentloaded")
    html = await page.content()
    await browser.close()

Custom CDP Functions

// CDP session pattern for custom functions
const client = await page.target().createCDPSession();

// CAPTCHA solve with timeout
const result = await client.send("Captcha.solve", { timeout: 30000 });

// Precise geo location (must be before goto)
await client.send("Proxy.setLocation", {
  latitude: 37.7749,
  longitude: -122.4194,
  distance: 10,
  strict: true
});

// Block unnecessary resources
await client.send("Network.setBlockedURLs", { urls: ["*google-analytics*", "*.ads.*"] });

// Device emulation
await client.send("Emulation.setDevice", { deviceName: "iPhone 14" });

Session Rules

• One initial navigation per session — new URL = new session
• Idle timeout: 5 minutes
• Max duration: 30 minutes

Geolocation

• Country-level: append -country-us to credentials username
• EU-wide: append -country-eu (routes through 29+ European countries)
• Precise: use Proxy.setLocation CDP command (before navigation)

Error Codes

Billing: Traffic-based only. Block images/CSS/fonts to reduce costs.

See references/browser-api.md for complete reference including all CDP functions, bandwidth optimization, CAPTCHA patterns, and debugging.

---

Detailed References

• references/web-unlocker.md — Web Unlocker: full parameter list, proxy interface, special headers, async flow, features, billing, anti-patterns
• references/serp-api.md — SERP API: all Google params (Maps, Trends, Reviews, Lens, Hotels, Flights), Bing params, parsed JSON structure, async, billing
• references/web-scraper-api.md — Web Scraper API: sync vs async, all parameters, polling, scraper types, output formats, billing
• references/browser-api.md — Browser API: connection strings, session rules, all CDP functions, geo-targeting, bandwidth optimization, CAPTCHA, debugging, error codes

Related Skills

• brightdata-proxy — For routing requests through Bright Data's raw proxy networks (Datacenter, ISP, Residential, Mobile) with your own HTTP client instead of a managed API. Covers network/IP-pool selection, the brd-customer-... username format, targeting & sticky-session params, SSL CA setup for Residential/Mobile, and integrations for cURL, Python (requests/httpx/aiohttp/Scrapy), Node (fetch/axios), Playwright, Puppeteer, and Selenium. Hand off to it whenever the task is raw proxy access rather than Web Unlocker / SERP / Web Scraper / Browser API. Escalation order when proxies hit consistent blocks: raw proxy → Web Unlocker → Browser API → Web Scraper API.