Resources & mirrors

Online references for obtaining browser version numbers and available mirror sources.

Getting version numbers

The buildId required by create and search varies by browser. Below are the most authoritative lookup sources.

Chrome

Resource	Description
Chrome for Testing - Known Good Versions	Official JSON of available Chrome versions from Google, including per-platform download URLs
Puppeteer Supported Browsers	Puppeteer's officially maintained browser support list, mapping Chrome versions to buildId

buildId format: 4-part version number, e.g. 134.0.6998.35.

# Get buildId from JSON and install directly
pbvm create -b chrome -i 134.0.6998.35

# Search first to confirm the remote version exists
pbvm search -b chrome -i 134.0.6998.35

Chromium

Resource	Description
Chromium Dash	Chromium release dashboard; query revision numbers and build progress by platform
Chromium Snapshot Index	Chromium snapshot storage bucket root; browse files directly by platform and revision

buildId format: numeric revision number, e.g. 1435764.

pbvm create -b chromium -i 1435764

Firefox

Resource	Description
Mozilla Archive (Firefox)	Mozilla's official FTP archive, organized by channel (release / beta / nightly) and version

buildId format: channel_version, e.g. stable_136.0.0. Note the underscore separating the channel prefix and version number.

pbvm create -b firefox -i stable_136.0.0

Mirror resources

In mainland China, using the npmmirror mirror can significantly improve download speed. Below are the npmmirror browse URLs for each browser and the corresponding pbvm mirror configuration.

Browser	npmmirror browse URL
Chrome	chrome-for-testing
Chromium	chromium-browser-snapshots
Firefox	firefox

Enabling a mirror

# Enable npmmirror globally
pbvm mirror -s npmmirror

# Enable for the current project only
pbvm mirror -s npmmirror -i

Once enabled, all create and search commands automatically use the mirror for downloads. The actual mirror rule file is located at public/mirror/npmmirror.json, which defines the URL templates and platform mappings for each browser.

One-off use

Even without a global mirror, you can specify one on a per-command basis:

pbvm create -b chrome -i 134.0.6998.35 -m ./path/to/.browsermr
pbvm search -b firefox -i stable_136.0.0 -m ./path/to/.browsermr

For more mirror configuration details, see the mirror command docs.

Puppeteer browser support overview

Each Puppeteer version is associated with specific Chrome and Firefox versions. pptr.dev/supported-browsers is the most direct reference. If you're unsure which version to install:

1. Visit Puppeteer Supported Browsers to find the browser buildId for your target Puppeteer version
2. Run pbvm search -b <browser> -i <buildId> to confirm the remote is available
3. Run pbvm create -b <browser> -i <buildId> to install

Custom mirrors

Getting a template file

# Generate a .browsermr template in the current directory
pbvm mirror -i
# Follow the interactive prompts to choose a mirror source (e.g. npmmirror)

You can also reference the built-in template directly: npmmirror.json.

File structure

.browsermr is a JSON file. The top-level keys are browser names (matching the Browser enum from @puppeteer/browsers). Each browser entry must contain a mirror field; the remaining fields are platform mappings defined on demand.

{
  "chrome": {
    "mirror": "<mirror URL template>",
    "<mapping field>": { "linux": "...", "mac": "...", "mac_arm": "..." }
  }
}

URL template variables

Placeholders enclosed in <> in the mirror URL are replaced with actual values at download time:

Variable	Source	Description
<browser>	Fixed	Browser name: chrome, chromium, firefox
<platform>	Fixed	Current platform identifier, provided by @puppeteer/browsers
<buildId>	Fixed	Version number with the channel prefix stripped (Firefox stable_136.0.0 → 136.0.0)
<channelId>	Fixed	Full channel + version, Firefox only
<lang>	Fixed	Language, Firefox only, default zh-CN
<ext>	Mapping field	File extension, resolved by platform from the ext mapping
<suffix>	Mapping field	Browser-specific filename suffix, resolved by platform from the suffix mapping

Mapping fields are the top-level keys alongside mirror in the JSON. The key name acts as a template variable name, and its value is a { platform: value } map. For example:

"platform": {
  "linux": "linux64",
  "mac": "mac-x64",
  "mac_arm": "mac-arm64",
  "win32": "win32",
  "win64": "win64"
}

In this case <platform> is replaced by mac-arm64 on macOS ARM. null means the platform is not supported.

Substitution example

Using npmmirror's Chromium config, downloading revision 1435764 on macOS (arm64):

• Template: https://.../<platform>/<buildId>/chrome-<suffix>.zip
• platform mapping for mac_arm → Mac_Arm
• suffix mapping for mac_arm → mac
• buildId fixed → 1435764

Resulting URL:

https://registry.npmmirror.com/-/binary/chromium-browser-snapshots/Mac_Arm/1435764/chrome-mac.zip

Runtime overrides: --rule

The create and search commands accept a -r/--rule flag to pass key-value pairs in URL query-string format, overriding identically-named variables in the template:

# Force lang and ext, ignoring mapped values in .browsermr
pbvm create -b firefox -i stable_136.0.0 -r "lang=en-US&ext=tar.bz2"

Loading priority

1. Mirror file path specified via -m
2. .browsermr in the current directory
3. .browsermr in the pbvm global config directory
4. If none of the above exist: fall back to @puppeteer/browsers default download URL

Overall flow

100%

100%