A best practices example showing how Temporal handles browser automation failures with automatic retries using atomic, idempotent activities.

What it does#

• Uses Stagehand to perform Google searches in a real browser
• Each individual task is encapsulated within a Temporal Activity following best practices for atomicity and idempotency
• If any individual task fails, Temporal will automatically retry it, resulting in reliable browser automation
• Clean, maintainable code following Temporal patterns

Temporal Best Practices Demonstrated#

Atomic Activities#

Each Temporal activity performs a single, well-defined task:

1. initializeBrowser - Creates and initializes browser session
2. navigateToSearchPage - Navigates to Google
3. executeSearch - Types query and submits search
4. extractSearchResults - Extracts and validates results
5. cleanupBrowser - Closes browser session
6. formatResults - Formats results for display

Why Atomic Activities?#

• Efficient retries: If extraction fails after search succeeds, only extraction is retried
• Better performance: No need to repeat successful steps
• Clearer debugging: Each activity's purpose is obvious
• Flexible retry policies: Different activities can have different retry strategies

Idempotent Design#

• Browser sessions are reused if already initialized
• Cleanup handles already-closed sessions gracefully
• Navigation always results in the same state
• Formatting produces consistent output