ensure

The ensure command checks whether a target is already installed and only downloads it if missing. This makes it ideal for CI/CD pipelines and setup scripts where you want idempotent behavior — run it every time without re-downloading.

ensure vs install

	install	ensure
Already installed	Exits with code 5	No-op, exits 0
Not installed	Downloads and installs	Downloads and installs
--force	Reinstalls	Reinstalls
Use case	Explicit installs	CI pipelines, setup scripts

Usage

browserget ensure [TARGETS]... [OPTIONS]

Examples

Basic ensure

Ensure Chrome and ChromeDriver are installed:

browserget ensure chrome chromedriver

If both are already installed, the output shows:

Already installed chrome 131.0.6778.87 -> /home/user/.browserget/chrome/131.0.6778.87
Already installed chromedriver 131.0.6778.87 -> /home/user/.browserget/chromedriver/131.0.6778.87

If they are missing, they are downloaded and installed just like install.

GitHub Actions snippet

- name: Install browsers
  run: |
    pip install browserget
    browserget ensure chrome chromedriver

- name: Get Chrome path
  run: echo "CHROME_PATH=$(browserget path chrome)" >> $GITHUB_ENV

JSON output

browserget ensure chrome --json

Output when already installed:

[
  {"name": "chrome", "version": "131.0.6778.87", "path": "/home/user/.browserget/chrome/131.0.6778.87", "status": "already_installed"}
]

Output when newly installed:

[
  {"name": "chrome", "version": "131.0.6778.87", "path": "/home/user/.browserget/chrome/131.0.6778.87", "status": "installed"}
]

Decision tree

ensure target
  │
  ├─ target in registry?
  │   │
  │   ├─ YES → --force?
  │   │   │
  │   │   ├─ YES → reinstall (download, verify, extract, register)
  │   │   └─ NO  → no-op (report "already installed")
  │   │
  │   └─ NO → resolve version from upstream API
  │       │
  │       ├─ --for browser?
  │       │   │
  │       │   ├─ browser in registry? → match driver to browser version
  │       │   └─ browser not in registry → DriverMatchError (exit 2)
  │       │
  │       └─ install (download, verify, extract, register)
  │
  └─ unknown target → UnknownTargetError (exit 2)

Options

Option	Description
--version VERSION	Specific version or milestone
--force	Reinstall even if already present
--for BROWSER	Match driver to an installed browser
--json	Output results as JSON
-q, --quiet	Suppress all output except errors
-v, --verbose	Show informational messages
--debug	Show full tracebacks on error

CI pipelines

Use ensure in CI pipelines to avoid re-downloading browsers on every run. Most CI systems cache the home directory, so ~/.browserget persists between runs. Set BROWSERGET_CACHE_DIR to a CI-specific cache path for better control.