Building domharvest-playwright: Why I Chose Simplicity Over Complexity

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

I’m building domharvest‑playwright, an open‑source DOM extraction tool focused on simplicity and reliability. This is the first post documenting the journey.

Project Decisions

When starting a new project, we face countless decisions:

• TypeScript or JavaScript?
• Complex tooling or zero‑config?
• Git Flow or GitHub Flow?

I chose simplicity at every turn. Here’s why.

Language Choice

While TypeScript offers type safety, I opted for vanilla JavaScript to lower the barrier to entry. The goal is to make web scraping accessible without requiring TS knowledge.

Tooling

• No .eslintrc, no Prettier config, no debates.
• StandardJS provides automatic formatting and linting with zero setup time.

Branching Model

A simpler branching model: main + feature branches. No develop branch, no release branches. Perfect for solo or small‑team projects.

Next Steps

• Core scraping functionality with Playwright
• Resilient selector strategies
• Comprehensive error handling
• Real‑world testing

References

• Full post with detailed reasoning:
• Repository:

Discussion

What’s your take on simplicity vs. features in developer tools? Drop a comment!