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Ruby · Code recipe

Get the rendered HTML of a JavaScript page in Ruby

Fetch the HTML a browser ends up with, JavaScript and all, in Ruby 3.1+ with Net::HTTP from the standard library. Every program on this page runs as it stands — each one was run against a stub of the API before it was published.

By · Last updated: September 2026

TL;DR

To get the HTML of a JavaScript-rendered page in Ruby, POST its URL to https://urlpipe.dev/html with sync set to true. The body is the DOM after the page's scripts ran in real Chrome, serialized as HTML — what a visitor's browser holds, not what the server first sent — read with res.body, for 1 credit.

Free plan, no credit card. 1,000 credits a month.

One POST to /html loads the page in real Chrome, lets its JavaScript run, and serializes the DOM it ended up with. For a single-page app that is the difference between an empty <div id="root"> and the content; the rendered vs raw HTML guide shows how far apart the two get.

The body is the HTML as text, read with res.body. The program saves it and reports its size in bytes — compare that with curl -s https://example.com | wc -c and you see how much of the page only exists after the scripts ran.

Setup

Before you start

Nothing to install: net/http and json are part of Ruby. Put your API key in the environment so it never lands in the file.

Terminal
ruby --version   # 3.1 or later
export URLPIPE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

The request

Save the rendered HTML and report its size

sync: true keeps the request open until the result is ready. use_ssl: has to be asked for — Net::HTTP does not infer it from the scheme — and abort prints to stderr and exits 1. bytesize, not length: the size on disk is bytes.

rendered_html.rb
require "json"
require "net/http"

uri = URI("https://urlpipe.dev/html")
# read_timeout: a sync call can take up to 60 s, Net::HTTP's default.
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https", read_timeout: 90) do |http|
  http.post(uri.path, { url: "https://example.com", sync: true }.to_json,
            "Authorization" => "Bearer #{ENV.fetch("URLPIPE_API_KEY")}",
            "Content-Type" => "application/json")
end
abort "URLpipe answered #{res.code}: #{res.body}" unless res.is_a?(Net::HTTPOK)

File.binwrite("page.html", res.body)
puts "Saved page.html (#{res.body.bytesize} bytes)"

Run it: ruby rendered_html.rb

Async

The async variant: a token, a webhook and a poll

Leave out sync and the answer is a token, straight away. Net::HTTP reports the status as a string, so the poll compares res.code with "202", not the number.

rendered_html_async.rb
require "json"
require "net/http"

API = URI("https://urlpipe.dev")

def send_request(request)
  request["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{ENV.fetch("URLPIPE_API_KEY")}"
  Net::HTTP.start(API.host, API.port, use_ssl: API.scheme == "https") { |http| http.request(request) }
end

# No sync: the request is accepted at once and the work carries on without you.
post = Net::HTTP::Post.new(URI.join(API, "/html"), "Content-Type" => "application/json")
post.body = {
  url: "https://example.com",
  report_to: "https://your-app.com/webhooks/urlpipe",
  labels: { customer: "acme" }
}.to_json
res = send_request(post)
abort "URLpipe answered #{res.code}: #{res.body}" unless res.is_a?(Net::HTTPOK)
token = JSON.parse(res.body).fetch("token")
puts "Accepted #{token}"

# The result is POSTed to report_to when it is ready. Polling by token is the
# other way to collect it: no endpoint needed, and a backup for the webhook.
60.times do
  res = send_request(Net::HTTP::Get.new(URI.join(API, "/result/#{token}")))
  break unless res.code == "202" # 202 means still processing

  sleep 2
end

case res.code
when "200" then nil
when "202" then abort "Still processing after two minutes; try the token again later."
when "422" then abort "The analysis failed: #{JSON.parse(res.body)["error"]}"
when "410" then abort "The result is past the 30-day window; send the request again."
else abort "URLpipe answered #{res.code}: #{res.body}"
end

File.binwrite("page.html", res.body)
puts "Saved page.html (#{res.body.bytesize} bytes)"

Run it: ruby rendered_html_async.rb

Errors

Handle errors and retries

Pattern matching on [status, code] keeps the retry rules in one place. A 401 answers in plain text, so it is checked before JSON.parse, and a body that still is not JSON becomes an empty hash.

rendered_html_errors.rb
require "json"
require "net/http"

class URLpipeError < StandardError; end

# POST a sync request and return the response, or raise URLpipeError.
def urlpipe(path, payload, attempts: 5)
  uri = URI("https://urlpipe.dev#{path}")
  attempts.times do |attempt|
    res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https", read_timeout: 90) do |http|
      http.post(uri.path, payload.merge(sync: true).to_json,
                "Authorization" => "Bearer #{ENV.fetch("URLPIPE_API_KEY")}",
                "Content-Type" => "application/json")
    end
    return res if res.code == "200"
    raise URLpipeError, "401: the API key is missing or wrong. Check URLPIPE_API_KEY." if res.code == "401"

    body = begin
      JSON.parse(res.body)
    rescue JSON::ParserError
      {}
    end
    code = body["error"].to_s
    detail = body["message"] ? "#{code}: #{body["message"]}" : code

    case [ res.code, code ]
    in [ "429", "rate_limited" ]
      # Sending too fast: Retry-After says how long the window has left.
      sleep Integer(res["Retry-After"] || 1)
    in [ "429", "concurrency_limit" ]
      # Every parallel slot on your plan is busy with your own requests.
      sleep 2**attempt
    in [ "504", _ ]
      # Still running on our side; the token collects it from GET /result/:token.
      raise URLpipeError, "504 processing_timeout: collect it later with token #{body["token"]}"
    else
      # 403 email_unverified, 422 (a bad parameter, or a page that would not load),
      # 429 quota_exceeded: sending the same request again gets the same answer.
      raise URLpipeError, "#{res.code}: #{detail}"
    end
  end
  raise URLpipeError, "429: still refused after #{attempts} attempts"
end

begin
  res = urlpipe("/html", { url: "https://example.com" })
rescue URLpipeError => e
  abort "URLpipe: #{e.message}"
end

File.binwrite("page.html", res.body)
puts "Saved page.html (#{res.body.bytesize} bytes)"

Run it: ruby rendered_html_errors.rb

Details

What to know about /html

  • The HTML is serialized from the live DOM, so it is well-formed but not byte-identical to any file on the server.
  • Pages over 10 MB of HTML are refused with The page is too big to be processed.
  • page_options.wait_for_selector waits for an element that loads late; delay waits a fixed time on top.
  • It is the whole document, scripts and styles included, not a cleaned-up version of it. For clean text, use Markdown instead.

Other languages

Get the rendered HTML of a JavaScript page in another language

More Ruby: every Ruby recipe

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from fetching the URL myself?
A plain GET returns what the server sent before any JavaScript ran. /html returns the DOM after the page's scripts ran in real Chrome — the HTML a visitor's browser actually holds.
Can I wait for content that loads late?
Yes: page_options.wait_for_selector waits up to 10 seconds for an element to appear, and delay adds a fixed wait. If the element never appears the request is a 422 and costs nothing.
Does URLpipe follow robots.txt?
Yes, by default, for every project. You can turn it off per project, and then you are responsible for having the right to fetch those pages.
Do I need an SDK to call URLpipe from Ruby?
No gem: Net::HTTP and json are in the standard library, and the API is one POST per job.

Get a key and run it.

Free plan, no card. Paste your key into URLPIPE_API_KEY and every program on this page runs as it is.