autoreg-skills-max/skills/account-validation/references/chatgpt-headed-browser-registration.md

ChatGPT Headed Browser Registration — Working Techniques (2026-07-30)

Technical findings from live debugging of Camoufox + Playwright registration flow against OpenAI's signup.

Flow Summary

OpenAI email registration flow: email submit → OTP → age confirmation → about_you → redirect to chatgpt.com

Working Techniques

1. OTP Input: JS Injection Bypasses React Controlled Inputs

Playwright fill()/type() does NOT work on React-controlled input fields — React overwrites the value. Use native value setter + synthetic events:

const nativeSetter = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(HTMLInputElement.prototype, 'value').set;
nativeSetter.call(input, otpCode);
input.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', { bubbles: true }));
input.dispatchEvent(new Event('change', { bubbles: true }));

Detection: Try split-box pattern first (6 separate numeric inputs), then fall back to single input.

2. OTP Submission Detection: code= in Page Title

CRITICAL BUG FIXED (2026-07-30): After OTP is accepted, OpenAI redirects via meta-refresh/JS — the URL stays at auth.openai.com/email-verification but the page title changes to:

Loading https://chatgpt.com/api/auth/callback/openai?code=ac...

Old detection only checked URL changes and "How old are you?" / "confirm your age" in title — missed the intermediate redirect state. Fix: add "code=" in page_title and "chatgpt.com" in page_title to the success condition list.

Fallback after detection: the browser naturally follows the meta-refresh/JS redirect within seconds.

3. Age / about_you Page Detection

After OTP redirect completes, OpenAI shows age confirmation with these title variants:

• "How old are you? - OpenAI"
• "Let's confirm your age - OpenAI"

Both must be in the detection list. The URL becomes auth.openai.com/about-you.

4. about_you Form Fill

Form has input[name="name"] and input[name="age"] plus a hidden input[name="birthday"]. Fill all three:

await page.fill('input[name="name"]', full_name)
await page.fill('input[name="age"]', age_str)
await page.evaluate(f"document.querySelector('input[name=\"birthday\"]').value = '{birthdate}'")

5. about_you Submit: JS Click + Form Submit Fallback

Playwright click() times out on React buttons. Use JS click:

const buttons = document.querySelectorAll('button');
for (const btn of buttons) {
    const text = (btn.textContent || '').toLowerCase();
    if (text.includes('finish creating account') || btn.type === 'submit') {
        if (btn.offsetParent !== null) { btn.click(); return 'clicked:' + text; }
    }
}

After click, poll URL for 9 seconds (6×1.5s). If no redirect, try form.submit():

const f = document.querySelector('form'); if(f) f.submit();

Known issue: OpenAI anti-bot detection may block the redirect after successful form fill + submit. The form fills correctly and the button click fires, but OpenAI's server-side checks reject the submission.

6. Page Wait Strategy

Use networkidle + explicit wait_for_selector (NOT domcontentloaded):

await page.wait_for_load_state('networkidle', timeout=15000)
await page.wait_for_selector('input[inputmode="numeric"], input[autocomplete="one-time-code"]', timeout=10000)

Pitfalls

t-online.de Domain Block

OpenAI no longer sends verification codes to t-online.de addresses (~80% failure rate as of 2026-07-30). Codes that DO arrive still work for OTP. Use non-German email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Proton).

Python .pyc Caching on Live Servers

When iterating on code with a running server, Python loads cached .pyc files. After any code change:

find /path/to/project -name "*.pyc" -delete
find /path/to/project -name "__pycache__" -type d -exec rm -rf {} +
# Then restart server

Without this, the server continues running old code despite file changes.

Camoufox Crash

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '_getChildFrames') — known Camoufox bug. Retry the task.

State Machine OTP Loop

If age page ("How old are you?") appears but URL is still email-verification, the state machine may loop back to OTP step. The fix is detecting code= in title (see technique #2) — this tells the state machine OTP was accepted and redirect is in progress.

about_you Button Not Found

Even with successful JS click (clicked:finish creating account), OpenAI may not redirect — the page stays on about_you. This is server-side anti-bot, not a code bug. Possible mitigations: human-like delays between field fills, cursor movements, or different IP/proxy.

Environment

• Project: C:/Users/User/Desktop/GPT-AUTOREG/aBaiAutoplus/
• File: platforms/chatgpt/browser_register.py
• DB: account_manager.db (SQLite)
• Email pool: C:/Users/User/Desktop/GPT-AUTOREG/emails.txt (email:password format)
• Server: cd aBaiAutoplus && python -u main.py → http://localhost:8000
• Registration API: POST /api/tasks/register with {"executor_type":"headed","captcha_solver":"auto","extra":{"mail_provider":"imap_pool","identity_provider":"mailbox"}}
• Browser: Camoufox (Playwright fork) via [Solver] subsystem