Implementation:SeleniumHQ Selenium ChromeDriver Constructor For CDP

Knowledge Sources	Selenium Selenium DevTools
Domains	Browser_Automation, DevTools, Session_Management
Last Updated	2026-02-11 00:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for creating a Chrome WebDriver session with DevTools Protocol access provided by the Selenium Java library.

Description

The ChromeDriver class extends ChromiumDriver, which implements HasDevTools (and HasBiDi, HasAuthentication, HasLogEvents). This means every Chrome session automatically includes CDP capabilities. The key is the se:cdp capability in the session response, which provides the WebSocket URL for the DevTools connection. The HasDevTools interface provides getDevTools() (throws DevToolsException on failure) and maybeGetDevTools() (returns Optional<DevTools>). The ChromeDriver constructor also initializes casting and CDP command support via AddHasCasting and AddHasCdp helper classes.

Usage

Use this when your goal is to access CDP features (network interception, console capture, performance monitoring). Create a standard ChromeDriver, then call getDevTools() directly since ChromeDriver inherits the method from ChromiumDriver.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Selenium
• File: java/src/org/openqa/selenium/chrome/ChromeDriver.java (L42-132)
• File: java/src/org/openqa/selenium/devtools/HasDevTools.java (L22-30)
• File: java/src/org/openqa/selenium/chromium/ChromiumDriver.java (implements HasDevTools)

Signature

// ChromeDriver extends ChromiumDriver which implements HasDevTools
public class ChromeDriver extends ChromiumDriver {
    public ChromeDriver();
    public ChromeDriver(ChromeDriverService service);
    public ChromeDriver(ChromeOptions options);
    public ChromeDriver(ChromeOptions options, ClientConfig clientConfig);
    public ChromeDriver(ChromeDriverService service, ChromeOptions options);
    public ChromeDriver(ChromeDriverService service, ChromeOptions options, ClientConfig clientConfig);
}

// HasDevTools interface
public interface HasDevTools {
    default DevTools getDevTools();
    Optional<DevTools> maybeGetDevTools();
}

Import

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeOptions;
import org.openqa.selenium.devtools.HasDevTools;
import org.openqa.selenium.devtools.DevTools;

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
options	ChromeOptions	No	Chrome configuration (defaults to new ChromeOptions() if omitted)
service	ChromeDriverService	No	Driver service (defaults to ChromeDriverService.createDefaultService() if omitted)
clientConfig	ClientConfig	No	HTTP client configuration (defaults to ClientConfig.defaultConfig() if omitted)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
driver	ChromeDriver	Active session implementing HasDevTools with "se:cdp" capability
getDevTools()	DevTools	CDP client; throws DevToolsException if connection fails
maybeGetDevTools()	Optional<DevTools>	CDP client wrapped in Optional; empty if connection fails

Usage Examples

Create CDP-Enabled Session

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.devtools.DevTools;

ChromeDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
DevTools devTools = driver.getDevTools();
devTools.createSession();

// Now use devTools for CDP operations
// ...

devTools.close();
driver.quit();

Create Session with Custom Options

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeOptions;
import org.openqa.selenium.devtools.DevTools;

ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--headless=new");

ChromeDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

// getDevTools() inherited from ChromiumDriver via HasDevTools
DevTools devTools = driver.getDevTools();
devTools.createSession();

// CDP operations available even in headless mode
// ...

devTools.close();
driver.quit();

Related Pages

Implements Principle

• Principle:SeleniumHQ_Selenium_WebDriver_Session_For_CDP