# Setup Types

WebdriverIO can be used for various purposes. It implements the WebDriver protocol API and can run a browser in an automated way. The framework is designed to work in any arbitrary environment and for any kind of task. It is independent from any 3rd party frameworks and only requires Node.js to run.

## Protocol Bindings[​](#protocol-bindings "Direct link to Protocol Bindings")

For basic interactions with the WebDriver and other automation protocols WebdriverIO uses its own protocol bindings based on the [`webdriver`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/webdriver) NPM package:

* WebDriver
* Chrome DevTools

setup/webdriver.js

```
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```

[View on GitHub](https://github.com/webdriverio/example-recipes/blob/e8b147e88e7a38351b0918b4f7efbd9ae292201d/setup/webdriver.js#L5-L20)

setup/devtools.js

```
loading...
```

[View on GitHub](https://github.com/webdriverio/example-recipes/blob/e8b147e88e7a38351b0918b4f7efbd9ae292201d/setup/devtools.js#L2-L17)

All [protocol commands](/docs/api/webdriver.md) return the raw response from the automation driver. The package is very lightweight and there is **no** smart logic like auto-waits to simplify the interaction with the protocol usage.

The protocol commands applied to the instance depend on the initial session response of the driver. For example if the response indicates that a mobile session was started, the package applies all Appium and Mobile JSON Wire protocol commands to the instance prototype.

You can run the same set of commands (except mobile ones) using the Chrome DevTools protocol when importing the [`devtools`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/devtools) NPM package. It has the same interface as the `webdriver` package but runs its automation based on [Puppeteer](https://pptr.dev/).

For more information on these package interfaces, see [Modules API](/docs/api/modules.md).

## Standalone Mode[​](#standalone-mode "Direct link to Standalone Mode")

To simplify the interaction with the WebDriver protocol the `webdriverio` package implements a variety of commands on top of the protocol (e.g. the [`dragAndDrop`](/docs/api/element/dragAndDrop.md) command) and core concepts such as [smart selectors](/docs/selectors.md) or [auto-waits](/docs/autowait.md). The example from above can be simplified like this:

setup/standalone.js

```
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```

[View on GitHub](https://github.com/webdriverio/example-recipes/blob/e8b147e88e7a38351b0918b4f7efbd9ae292201d/setup/standalone.js#L2-L19)

Using WebdriverIO in standalone mode still gives you access to all protocol commands but provides a super set of additional commands that provide a higher level interaction with the browser. It allows you to integrate this automation tool in your own (test) project to create a new automation library. Popular examples include [Oxygen](https://github.com/oxygenhq/oxygen) or [CodeceptJS](http://codecept.io). You can also write plain Node scripts to scrape the web for content (or anything else that requires a running browser).

If no specific options are set WebdriverIO will always attempt to download and setup the browser driver that matches `browserName` property in your capabilities. In case of Chrome and Firefox it might also install them depending on whether it can find the corresponding browser on the machine.

For more information on the `webdriverio` package interfaces, see [Modules API](/docs/api/modules.md).

## The WDIO Testrunner[​](#the-wdio-testrunner "Direct link to The WDIO Testrunner")

The main purpose of WebdriverIO, though, is end-to-end testing on a big scale. We therefore implemented a test runner that helps you to build a reliable test suite that is easy to read and maintain.

The test runner takes care of many problems that are common when working with plain automation libraries. For one, it organizes your test runs and splits up test specs so your tests can be executed with maximum concurrency. It also handles session management and provides lots of features to help you to debug problems and find errors in your tests.

Here is the same example from above, written as a test spec and executed by WDIO:

setup/testrunner.js

```
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```

[View on GitHub](https://github.com/webdriverio/example-recipes/blob/e8b147e88e7a38351b0918b4f7efbd9ae292201d/setup/testrunner.js)

The test runner is an abstraction of popular test frameworks like Mocha, Jasmine, or Cucumber. To run your tests using the WDIO test runner, check out the [Getting Started](/docs/gettingstarted.md) section for more information.

For more information on the `@wdio/cli` testrunner package interface, see [Modules API](/docs/api/modules.md).