Prevent Hugging Face Spaces from Sleeping with GitHub Actions + agent-browser

Hugging Face Spaces are incredibly convenient for hosting demos, tools, and lightweight apps.

https://huggingface.co/

However, there is one limitation:

If a Space is not accessed for 48 hours, it goes to sleep.

This can be problematic when:
• You share a demo URL and it’s slow on first access (cold start)
• You host automation tools like n8n
• You want your app to always feel “ready”
• You want simple uptime monitoring

To solve this, I built a small automation:

GitHub Actions accesses my Space daily
agent-browser opens the page and takes a screenshot
The screenshot is posted to Discord

This achieves both:
• ✅ Preventing sleep
• ✅ Visual uptime monitoring

In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to set it up.

⸻

Why use agent-browser?

You could simply curl the Space URL.

But I wanted:
• A real browser access (not just HTTP ping)
• To confirm the page fully renders
• To capture a screenshot as proof
• To visually verify that nothing is broken

For that, I used agent-browser, a CLI browser automation tool built on Playwright.

It works perfectly inside GitHub Actions.

vercel-labs / agent-browser

Browser automation CLI for AI agents

agent-browser

Browser automation CLI for AI agents. Fast native Rust CLI.

Installation

Global Installation (recommended)

Installs the native Rust binary:

npm install -g agent-browser
agent-browser install  # Download Chrome from Chrome for Testing (first time only)

Project Installation (local dependency)

For projects that want to pin the version in package.json:

npm install agent-browser
agent-browser install

Then use via package.json scripts or by invoking agent-browser directly.

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install agent-browser
agent-browser install  # Download Chrome from Chrome for Testing (first time only)

Cargo (Rust)

cargo install agent-browser
agent-browser install  # Download Chrome from Chrome for Testing (first time only)

From Source

Requires Node.js 24+, pnpm 11+, and Rust.

git clone https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser
cd agent-browser
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm build:native   # Requires Rust (https://rustup.rs)
pnpm link --global  # Makes agent-browser available globally
agent-browser install

Linux Dependencies

On Linux, install system dependencies:

agent-browser install --with-deps

This exits nonzero if the package…

View on GitHub

⸻

The GitHub Actions Workflow

Here is the exact YAML file I use:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 0 * * *"

jobs:
  access-hugging-face-n8n:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Install agent-browser
        run: npm install -g agent-browser

      - name: Install Playwright browsers
        run: agent-browser install --with-deps

      - name: Go to the hugging face space
        run: |
          agent-browser open ${{ secrets.HUGGING_FACE_SPACE_URL }}
          agent-browser wait --text "Sign in"
          agent-browser screenshot page.png
          agent-browser close

      - name: Notify Discord on done access
        if: success()
        run: |
          curl --fail-with-body -sS -X POST \
            -F 'payload_json={"content":"Hugging Face access job done."}' \
            -F "file1=@page.png;type=image/png" \
            "${{ secrets.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL }}"

⸻

How It Works

1. Scheduled Daily Run

cron: "0 0 * * *"

This runs once per day at 00:00 UTC.

⸻

1. Install agent-browser

npm install -g agent-browser
agent-browser install --with-deps

This installs Playwright and required browser dependencies inside the GitHub Actions runner.

⸻

1. Open the Hugging Face Space

agent-browser open ${{ secrets.HUGGING_FACE_SPACE_URL }}
agent-browser wait --text "Sign in"
agent-browser screenshot page.png
agent-browser close

What this does:
1. Opens the Space in a real browser
2. Waits until "Sign in" text appears (ensures full render)
3. Takes a screenshot
4. Closes the browser

The wait --text step prevents taking screenshots before the page is fully loaded.

You can change the text to something more specific to your app.

⸻

1. Post Screenshot to Discord

curl -X POST \
-F 'payload_json={"content":"Hugging Face access job done."}' \
-F "file1=@page.png;type=image/png" \
"${{ secrets.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL }}"

This sends:
• A success message
• The screenshot image

to your Discord channel via webhook.

Now you have both:
• Sleep prevention
• Daily visual health check

⸻

Setting Up Secrets

In your GitHub repository:

Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions

Add:
• HUGGING_FACE_SPACE_URL
• DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL

These are securely injected into the workflow using:

${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }}

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Why This Approach Is Nice

✅ Free to run

GitHub Actions free tier is sufficient.

✅ No server required

No EC2, no cron server, no maintenance.

✅ Real browser check

Not just ping — full rendering validation.

✅ Visual confirmation

You instantly see if something broke.

✅ Easy to extend

Add monitoring, metrics, multi-Space support.

⸻

Optional Improvements

You could extend this further:
• Fail the job if specific text is missing
• Measure page load time
• Upload screenshots to S3 / R2
• Monitor multiple Spaces in parallel
• Add Slack notifications
• Store screenshots as GitHub Action artifacts

You can even turn this into a lightweight uptime monitoring system.

⸻

Conclusion

Hugging Face Spaces going to sleep can be inconvenient.

But with:

GitHub Actions + agent-browser

you can:
• Automatically keep your Space awake
• Capture daily screenshots
• Get notified via Discord
• Monitor visual health

All without running your own server.

Simple, effective, and fully automated.

Comments

[Melo]

Hello, I tried but it stopped with the error 404 not found when access the hugging space.
Did you get the similar problem?

[0xkoji]

no.
do you try to access to your private hugging face space?
if so, you will need to add code to fill out info (userName and password).