Codeforces opens in a separate floating window and closing it results in a 403/JCEF timeout error

[tanmaythegreat]

I am not sure whether the behavior described below is intended or if it is a bug, so I wanted to report it here.

For platforms such as LeetCode, the plugin allows solving problems entirely within the IDE without requiring switching between the browser and the editor. I expected a similar experience for Codeforces.

When opening a Codeforces problem, the plugin opens the problem in a separate floating window instead of keeping the experience integrated within the IDE.

Additionally, this floating window does not appear to have a Back or Close button, making it difficult to navigate between pages.
If I close the floating window using Alt + F4, the following error is displayed:

Error

HTTP error fetching URL. Status=403, URL=[https://codeforces.com/problemset/problem/2240/B?locale=en]
JCEF fallback: JCEF internal timeout

I am not sure if this is expected behavior or indicates an issue with the embedded browser.

I have attached:
Screen recordings demonstrating the behavior.
Screenshots of the error message.

[dj258255]

Thanks for the detailed report — this was indeed a bug, and your recording made it easy to pinpoint.

What happened: the floating window you saw is an internal headless browser the plugin uses to bypass Cloudflare's 403 for Codeforces. It was "hidden" by moving it off-screen (setLocation(-3000, -3000)), which works on Windows/macOS but is ignored by many Linux window managers (especially Wayland) — so the scraper window appeared as an undecorated floating window. Closing it killed the fetch mid-flight, which produced the 403 + JCEF internal timeout error you saw.

Fix: #20 (merged) switches the scraper to JCEF off-screen rendering, which creates no OS window at all, so nothing can appear or be accidentally closed on any platform.

Keeping this open until the fix ships in the next release and can be verified on Linux — would appreciate it if you could re-test once it's out.

[dj258255]

v1.6.0 is out with this fix — plus a couple of related improvements you would have hit next: once the Cloudflare challenge passes, its cookies are reused so subsequent fetches are much faster, and formula rendering / translation for fallback-fetched problems was fixed as well.

Whenever you get a chance, could you update and confirm the floating window is gone on your setup? I'll close this once verified. Thanks!

[tanmaythegreat]

window is not opening , that is fine but the problem statement is also not appearing, it just says Fetching....
after waiting for a while the same error appears there

[dj258255]

Thanks for testing. That definitely isn't expected—the window should disappear, but the statement should still load.

I'm away for now, but I'll take a look in about 10 hours. In the meantime, could you tell me your OS (Wayland/X11) and confirm you're running v1.6.0?

Also, does this only happen with Codeforces, or do you see similar issues when fetching problems from other platforms (e.g. LeetCode)?

I'll get back to you once I've identified the cause.