Fixing Slow Camoufox Download | Generated by AI
Question: Why is npx camoufox-js fetch still extremely slow (1% with ~50,000s remaining) even after it started moving?
Answer:
This means the download is working, but your connection to the Camoufox binary server is extremely slow. The ETA 50606.8s (~14 hours) is calculated from the current transfer speed, which is likely only a few KB/s.
This usually happens due to one of these reasons:
1. You are still going through a proxy (most likely)
Even if you removed proxychains4, your system may still be using:
- SOCKS proxy (Clash / V2Ray / Shadowsocks)
- HTTP proxy (
HTTP_PROXY,HTTPS_PROXY) - VPN with slow exit node
- Corporate network filtering
Check quickly:
env | grep -i proxy
If you see something like:
HTTP_PROXY=...
HTTPS_PROXY=...
ALL_PROXY=...
Then you’re still downloading through proxy → very slow.
Fix:
unset HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY ALL_PROXY http_proxy https_proxy all_proxy
npx camoufox-js fetch
2. Node.js downloader is single-threaded
camoufox-js fetch downloads using Node fetch → single connection
Large binary + far CDN = very slow.
This is common when:
- Server is in US/EU
- You’re routing through Asia proxy
- Packet loss high
3. The Camoufox binary is large
Camoufox downloads:
- patched Firefox
- stealth patches
- sandbox runtime
- platform-specific bundle
Usually 150MB–400MB
At 10 KB/s:
300MB / 10KB/s ≈ 8 hours
Your ETA (~14h) matches this.
4. Best fix (recommended)
Cancel and force direct fast download:
Ctrl + C
Then:
NO_PROXY=* npx camoufox-js fetch
or:
npm_config_proxy= npm_config_https_proxy= npx camoufox-js fetch
5. Even better (fastest method)
Use curl multi-thread download manually:
First find URL:
DEBUG=camoufox* npx camoufox-js fetch
It will print something like:
Downloading from https://github.com/.../camoufox-mac.zip
Then download with:
curl -L -o camoufox.zip <URL>
Then extract to cache:
~/.cache/camoufox/
This is 10x faster.
6. If you’re installing Hermes agent
After fetch completes:
cd hermes-agent
npm install
npm run build
or:
pnpm install
pnpm dev
Hermes itself is small — Camoufox is the heavy part.
Expected normal speed
Healthy download should look like:
Downloading Camoufox... [======----------------------] 15% 20s
Not:
1% 50606s
So your connection is ~1000x slower than normal.
Quick diagnosis (run this)
curl -I https://github.com
If this takes >2s → your GitHub/CDN route is slow.
Most likely cause (ranked)
- Proxy still enabled (90%)
- VPN slow exit node
- GitHub CDN blocked/slow region
- Packet loss / DNS issue
- ISP throttling large downloads
Fastest solution
Use mobile hotspot (seriously):
switch wifi → phone hotspot
npx camoufox-js fetch
Often finishes in 30 seconds.