pilot_find
Find elements by visible text, label, placeholder, or ARIA role to get a reference for interaction, without running a full page snapshot.
Instructions
Find an element by visible text, label, placeholder, or role — without running a full snapshot. Use when you know what you want to click or fill but don't need to see the entire page tree. Returns a @eN ref immediately usable by pilot_click, pilot_fill, pilot_hover, and other interaction tools. Saves tokens compared to pilot_snapshot when you only need one element.
Parameters:
text: Visible text content of the element (e.g., "Sign in", "Submit")
label: ARIA label or associated text (e.g., "Email address", "Password")
placeholder: Input placeholder text (e.g., "Search...", "Enter email")
role: ARIA role to match (e.g., "button", "link", "textbox") — combine with text for precision
exact: Set to true for exact text/label match (default: false, substring match)
Returns: A @eN ref for the found element and a description of what was found.
Errors:
"Element not found": No element matched the criteria. Verify the text/label or run pilot_snapshot to inspect the page.
"Multiple elements found": More than one element matched. Add role or use exact=true to narrow it down.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| text | No | Visible text content to find | |
| label | No | ARIA label or <label> text | |
| placeholder | No | Input placeholder text | |
| role | No | ARIA role (e.g., "button", "link", "textbox") | |
| exact | No | Exact match (default: false = substring) |