Playwright

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Documentation | API reference

Playwright is a framework for web automation and testing. It drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API — in your tests, in your scripts, and as a tool for AI agents.

Get Started

Choose the path that fits your workflow:

| | Best for | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Playwright Test | End-to-end testing | npm init playwright@latest |
| Playwright CLI | Coding agents (Claude Code, Copilot) | npm i -g @playwright/cli@latest |
| Playwright MCP | AI agents and LLM-driven automation | npx @playwright/mcp@latest |
| Playwright Library | Browser automation scripts | npm i playwright |
| VS Code Extension | Test authoring and debugging in VS Code | Install from Marketplace |

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Playwright Test

Playwright Test is a full-featured test runner built for end-to-end testing. It runs tests across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with full browser isolation, auto-waiting, and web-first assertions.

Install

npm init playwright@latest

Or add manually:

npm i -D @playwright/test
npx playwright install

Write a test

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
test('has title', async ({ page }) => {

  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Playwright/);

});
test('get started link', async ({ page }) => {

  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

  await page.getByRole('link', { name: 'Get started' }).click();

  await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: 'Installation' })).toBeVisible();

});

Run tests

npx playwright test

Tests run in parallel across all configured browsers, in headless mode by default. Each test gets a fresh browser context — full isolation with near-zero overhead.

Key capabilities

Auto-wait and web-first assertions. No artificial timeouts. Playwright waits for elements to be actionable, and assertions automatically retry until conditions are met.

Locators. Find elements with resilient locators that mirror how users see the page:

page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' })
page.getByLabel('Email')
page.getByPlaceholder('Search...')
page.getByTestId('login-form')

Test isolation. Each test runs in its own browser context — equivalent to a fresh browser profile. Save authentication state once and reuse it across tests:

// Save state after login
await page.context().storageState({ path: 'auth.json' });
// Reuse in other tests

test.use({ storageState: 'auth.json' });

Tracing. Capture execution traces, screenshots, and videos on failure. Inspect every action, DOM snapshot, network request, and console message in the Trace Viewer:

// playwright.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  use: {
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
  },
});

npx playwright show-trace trace.zip

<!-- TODO: screenshot of trace viewer -->

Parallelism. Tests run in parallel by default across all configured browsers.

Full testing documentation

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Playwright CLI

Playwright CLI is a command-line interface for browser automation designed for coding agents. It's more token-efficient than MCP — commands avoid loading large tool schemas and accessibility trees into the model context.

Install

npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest

Optionally install skills for richer agent integration:

playwright-cli install --skills

Usage

Point your coding agent at a task:

Test the "add todo" flow on https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc using playwright-cli.
Take screenshots for all successful and failing scenarios.

Or run commands directly:

playwright-cli open https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc/ --headed
playwright-cli type "Buy groceries"
playwright-cli press Enter
playwright-cli screenshot

Session monitoring

Use playwright-cli show to open a visual dashboard with live screencast previews of all running browser sessions. Click any session to zoom in and take remote control.

playwright-cli show

<!-- TODO: screenshot of playwright-cli show dashboard -->

Full CLI documentation | GitHub

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Playwright MCP

The Playwright MCP server gives AI agents full browser control through the Model Context Protocol. Agents interact with pages using structured accessibility snapshots — no vision models or screenshots required.

Setup

Add to your MCP client (VS Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

One-click install for VS Code:

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add playwright npx @playwright/mcp@latest

How it works

Ask your AI assistant to interact with any web page:

Navigate to https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc and add a few todo items.

The agent sees the page as a structured accessibility tree:

- heading "todos" [level=1]
- textbox "What needs to be done?" [ref=e5]
- listitem:
  - checkbox "Toggle Todo" [ref=e10]
  - text: "Buy groceries"

It uses element refs like e5 and e10 to click, type, and interact — deterministically and without visual ambiguity. Tools cover navigation, form filling, screenshots, network mocking, storage management, and more.

Full MCP documentation | GitHub

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Playwright Library

Use playwright as a library for browser automation scripts — web scraping, PDF generation, screenshot capture, and any workflow that needs programmatic browser control without a test runner.

Install

npm i playwright

Examples

Take a screenshot:

import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch();

const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

await page.screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png' });

await browser.close();

Generate a PDF:

import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch();

const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

await page.pdf({ path: 'page.pdf', format: 'A4' });

await browser.close();

Emulate a mobile device:

import { chromium, devices } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch();

const context = await browser.newContext(devices['iPhone 15']);

const page = await context.newPage();

await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

await page.screenshot({ path: 'mobile.png' });

await browser.close();

Intercept network requests:

import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch();

const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.route('/.{png,jpg,jpeg}', route => route.abort());

await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

await browser.close();

Trace Viewer integration. Enable "Show Trace Viewer" in the sidebar to get a full execution trace after each test run — DOM snapshots, network requests, console logs, and screenshots at every step.

Documentation
API reference
MCP server
CLI for coding agents
VS Code extension
Contribution guide
Changelog

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