e2e-testing

name	e2e-testing
description	Playwright-based end-to-end testing workflow.
user-invocable	false
agent	testing-automation-engineer
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","Bash","Grep","Glob","Edit","Task","Skill"]
adr	adr/ADR-107-e2e-testing.md
routing	{"category":"testing","triggers":["playwright","E2E test","end-to-end","browser test","page object model","POM","test flakiness"],"not_for":"full test automation strategy including Vitest, coverage, and CI integration (use testing-automation-engineer agent) — this skill runs Playwright E2E tests","pairs_with":["testing-automation-engineer","typescript-frontend-engineer","test-driven-development"]}

E2E Testing Skill (Playwright)

Playwright-based E2E testing across four phases: Scaffold, Build, Run, Validate. Each phase produces a saved artifact and must pass its gate before the next phase begins.

Reference Loading Table

Signal	Load These Files	Why
async, Promise.all, race condition, waitForTimeout, fixture teardown	async.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
auth, login, storageState, OAuth, SSO, JWT, RBAC, multi-role, session expiry	auth.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
config, playwright.config.ts, POM, data-testid, CI/CD workflow	templates.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
error, timeout, tsc fail, locator, fill, missing JSON	errors.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
POM examples, waiting, multi-browser, shared auth session	playwright-patterns.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
Web3, MetaMask, wallet, addInitScript	wallet-testing.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
payment, financial, production skip, blockchain	financial-flows.md	Routes to the matching deep reference
flaky, intermittent, repeat-each, retries, quarantine	flakiness-triage.md	Routes to the matching deep reference

Instructions

PHASE 1: SCAFFOLD

Goal: Verify Playwright is installed, create the directory structure, and generate playwright.config.ts.

Actions:

1. Check if @playwright/test is installed: npx playwright --version. If not, run npm install -D @playwright/test and npx playwright install.
2. Create directory structure:

   tests/
     e2e/
       auth/
       features/
       api/
   pages/          <- POM classes live here
   artifacts/
     screenshots/
     traces/
     videos/
   

3. Write playwright.config.ts using the template in references/templates.md. The config bakes in failure diagnostics by default: screenshot: 'only-on-failure', trace: 'on-first-retry', and video: 'retain-on-failure' so that every failure produces actionable artifacts without manual setup. CI retries (retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0) absorb transient infrastructure flakiness without masking real bugs.
4. Confirm playwright.config.ts is valid TypeScript: npx tsc --noEmit. Run this deterministic check before any subjective assessment of the config -- compiler errors are facts, opinions are not.

Artifact: playwright.config.ts + tests/e2e/ directory structure.

Gate: playwright.config.ts exists AND tests/e2e/ directory exists. If either is missing, do not proceed to Phase 2 -- diagnose and fix.

See references/templates.md for the full playwright.config.ts template and multi-browser matrix rationale.

---

PHASE 2: BUILD

Goal: Write POM classes for target feature areas, then write spec files that use those POMs.

Every page or feature area gets a typed Page Object class. Spec files never contain inline locators -- all selectors live in the POM. This separation means a selector change is a one-line POM edit, not a grep-and-replace across dozens of specs.

Actions:

1. Identify the feature areas under test (auth, checkout, dashboard, etc.).
2. For each area, create a POM class in pages/ (see POM Pattern in references/templates.md). All locators must use data-testid attributes via page.getByTestId(). CSS selectors (page.locator('.btn-primary')) break silently when styles change. XPath breaks on DOM restructuring. Text matching (page.locator('text=Submit')) breaks on copy changes. data-testid is a testing contract that survives all three.
3. Write spec files in tests/e2e/<area>/ using the POMs.
4. Run npx tsc --noEmit to verify all files compile.
5. Fix any TypeScript errors before proceeding.

Artifact: tests/e2e/**/*.spec.ts files + pages/*.ts POM classes, all compiling cleanly.

Gate: At least one .spec.ts exists under tests/e2e/ AND npx tsc --noEmit exits 0. If compile fails, fix errors -- do not proceed to Phase 3 with broken TypeScript.

See references/templates.md for the POM Pattern, data-testid convention, and waiting/timing rules.

---

PHASE 3: RUN

Goal: Execute the test suite, capture the results JSON, and identify any failing or flaky tests.

Actions:

1. Ensure the application under test is running (or document the BASE_URL required).
2. Run the full suite with JSON reporter configured in playwright.config.ts:

   npx playwright test
   

3. If any tests fail, run them in isolation with --repeat-each=5 to distinguish flaky from consistently failing:

   npx playwright test tests/e2e/auth/login.spec.ts --repeat-each=5
   

4. Quarantine confirmed flaky tests with test.fixme(). Never delete a failing test -- deleted tests leave silent coverage gaps. Quarantined tests are visible debt with tracking references:

   test.fixme('flaky: login redirects intermittently', async ({ page }) => {
     // TODO: #123 -- investigate race condition with auth cookie
     ...
   });
   

5. Use test.skip() only for conditional environment guards (e.g., "skip on WebKit"), not for sweeping failures under the rug.

Artifact: playwright-results.json (presence is the gate -- pass rate is not).

Gate: playwright-results.json exists at the project root. The file must contain valid JSON. Pass rate does not block Phase 4 -- reporting on failures is Phase 4's job.

See references/templates.md for the full Flaky Test Quarantine Protocol.

---

PHASE 4: VALIDATE

Goal: Deterministic checks on test output, then structured report generation.

Actions:

1. Deterministic checks first -- run these before any LLM summary because compiler output and JSON parsing are facts, not opinions:
   • playwright-results.json exists and parses as valid JSON.
   • Extract counts: python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(open('playwright-results.json')); print(d.get('stats', d))"
   • Identify all unexpected (failed) and flaky result entries.
2. LLM triage (only after deterministic checks pass):
   • For each failed test, identify whether it is: (a) a broken assertion, (b) a selector mismatch, (c) a timing/async issue, or (d) an application bug.
   • Categorize flaky tests for quarantine vs. fix.
3. Write e2e-report.md using the report template in references/templates.md.

Artifact: e2e-report.md.

Gate: e2e-report.md exists. Skill is complete only when this file is written.

See references/templates.md for the e2e-report.md template and the GitHub Actions CI/CD workflow template.

---

Error Handling

See references/errors.md for the symptom/cause/fix matrix covering tsc failures, CI-only flakes, missing results JSON, locator timeouts, fill-vs-clear bugs, and DOM ordering issues.

---

References

Signal / Task Type	Load This Reference
async, Promise.all, race condition, waitForTimeout, fixture teardown	async.md
auth, login, storageState, OAuth, SSO, JWT, RBAC, multi-role, session expiry	auth.md
config, playwright.config.ts, POM, data-testid, CI/CD workflow	templates.md
error, timeout, tsc fail, locator, fill, missing JSON	errors.md
POM examples, waiting, multi-browser, shared auth session	playwright-patterns.md
Web3, MetaMask, wallet, addInitScript	wallet-testing.md
payment, financial, production skip, blockchain	financial-flows.md
flaky, intermittent, repeat-each, retries, quarantine	flakiness-triage.md

• ADR-107 -- Decision record for this skill
• Playwright docs -- Official API reference