playwright-cli

name	playwright-cli
description	Headless browser automation using Playwright CLI. Use when you need headless browsing, parallel browser sessions, UI testing, screenshots, web scraping, or browser automation that can run in the background. Keywords - playwright, headless, browser, test, screenshot, scrape, parallel.
allowed-tools	Bash

Playwright CLI

Purpose

Automate browsers using playwright-cli — a token-efficient CLI for Playwright. Runs headless by default, supports parallel sessions via named sessions (-s=), and doesn't load tool schemas into context.

Key Details

• Headless by default — pass --headed to open to see the browser
• Parallel sessions — use -s=<name> to run multiple independent browser instances
• Persistent profiles — cookies and storage state preserved between calls
• Token-efficient — CLI-based, no accessibility trees or tool schemas in context
• Vision mode (opt-in) — set PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_CAPS=vision to receive screenshots as image responses in context instead of just saving to disk

Sessions

Always use a named session. Derive a short, descriptive kebab-case name from the user's prompt. This gives each task a persistent browser profile (cookies, localStorage, history) that accumulates across calls.

# Derive session name from prompt context:
# "test the checkout flow on mystore.com" → -s=mystore-checkout
# "scrape pricing from competitor.com" → -s=competitor-pricing
# "UI test the login page" → -s=login-ui-test

playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout open https://mystore.com --persistent
playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout snapshot
playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout click e12

Managing sessions:

playwright-cli list                    # list all sessions
playwright-cli close-all               # close all sessions
playwright-cli -s=<name> close         # close specific session
playwright-cli -s=<name> delete-data   # wipe session profile

Quick Reference

Core: open [url], goto <url>, click <ref>, fill <ref> <text>, type <text>, snapshot, screenshot [ref], close
Navigate: go-back, go-forward, reload
Keyboard: press <key>, keydown <key>, keyup <key>
Mouse: mousemove <x> <y>, mousedown, mouseup, mousewheel <dx> <dy>
Tabs: tab-list, tab-new [url], tab-close [index], tab-select <index>
Save: screenshot [ref], pdf, screenshot --filename=f
Storage: state-save, state-load, cookie-*, localstorage-*, sessionstorage-*
Network: route <pattern>, route-list, unroute, network
DevTools: console, run-code <code>, tracing-start/stop, video-start/stop
Sessions: -s=<name> <cmd>, list, close-all, kill-all
Config: open --headed, open --browser=chrome, resize <w> <h>

Workflow

1. Derive a session name from the user's prompt and open with --persistent to preserve cookies/state. Always set the viewport via env var at launch:

PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent
# or headed:
PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent --headed
# or with vision (screenshots returned as image responses in context):
PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_CAPS=vision playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent

2. Get element references via snapshot:

playwright-cli -s=<session-name> snapshot

3. Interact using refs from snapshot:

playwright-cli -s=<session-name> click <ref>
playwright-cli -s=<session-name> fill <ref> "text"
playwright-cli -s=<session-name> type "text"
playwright-cli -s=<session-name> press Enter

4. Capture results:

playwright-cli -s=<session-name> screenshot
playwright-cli -s=<session-name> screenshot --filename=output.png

5. Always close the session when done. This is not optional — close the named session after finishing your task:

playwright-cli -s=<session-name> close

Configuration

If a playwright-cli.json exists in the working directory, use it automatically. Otherwise, skip configuration — the env var and CLI defaults are sufficient.

{
  "browser": {
    "browserName": "chromium",
    "launchOptions": { "headless": true },
    "contextOptions": { "viewport": { "width": 1440, "height": 900 } }
  },
  "outputDir": "./screenshots"
}

Full Help

Run playwright-cli --help or playwright-cli --help <command> for detailed command usage.