browser

name	browser
description	Headless browser automation via playwright-cli for testing, screenshots, scraping, and parallel sessions. Use for UI testing, web scraping, screenshot capture, or any browser-based workflow.
argument-hint	[url or task description]
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read"]

Purpose

Automate browsers using playwright-cli, a token-efficient CLI for Playwright. Runs headless by default, supports parallel sessions via named sessions (-s=), and persistent profiles for cookies/state.

Prerequisites

• playwright-cli must be installed and available in PATH

Variables

HEADED: false # Show browser window. Options: true, false VISION: false # Return screenshots as images in context (higher token cost) VIEWPORT_SIZE: 1440x900 # Browser viewport dimensions (WxH) SCREENSHOTS_DIR: ./screenshots # Where screenshots are saved

Workflow

1. Open Session

   • IF: which playwright-cli fails → report "playwright-cli not found. Install it and ensure it's in PATH." and stop
   • Derive a short kebab-case session name from the task
   • Open with --persistent to preserve cookies/localStorage across commands
   • IF: HEADED is true → add --headed flag
   • IF: VISION is true → prefix with PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_CAPS=vision
   • Example: "test checkout on mystore.com" → -s=mystore-checkout
   • Tool: Bash

     PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=<VIEWPORT_SIZE> playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent
     

2. Snapshot Page

   • Capture element references to identify interactive elements
   • Returns refs (e.g., e12, e45) for click, fill, etc.
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout snapshot → element tree with refs
   • Tool: Bash playwright-cli -s=<session-name> snapshot

3. Interact with Elements

   • Use refs from snapshot to click, fill, type, select, hover
   • For full command list: see ./reference/commands.md
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout click e12 → clicks element
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout fill e15 "[e-mail]" → fills input
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout press Enter → presses key
   • Navigate: goto <url>, go-back, go-forward, reload
   • Tool: Bash playwright-cli -s=<session-name> <command> <args>

4. Take Screenshots

   • Capture current page state as PNG
   • IF: specific filename needed → use --filename=<path>
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout screenshot --filename=<SCREENSHOTS_DIR>/checkout-step1.png
   • Tool: Bash playwright-cli -s=<session-name> screenshot [--filename=<SCREENSHOTS_DIR>/<name>.png]

5. Close Session

   • ALWAYS close the session when done — this is not optional
   • Example: playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout close
   • To close ALL sessions: playwright-cli close-all
   • Tool: Bash playwright-cli -s=<session-name> close

Works well with

browser is the core capability others build on; it runs standalone and these degrade gracefully if absent.

• The browser family — browser-workflow (runs saved workflows through it), browser-review (fans out parallel QA), and browser-microscope (layout/DOM forensics) all sit on top of this skill. The browser-operator and browser-qa agents drive it.