| name | playwright-cli |
| description | Runs repeatable browser flows with playwright-cli. Use when a task needs navigation, form entry, snapshots, debugging, or artifact capture in a real browser. |
Browser automation with playwright-cli
Use this skill for the workflow and decision points, not as a command encyclopedia. Prefer snapshots over screenshots for interaction, keep sessions short-lived unless persistence is required, and store artifacts only when the task asks for them.
Usage
Reach for this skill when real browser state matters and command-line HTTP calls or static HTML inspection are not enough.
When to use
| Situation | Primary commands |
|---|
| Start or resume a browser flow | open, goto, snapshot, close |
| Interact with page elements | click, fill, type, select, press |
| Inspect state | snapshot, eval, console, network |
| Capture artifacts | screenshot, pdf, tracing-start, tracing-stop |
| Manage state or tabs | state-save, state-load, tab-*, storage commands |
Workflow
- Open a session and navigate to the target URL.
- Take or inspect a snapshot to get stable element refs.
- Interact with the page using those refs.
- Re-snapshot after meaningful state changes.
- Capture screenshots, PDFs, traces, or video only when the task needs artifacts.
- Close the session and clean up persistent data if it was created just for the task.
Guardrails
- Prefer
snapshot for navigation and verification; screenshots are for deliverables.
- Use named sessions only when the flow spans multiple steps or needs persisted auth/state.
- Mock routes, tracing, and storage commands are opt-in; do not enable them without a task reason.
- If the global binary is missing, fall back to
npx playwright-cli ....
Examples
Basic interaction loop
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli click e3
playwright-cli fill e5 "user@example.com"
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli close
Capture a trace for debugging
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli tracing-start
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli tracing-stop
playwright-cli close
Specific tasks
