playwright-cli

name	playwright-cli
description	Use when the user needs to automate browser interactions — navigating websites, filling forms, taking screenshots, testing web applications, or extracting information from web pages. Also use for visual verification of UI changes, interactive debugging of web apps, or any task requiring a real browser.
allowed-tools	Bash(playwright-cli:*)

Browser Automation with playwright-cli

Prerequisites — Dev Server

Before using playwright-cli for testing the ArchCanvas app, you MUST ensure the dev server is running:

npm run dev

Do NOT run npm run dev directly — it spawns a new Vite process every time and causes OOM when multiple agents are working.

When done with browser testing, do NOT stop the dev server — other agents may be using it.

Quick start

# open new browser
playwright-cli open
# navigate to a page
playwright-cli goto https://playwright.dev
# interact with the page using refs from the snapshot
playwright-cli click e15
playwright-cli type "page.click"
playwright-cli press Enter
# take a screenshot
playwright-cli screenshot
# close the browser
playwright-cli close

Commands

Core

playwright-cli open
# open and navigate right away
playwright-cli open https://example.com/
playwright-cli goto https://playwright.dev
playwright-cli type "search query"
playwright-cli click e3
playwright-cli dblclick e7
playwright-cli fill e5 "[e-mail]"
playwright-cli drag e2 e8
playwright-cli hover e4
playwright-cli select e9 "option-value"
playwright-cli upload ./document.pdf
playwright-cli check e12
playwright-cli uncheck e12
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli snapshot --filename=after-click.yaml
playwright-cli eval "document.title"
playwright-cli eval "el => el.textContent" e5
playwright-cli dialog-accept
playwright-cli dialog-accept "confirmation text"
playwright-cli dialog-dismiss
playwright-cli resize 1920 1080
playwright-cli close

Navigation

playwright-cli go-back
playwright-cli go-forward
playwright-cli reload

Keyboard

playwright-cli press Enter
playwright-cli press ArrowDown
playwright-cli keydown Shift
playwright-cli keyup Shift

Mouse

playwright-cli mousemove 150 300
playwright-cli mousedown
playwright-cli mousedown right
playwright-cli mouseup
playwright-cli mouseup right
playwright-cli mousewheel 0 100

Save as

playwright-cli screenshot
playwright-cli screenshot e5
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=page.png
playwright-cli pdf --filename=page.pdf

Tabs

playwright-cli tab-list
playwright-cli tab-new
playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/page
playwright-cli tab-close
playwright-cli tab-close 2
playwright-cli tab-select 0

Storage

playwright-cli state-save
playwright-cli state-save auth.json
playwright-cli state-load auth.json

# Cookies
playwright-cli cookie-list
playwright-cli cookie-list --domain=example.com
playwright-cli cookie-get session_id
playwright-cli cookie-set session_id abc123
playwright-cli cookie-set session_id abc123 --domain=example.com --httpOnly --secure
playwright-cli cookie-delete session_id
playwright-cli cookie-clear

# LocalStorage
playwright-cli localstorage-list
playwright-cli localstorage-get theme
playwright-cli localstorage-set theme dark
playwright-cli localstorage-delete theme
playwright-cli localstorage-clear

# SessionStorage
playwright-cli sessionstorage-list
playwright-cli sessionstorage-get step
playwright-cli sessionstorage-set step 3
playwright-cli sessionstorage-delete step
playwright-cli sessionstorage-clear

Network

playwright-cli route "**/*.jpg" --status=404
playwright-cli route "https://api.example.com/**" --body='{"mock": true}'
playwright-cli route-list
playwright-cli unroute "**/*.jpg"
playwright-cli unroute

DevTools

playwright-cli console
playwright-cli console warning
playwright-cli network
playwright-cli run-code "async page => await page.context().grantPermissions(['geolocation'])"
playwright-cli tracing-start
playwright-cli tracing-stop
playwright-cli video-start
playwright-cli video-stop video.webm

Install

playwright-cli install --skills
playwright-cli install-browser

Configuration

# Use specific browser when creating session
playwright-cli open --browser=chrome
playwright-cli open --browser=firefox
playwright-cli open --browser=webkit
playwright-cli open --browser=msedge
# Connect to browser via extension
playwright-cli open --extension

# Use persistent profile (by default profile is in-memory)
playwright-cli open --persistent
# Use persistent profile with custom directory
playwright-cli open --profile=/path/to/profile

# Start with config file
playwright-cli open --config=my-config.json

# Close the browser
playwright-cli close
# Delete user data for the default session
playwright-cli delete-data

Browser Sessions

# create new browser session named "mysession" with persistent profile
playwright-cli -s=mysession open example.com --persistent
# same with manually specified profile directory (use when requested explicitly)
playwright-cli -s=mysession open example.com --profile=/path/to/profile
playwright-cli -s=mysession click e6
playwright-cli -s=mysession close  # stop a named browser
playwright-cli -s=mysession delete-data  # delete user data for persistent session

playwright-cli list
# Close all browsers
playwright-cli close-all
# Forcefully kill all browser processes
playwright-cli kill-all

ArchCanvas-Specific Patterns

Opening the App

npm run dev
playwright-cli open https://localhost:5173  # Open ArchCanvas
playwright-cli snapshot                     # See the canvas and UI elements

Key DOM Selectors

The app uses these data-testid attributes:

• [data-testid="canvas"] — The main React Flow canvas area
• [data-testid="drop-zone-overlay"] — File drop overlay (visible during drag)
• .react-flow__node — All rendered architecture nodes
• .react-flow__edge — All rendered edges
• .react-flow__renderer — The React Flow render container

Common ArchCanvas Workflows

Verify canvas loads with nodes:

playwright-cli open https://localhost:5173
playwright-cli snapshot
# Look for .react-flow__node elements in the snapshot
playwright-cli eval "document.querySelectorAll('.react-flow__node').length"

Interact with toolbar:

playwright-cli snapshot
# Find toolbar buttons by their refs in the snapshot
playwright-cli click e<ref>   # e.g., the "Add Node" button
playwright-cli snapshot       # Verify the result

Test keyboard shortcuts:

playwright-cli press Control+s   # Save
playwright-cli press Control+z   # Undo
playwright-cli press Control+k   # Command palette
playwright-cli press Escape      # Close dialogs/overlays
playwright-cli press Delete      # Delete selected node

Test file drop (synthetic):

playwright-cli run-code "async page => {
  const dt = new DataTransfer();
  dt.items.add(new File(['test'], 'test.archc'));
  const canvas = await page.waitForSelector('[data-testid=\"canvas\"]');
  await canvas.dispatchEvent('dragenter', { dataTransfer: dt });
}"
playwright-cli snapshot   # Check for drop overlay

E2E Test Files

Playwright e2e tests live in test/e2e/ and use .spec.ts extension:

test/e2e/
  feature-371-drag-drop.spec.ts   # Existing: file drag & drop

Config: playwright.config.ts — runs npm run build && npx vite preview --port 5173, uses HTTPS, single Chromium worker, serial execution (fullyParallel: false).

To run existing e2e tests:

npx playwright test                           # all e2e tests
npx playwright test test/e2e/some-test.spec.ts  # specific test
npx playwright test --trace on                # with trace on failure

Gotchas

• The app uses HTTPS locally (https://localhost:5173), not HTTP
• React Flow nodes render asynchronously — always wait after navigation: await page.waitForTimeout(1000) or await page.waitForSelector('.react-flow__node')
• The canvas uses SVG and absolute-positioned divs — standard text selectors won't find node labels. Use page.evaluate() for complex DOM queries.
• File System Access API dialogs (open/save) can't be automated by Playwright. Test file operations via drag-and-drop or programmatic store manipulation.

Specific tasks

• Request mocking references/request-mocking.md
• Running Playwright code references/running-code.md
• Browser session management references/session-management.md
• Storage state (cookies, localStorage) references/storage-state.md
• Test generation references/test-generation.md
• Tracing references/tracing.md
• Video recording references/video-recording.md