Playwright CLI Skill

Drive a real browser from the terminal using playwright-cli . Prefer the bundled wrapper script so the CLI works even when it is not globally installed. Treat this skill as CLI-first automation. Do not pivot to @playwright/test unless the user explicitly asks for test files.

Prerequisite check (required)

Before proposing commands, check whether npx is available (the wrapper depends on it):

command -v npx >/dev/null 2>&1

If it is not available, pause and ask the user to install Node.js/npm (which provides npx ). Provide these steps verbatim:

Verify Node/npm are installed

node --version npm --version

If missing, install Node.js/npm, then:

npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest playwright-cli --help

Once npx is present, proceed with the wrapper script. A global install of playwright-cli is optional.

Scripts and references are located under {baseDir}/ .

Quick start

Use the wrapper script:

"$PWCLI" open https://playwright.dev --headed "$PWCLI" snapshot "$PWCLI" click e15 "$PWCLI" type "Playwright" "$PWCLI" press Enter "$PWCLI" screenshot

If the user prefers a global install, this is also valid:

npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest playwright-cli --help

Core workflow

• Open the page.

• Snapshot to get stable element refs.

• Interact using refs from the latest snapshot.

• Re-snapshot after navigation or significant DOM changes.

• Capture artifacts (screenshot, pdf, traces) when useful.

Minimal loop:

"$PWCLI" open https://example.com "$PWCLI" snapshot "$PWCLI" click e3 "$PWCLI" snapshot

When to snapshot again

Snapshot again after:

• navigation

• clicking elements that change the UI substantially

• opening/closing modals or menus

• tab switches

Refs can go stale. When a command fails due to a missing ref, snapshot again.

Recommended patterns

Form fill and submit

"$PWCLI" open https://example.com/form "$PWCLI" snapshot "$PWCLI" fill e1 "user@example.com" "$PWCLI" fill e2 "password123" "$PWCLI" click e3 "$PWCLI" snapshot

Debug a UI flow with traces

"$PWCLI" open https://example.com --headed "$PWCLI" tracing-start

...interactions...

"$PWCLI" tracing-stop

Multi-tab work

"$PWCLI" tab-new https://example.com "$PWCLI" tab-list "$PWCLI" tab-select 0 "$PWCLI" snapshot

Wrapper script

The wrapper script uses npx --package @playwright/cli playwright-cli so the CLI can run without a global install:

"$PWCLI" --help

Prefer the wrapper unless the repository already standardizes on a global install.

References

Open only what you need:

• CLI command reference: references/cli.md

• Practical workflows and troubleshooting: references/workflows.md

Guardrails

• Always snapshot before referencing element ids like e12 .

• Re-snapshot when refs seem stale.

• Prefer explicit commands over eval and run-code unless needed.

• When you do not have a fresh snapshot, use placeholder refs like eX and say why; do not bypass refs with run-code .

• Use --headed when a visual check will help.

• When capturing artifacts in this repo, use output/playwright/ and avoid introducing new top-level artifact folders.

• Default to CLI commands and workflows, not Playwright test specs.

When to Use

When NOT to Use