playwright-cli

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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

# --submit presses Enter after filling the element

playwright-cli fill e5 "user@example.com"  --submit

playwright-cli drag e2 e8

# drop files or data onto an element (from outside the page)

playwright-cli drop e4 --path=./image.png

playwright-cli drop e4 --data="text/plain=hello world"

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 eval "document.title"

playwright-cli eval "el => el.textContent" e5

# get element id, class, or any attribute not visible in the snapshot

playwright-cli eval "el => el.id" e5

playwright-cli eval "el => el.getAttribute('data-testid')" 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 requests

playwright-cli request 5

playwright-cli run-code "async page => await page.context().grantPermissions(['geolocation'])"

playwright-cli run-code --filename=script.js

playwright-cli tracing-start

playwright-cli tracing-stop

playwright-cli video-start video.webm

playwright-cli video-chapter "Chapter Title" --description="Details" --duration=2000

playwright-cli video-stop

# annotate each subsequent action (click, type, ...) with a callout naming the action and highlighting the target

playwright-cli video-show-actions --duration=600 --position=top-right

playwright-cli video-hide-actions

# launch the dashboard for UI review / design feedback — user annotates the page, you receive the annotated screenshot, snapshot, and notes

playwright-cli show --annotate

# generate a Playwright locator for an element from its ref or selector

playwright-cli generate-locator e5 --raw

# show a persistent highlight overlay for an element, optionally with a custom style

playwright-cli highlight e5

playwright-cli highlight e5 --style="outline: 3px dashed red"

# hide a single element highlight, or all page highlights when no target is given

playwright-cli highlight e5 --hide

playwright-cli highlight --hide

Raw output

The global --raw option strips page status, generated code, and snapshot sections from the output, returning only the result value. Use it to pipe command output into other tools. Commands that don't produce output return nothing.

playwright-cli --raw eval "JSON.stringify(performance.timing)" | jq '.loadEventEnd - .navigationStart'

playwright-cli --raw eval "JSON.stringify([...document.querySelectorAll('a')].map(a => a.href))" > links.json

playwright-cli --raw snapshot > before.yml

playwright-cli click e5

playwright-cli --raw snapshot > after.yml

diff before.yml after.yml

TOKEN=$(playwright-cli --raw cookie-get session_id)

playwright-cli --raw localstorage-get theme

For structured output wrapping every reply as JSON, pass --json

playwright-cli list --json

Open parameters

# 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

# 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

# Connect to browser via Playwright Extension

playwright-cli attach --extension=chrome

# Connect to a running Chrome or Edge by channel name

playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome

playwright-cli attach --cdp=msedge

# Connect to a running browser via CDP endpoint

playwright-cli attach --cdp=http://localhost:9222

# Start with config file

playwright-cli open --config=my-config.json

# Close the browser

playwright-cli close

# Detach from an attached browser (leaves the external browser running)

playwright-cli -s=msedge detach

# Delete user data for the default session

playwright-cli delete-data

URLs with & on Windows

On Windows, cmd.exe and PowerShell treat & as a command separator, so URLs with multiple query parameters get truncated before playwright-cli runs. Escape & with ^& in cmd.exe, or use --% in PowerShell:

playwright-cli goto "https://example.com/?a=1^&b=2"

playwright-cli --% goto "https://example.com/?a=1&b=2"

Snapshots

After each command, playwright-cli provides a snapshot of the current browser state.

> playwright-cli goto https://example.com

### Page

- Page URL: https://example.com/

- Page Title: Example Domain

### Snapshot

[Snapshot](.playwright-cli/page-2026-02-14T19-22-42-679Z.yml)

You can also take a snapshot on demand using playwright-cli snapshot command. All the options below can be combined as needed.

# default - save to a file with timestamp-based name

playwright-cli snapshot

# save to file, use when snapshot is a part of the workflow result

playwright-cli snapshot --filename=after-click.yaml

# snapshot an element instead of the whole page

playwright-cli snapshot "#main"

# limit snapshot depth for efficiency, take a partial snapshot afterwards

playwright-cli snapshot --depth=4

playwright-cli snapshot e34

# include each element's bounding box as [box=x,y,width,height]

playwright-cli snapshot --boxes

Targeting elements

By default, use refs from the snapshot to interact with page elements.

# get snapshot with refs

playwright-cli snapshot

# interact using a ref

playwright-cli click e15

You can also use css selectors or Playwright locators.

# css selector

playwright-cli click "#main > button.submit"

# role locator

playwright-cli click "getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' })"

# test id

playwright-cli click "getByTestId('submit-button')"

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

Installation

If global playwright-cli command is not available, try a local version via npx playwright-cli:

npx --no-install playwright-cli --version

When local version is available, use npx playwright-cli in all commands. Otherwise, install playwright-cli as a global command:

npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest

Example: Form submission

playwright-cli open https://example.com/form

playwright-cli snapshot

playwright-cli fill e1 "user@example.com"

playwright-cli fill e2 "password123"

playwright-cli click e3

playwright-cli snapshot

playwright-cli close

Example: Multi-tab workflow

playwright-cli open https://example.com

playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/other

playwright-cli tab-list

playwright-cli tab-select 0

playwright-cli snapshot

playwright-cli close

Example: Debugging with DevTools

playwright-cli open https://example.com

playwright-cli click e4

playwright-cli fill e7 "test"

playwright-cli console

playwright-cli requests

playwright-cli close

playwright-cli open https://example.com

playwright-cli tracing-start

playwright-cli click e4

playwright-cli fill e7 "test"

playwright-cli tracing-stop

playwright-cli close

Example: Interactive session

Ask the user for UI review or design feedback. The user draws boxes on the live page and types comments; you receive the annotated screenshot, the snapshot of the marked region, and the user's notes. Use this whenever the user asks for "UI review", "design feedback", or to "ask the user what they think / want / mean":

playwright-cli open https://example.com

playwright-cli show --annotate

Specific tasks

• Running and Debugging Playwright tests references/playwright-tests.md

• Request mocking references/request-mocking.md

• Running Playwright code references/running-code.md

• Browser session management references/session-management.md

• Spec-driven testing (plan / generate / heal) references/spec-driven-testing.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

• Inspecting element attributes references/element-attributes.md