---
name: playwright-cli
description: "Automate browser interactions and inspect or test web pages through Playwright commands. Use when the task requires deterministic browser navigation, screenshots, selectors, or Playwright-test work. For a full local-webapp test workflow, use $webapp-testing."
allowed-tools: Bash(playwright-cli:*) Bash(npx:*) Bash(npm:*)
skill-dependencies: [webapp-testing]
---

# Browser Automation with playwright-cli

Use this skill for ad-hoc browser navigation, inspection, and interaction using
CLI snapshots. When a local application needs managed server startup, custom
Python assertions, or a repeatable Python test script, use `$webapp-testing`.

## Quick start

```bash
# 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 (rarely used, as snapshot is more common)
playwright-cli screenshot
# close the browser
playwright-cli close
```

## Commands

See [`references/commands.md`](references/commands.md) for the complete catalogue of all commands organized by category: Core, Navigation, Keyboard, Mouse, Save as, Tabs, Storage (Cookies/LocalStorage/SessionStorage), Network, DevTools, Open Parameters, Browser Sessions, and Raw Output Mode.

## Snapshots

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

```bash
> 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.

```bash
# 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
```

## Targeting elements

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

```bash
# get snapshot with refs
playwright-cli snapshot

# interact using a ref
playwright-cli click e15
```

You can also use css selectors or Playwright locators.

```bash
# 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

```bash
# 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`:

```bash
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:

```bash
npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest
```

## Example: Form submission

```bash
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

```bash
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

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli click e4
playwright-cli fill e7 "test"
playwright-cli console
playwright-cli network
playwright-cli close
```

```bash
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
```

## Specific tasks

* **Running and Debugging Playwright tests** [references/playwright-tests.md](references/playwright-tests.md)
* **Request mocking** [references/request-mocking.md](references/request-mocking.md)
* **Running Playwright code** [references/running-code.md](references/running-code.md)
* **Browser session management** [references/session-management.md](references/session-management.md)
* **Storage state (cookies, localStorage)** [references/storage-state.md](references/storage-state.md)
* **Test generation** [references/test-generation.md](references/test-generation.md)
* **Tracing** [references/tracing.md](references/tracing.md)
* **Video recording** [references/video-recording.md](references/video-recording.md)
* **Inspecting element attributes** [references/element-attributes.md](references/element-attributes.md)