Official agent skill

playwright-cli Browser Automation

by github in github/gh-aw

Drives a real browser from the command line with playwright-cli to open pages, interact, mock requests, save state and work with Playwright tests.

OfficialMITAuto-check passedTesting & QA

Install playwright-cli Browser Automation

skills CLI
$ npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill playwright-cli -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install github/gh-aw playwright-cli --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/github/gh-aw.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/playwright-cli .claude/skills/playwright-cli && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
playwright-cli
GitHub stars
5.3k
Used in
23 other repos
Token cost
~2.8k tokens
SKILL.md length
270 words
Files
11 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
52
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Drives a real browser from the command line with playwright-cli to open pages, interact, mock requests, save state and work with Playwright tests.

  • Automating a browser task from the command line
  • SKILL.md covers Quick start, Commands, Raw output and Open parameters, plus 9 more sections
  • Calls npx, jq and npm; reaches playwright.dev
  • Mocking API responses while testing a web page

What it does

The skill documents the `playwright-cli` command set: opening a browser, navigating, keyboard and mouse input, screenshots, tabs, storage state, network routing and DevTools-style commands for console messages and requests. After each command the CLI returns a snapshot of the current browser state. The global `--raw` flag strips status and snapshot sections so output can be piped into other tools, and `--json` wraps replies as JSON.

Open parameters let you choose a browser such as Chrome or Firefox when creating a session. A `references/` folder has deeper guides on element attributes, Playwright tests, request mocking, running code, session management, spec-driven testing, storage state, test generation, tracing and video recording. Allowed tools are limited to shell commands for `playwright-cli`, `npx` and `npm`. The excerpt is cut off after the snapshots section.

When your agent uses it

  • Automating a browser task from the command line
  • Mocking API responses while testing a web page
  • Generating or running Playwright tests
  • Saving and reusing a logged-in browser state

Example prompts

  • “Open https://example.com/ with playwright-cli and take a screenshot of the page.”
  • “Mock the users API route to return a 404 and check how the page reacts.”
  • “Save the login state to auth.json and reuse it in a second session.”

Requirements

  • The `playwright-cli` tool, run through npm or npx
  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Bash(playwright-cli:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(npm:*)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit eb63040. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Bash(playwright-cli:*)
    • Bash(npx:*)
    • Bash(npm:*)

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • npx
    • jq
    • npm

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • playwright.dev

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

playwright-cli Browser Automation loads about 2.8k tokens when it runs, and up to ~14k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 23 tokens; SKILL.md has 270 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~23
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.8k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~14k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from github/gh-aw at commit eb63040, republished under its MIT licence (© github). 270 words, ~2,816 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/playwright-cli/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 10 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
playwright-cli
description
Automate browser interactions, test web pages and work with Playwright tests.
allowed-tools
Bash(playwright-cli:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(npm:*)

Browser Automation with playwright-cli

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

Core
bash
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
bash
playwright-cli go-back
playwright-cli go-forward
playwright-cli reload
Keyboard
bash
playwright-cli press Enter
playwright-cli press ArrowDown
playwright-cli keydown Shift
playwright-cli keyup Shift
Mouse
bash
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
bash
playwright-cli screenshot
playwright-cli screenshot e5
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=page.png
playwright-cli pdf --filename=page.pdf
Tabs
bash
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
bash
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
bash
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
bash
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

# 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.

bash
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

bash
playwright-cli list --json

Open parameters

bash
# 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

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

# 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.

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 requests
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

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":

bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli show --annotate

Specific tasks

© github, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 10 other files (references) in .claude/skills/playwright-cli of github/gh-aw.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/element-attributes.md
  • references/playwright-tests.md
  • references/request-mocking.md
  • references/running-code.md
  • references/session-management.md
  • references/spec-driven-testing.md
  • references/storage-state.md
  • references/test-generation.md
  • references/tracing.md
  • references/video-recording.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit eb63040

Used in 23 other repositories

We found 25 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 23 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in github/gh-aw, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

playwright-cli Browser Automation next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

playwright-cli Browser Automation compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
playwright-cli Browser Automation this skillgithub/gh-aw5.3k23 repos~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Test Electron AppPostHog/code179—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
E2E Agent Browserjh941213/my-cc-harness126—~3.1kAutomated safety check: NotesNone
Test Electron AppPostHog/posthog-foss721—~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Open BrowserJasonHonKL/Openbrowser114—~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Playwright Testingchongdashu/vibejam-starter-pack149—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassNone

Similar skills

  • Test Electron App

    PostHog/code

    Official

    Drive the real running PostHog Electron app (live tRPC, workspace-server, real data) over CDP with agent-browser.

    179 GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed
  • E2E Agent Browser

    jh941213/my-cc-harness

    E2E test automation using agent-browser CLI. An agent skill from jh941213/my-cc-harness.

    126 GitHub stars~3.1k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check: notes
  • Test Electron App

    PostHog/posthog-foss

    Official

    Drive the real running PostHog Electron app (live tRPC, workspace-server, real data) over CDP with agent-browser.

    721 GitHub stars~3k tokensUpdated today
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed
  • Open Browser

    JasonHonKL/Openbrowser

    A skill your agent uses whenever the task involves browsing web pages, extracting page content, clicking forms, or completing web workflows.

    114 GitHub stars~1.6k tokensUpdated 5 mo ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed
  • Playwright Testing

    chongdashu/vibejam-starter-pack

    Plan, implement, and debug frontend tests: unit/integration/E2E/visual/a11y.

    149 GitHub stars~2.2k tokensUpdated 5 mo ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed
  • Playwright Expert

    cin12211/orca-q

    Playwright E2E testing expert for browser automation, cross-browser testing, visual regression, network interception, and CI integration.

    223 GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 15 days ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed

More from github/gh-aw

All 52 skills in this repo
  • Official

    Designs and verifies a deterministic grader that measures whether a GitHub Agentic Workflow run reached its real-world or repository outcome.

    5.3k GitHub stars~6.8k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Scaffolds, edits, reloads and debugs a canvas extension that the GitHub Copilot CLI can open in its side panel.

    5.3k GitHub stars~3.7k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Drives an open pull request to merge-ready from inside a GitHub Copilot cloud agent, resolving review threads and local checks concurrently, without merging or retriggering CI.

    5.3k GitHub stars~3.8k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check: warnings
  • Official

    Bumps gh-aw's pinned gh-aw-firewall version, rebuilds generated artifacts, and flags upstream spec or schema changes that need follow-up work.

    5.3k GitHub stars~899 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Guide to the console struct tag system in gh-aw: headers, titles, number and cost formats, omitempty, and how structs, slices and maps render in the terminal.

    5.3k GitHub stars~736 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Guides an agent through collecting, planning, addressing and answering pull request review feedback, accepting only comments from Copilot, GitHub Actions and team members.

    5.3k GitHub stars~1.5k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

Works with

Questions about playwright-cli Browser Automation

What does playwright-cli Browser Automation do?

Drives a real browser from the command line with playwright-cli to open pages, interact, mock requests, save state and work with Playwright tests. The skill documents the `playwright-cli` command set: opening a browser, navigating, keyboard and mouse input, screenshots, tabs, storage state, network routing and DevTools-style commands for console messages and requests. After each command the CLI returns a snapshot of the current browser state.

When should I use playwright-cli Browser Automation?

playwright-cli Browser Automation fits situations like: automating a browser task from the command line; mocking API responses while testing a web page; generating or running Playwright tests; saving and reusing a logged-in browser state.

How do I install playwright-cli Browser Automation in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill playwright-cli -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/playwright-cli in github/gh-aw) into .claude/skills/playwright-cli in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install playwright-cli Browser Automation in Codex?

Run `npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill playwright-cli -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/playwright-cli in github/gh-aw) into .agents/skills/playwright-cli in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use playwright-cli Browser Automation in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill playwright-cli -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/playwright-cli, .gemini/skills/playwright-cli, .github/skills/playwright-cli and .opencode/skills/playwright-cli in your project.

What does playwright-cli Browser Automation need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, playwright-cli Browser Automation needs the command-line tools its instructions call (npx, jq and npm). Our summary lists: The `playwright-cli` tool, run through npm or npx. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Bash(playwright-cli:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(npm:*).

Does playwright-cli Browser Automation access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: playwright.dev; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is playwright-cli Browser Automation safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does playwright-cli Browser Automation use?

playwright-cli Browser Automation is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does playwright-cli Browser Automation use?

About 2.8k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 11k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 12k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to playwright-cli Browser Automation?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with playwright-cli Browser Automation: Test Electron App (PostHog/code, 179 stars), E2E Agent Browser (jh941213/my-cc-harness, 126 stars), Test Electron App (PostHog/posthog-foss, 721 stars) and Open Browser (JasonHonKL/Openbrowser, 114 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains playwright-cli Browser Automation?

github (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in github/gh-aw, which has 5,350 GitHub stars. The repository holds 52 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: github/gh-aw on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.