Glossary

Playwright · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

Alphabetical glossary of core Playwright terms for browser automation, locators, fixtures, and end-to-end testing.

🔧 Core concepts

Term	Definition
Action	An interaction such as click, fill, or press performed on a locator.
Assertion	A check that verifies page state, often auto-retrying with `expect`.
Auto-waiting	Playwright’s habit of waiting for elements to be actionable before acting.
Browser	A launched browser type instance such as Chromium, Firefox, or WebKit.
BrowserContext	An isolated browser session with its own cookies, storage, and cache.
Codegen	The recorder that generates Playwright scripts from manual interactions.
Expect	Playwright’s assertion API that retries until timeout.
Fixture	Reusable test setup/teardown provided by the test runner (e.g. `page`).
Frame	A nested browsing context inside a page, such as an iframe.
Headless	Running a browser without a visible UI window.
Locator	A lazy, strict query describing how to find element(s) on a page.
Network interception	Mocking or observing HTTP requests via route handlers.
Page	A single tab/document you navigate and automate.
Page Object	A class that encapsulates selectors and actions for a UI area.
Parallelism	Running tests concurrently across workers for speed.
Playwright Test	The built-in test runner (`@playwright/test`) with projects and reporters.
Project	A named configuration slice (browser, device, or dependency set).
Reporter	A plugin that formats and outputs test results.
Screenshot	A captured image of a page or element for debugging or visual checks.
Selector engine	The matching strategy behind locators (role, text, CSS, XPath, etc.).
Storage state	Saved cookies/localStorage used to reuse authenticated sessions.
Timeout	The maximum wait before an action or assertion fails.
Trace	A detailed recording of actions, DOM snapshots, and network for debugging.
Video	An optional recording of the test browser session.
Worker	A parallel process that executes a subset of tests.

💡 Examples

Locator and assertion:

import { test, expect } from "@playwright/test";

test("login", async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto("/login");
  await page.getByLabel("Email").fill("a@b.com");
  await page.getByRole("button", { name: "Sign in" }).click();
  await expect(page.getByText("Dashboard")).toBeVisible();
});

Network mock:

await page.route("**/api/user", async (route) => {
  await route.fulfill({
    status: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ name: "Ada" }),
  });
});

Page object sketch:

class LoginPage {
  constructor(private page: Page) {}
  async login(email: string, password: string) {
    await this.page.getByLabel("Email").fill(email);
    await this.page.getByLabel("Password").fill(password);
    await this.page.getByRole("button", { name: "Sign in" }).click();
  }
}

⚠️ Pitfalls

Confusing locator (lazy, re-querying) with a one-shot ElementHandle.
Mixing page and context — auth/storage lives on the context.
Treating CSS selectors as first choice when role/text locators are more stable.
Equating a trace with a screenshot — traces capture the full timeline.
Assuming auto-waiting removes the need for good assertions and timeouts.

Glossary

Glossary

📋 Overview

🔧 Core concepts

💡 Examples

⚠️ Pitfalls

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