Install

Playwright · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

Playwright is a cross-browser E2E library for Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. Install the Node package, then download browser binaries with npx playwright install.

🔧 Core concepts

Install (npm):

npm init playwright@latest
# or into existing project:
npm i -D @playwright/test
npx playwright install
npx playwright install --with-deps   # CI / Linux

Python / Java / .NET also exist; this folder focuses on the JS/TS runner.

💡 Examples

Minimal package scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "playwright test",
    "test:ui": "playwright test --ui",
    "test:headed": "playwright test --headed",
    "report": "playwright show-report"
  }
}

Verify browsers:

npx playwright --version
npx playwright install chromium
npx playwright install firefox webkit

First test (tests/example.spec.ts):

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

test('homepage has title', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Playwright/);
});

Run:

npx playwright test
npx playwright test --project=chromium
npx playwright test tests/example.spec.ts

⚠️ Pitfalls

• Installing the npm package without playwright install → missing browser binaries.
• Mixing global and local CLI — prefer npx playwright from the project.
• Skipping --with-deps on Linux CI causes cryptic launch failures.
• Pinning @playwright/test without reinstalling browsers after upgrades.
• Using playwright alone when you need @playwright/test fixtures.

🔗 Related

• Config
• Codegen
• CI
• Fixtures
• Parallel
• Tracing