Playwright CLI

playwright-cli

Microsoft's official Playwright CLI with an agent skill: drive a browser through short commands without heavy MCP schemas

14,721 ★ on the repository
Last commit Oct 19, 2026
Apache-2.0

CLI OfficialEditors’ pick

microsoft/playwright-cliAuthor:Microsoft

Install

Works in: Claude Code
GitHub Copilot
Codex
Cursor

In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI

npx skillfoxx add cli/playwright-cli

Detects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.

Other ways to install

Access and checks

How we review

Extended accessThe tool runs code or makes network calls and only reads external data.

Launches a browser and runs JavaScript on pages
Can save and load cookies and auth state

This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.

What it does

The CLI gives the agent browser commands: open a page, click, fill a field, take an accessibility snapshot, search the snapshot, screenshot or save a PDF. It handles tabs, cookies and localStorage, network mocking, console and request inspection, traces, video and action recording that emits Playwright code. Snapshots are saved to files, so page data does not flood the model context. Sessions keep separate browsers per project, and the show command opens a dashboard to watch agents and take over control.

Who it is for. For developers and QA engineers who want the agent to test web apps in a browser with fewer tokens than MCP.

Good fit when

The agent should walk through a user flow and take screenshots
You need to record actions and get Playwright test code
Agent context is tight and MCP schemas are too costly

Not a fit when

You need a long autonomous loop with persistent page state; Playwright MCP fits better
The agent cannot run shell commands

Example request

Using playwright-cli, test the add todo flow on demo.playwright.dev/todomvc and take screenshots

Limitations

Requires Node.js 18 or newer and shell access. Headless sessions close after an hour idle. WebMCP is experimental and works only in Chromium and Firefox with special flags.

How to disable. Remove the package with npm uninstall -g @playwright/cli and delete the playwright-cli skill folder.

FAQ

Why CLI over Playwright MCP?

It avoids loading large tool schemas and accessibility trees into context, so it is cheaper. MCP stays better for long loops with persistent state.

Does it work without the skill?

Yes, just tell the agent to check playwright-cli --help.

Which should I pick: Playwright MCP, CLI or a skill?

MCP fits when an agent needs standing browser access over the protocol. The CLI gives short commands and saves snapshots to files, so context stays clean. The Playwright skill writes and runs its own scripts, the path for tests and page checks.

Discussion

No questions or reviews yet.

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Comparison with similar tools

Entries that share the main search query, and how they differ.

Entry	Official	Repository stars	Main difference
Playwright CLI (this entry)	yes	14,721
Vibium	no	2,934	one binary for agent browser automation
Expect	no	3,561	a skill that tests your agent's code in a real browser

README in short

The README compares the CLI with Playwright MCP and explains why CLI plus skills is cheaper for coding agents. Install is via npm plus a separate skills command. It then gives a full command reference grouped into core, navigation, keyboard, mouse, storage, network, DevTools, WebMCP and open options. Sessions, the monitoring dashboard and snapshot format are covered.

README badge

Original SKILL.md

---
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
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

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