Getting Started

    During installation, Playwright downloads browser binaries for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit. This sets up your environment for browser automation with just one command. It is possible to modify this default behavior for monorepos and other scenarios. See installation parameters for mode details.

    Usage

    Once installed, you can Playwright in a Node.js script, and launch any of the 3 browsers (chromium, firefox and webkit).

    1. const { chromium } = require('playwright');
    3.   const browser = await chromium.launch();
    4.   // Create pages, interact with UI elements, assert values
    6. })();

    Playwright APIs are asynchronous and return Promise objects. Our code examples use the async/await pattern to simplify comprehension. The code is wrapped in an unnamed async arrow function which is invoking itself.

    1. (async () => { // Start of async arrow function
    2.   // Function code
    3.   // ...
    4. })(); // End of the function and () to invoke itself

    In our first script, we will navigate to whatsmyuseragent.org and take a screenshot in WebKit.

    System requirements

    Playwright requires Node.js version 10.15 or above. The browser binaries for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit work across the 3 platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux):

    • Windows: Works with Windows and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
    • Linux: Depending on your Linux distribution, you might need to install additional dependencies to run the browsers.
      • Firefox requires Ubuntu 18.04+
      • For Ubuntu 18.04, the additional dependencies are defined in our Docker image, which is based on Ubuntu.

    Playwright comes with built-in support for TypeScript. Playwright type definitions will be imported automatically.

    It is also possible to add these types to your variables manually. In TypeScript:

    1. let page: import('playwright').Page;

    If you use JavaScript, you can still use TypeScript definitions for improved auto-completions and warnings in Visual Studio Code or WebStorm. Add the following to the top of your JavaScript file:

    1. /** @type {import('playwright').Page} */
    2. let page;

    Debugging scripts

    Playwright scripts can be developed just like any other Node.js script. For example, you can use the Node.js debugger or to set breakpoints and get fine grained control over execution.

    It is also possible to open browser developer tools during execution, to inspect the DOM tree or network activity.

    Verbose logging

    Playwright supports verbose logging with the DEBUG environment variable.

    1. # Linux/macOS
    2. $ DEBUG=pw:api npm run test
    4. # Windows
    5. $ npm run test