Browser automation and end-to-end testing with Playwright (Python and TypeScript). TRIGGER when: user asks about browser automation, e2e testing, web scraping with a browser, Playwright setup, page navigation, selectors, screenshots, PDF generation, network interception, file uploads, auth flows, mobile viewports, or accessibility testing with Playwright. Also when code imports playwright, @playwright/test, pytest-playwright, or references playwright.config. DO NOT TRIGGER when: user asks about Cypress, Selenium, Puppeteer, or other browser automation tools; unit testing without a browser; HTTP-only scraping (use requests/httpx); or general pytest usage without Playwright.

Playwright Skill

Browser automation and end-to-end testing with Playwright. Covers both Python (pytest-playwright) and TypeScript (@playwright/test).

Core Principles

Auto-waiting by default -- Playwright waits for elements to be actionable before interacting. Do not add manual sleeps.
Test isolation -- Every test gets a fresh browser context. Do not share state between tests.
User-facing selectors -- Prefer getByRole, getByText, getByLabel over CSS/XPath. These are resilient to DOM changes.
Web-first assertions -- Use Playwright's built-in assertions that auto-retry, not raw assert or expect from other libraries.

Quick Reference

Python Setup

pip install pytest-playwright
playwright install

TypeScript Setup

npm init playwright@latest
# or
npx playwright install

Run Tests

# Python
pytest --headed                  # visible browser
pytest --browser firefox         # specific browser
pytest -k "test_login"           # filter by name

# TypeScript
npx playwright test              # all tests
npx playwright test --ui         # interactive UI mode
npx playwright test --debug      # step-through debugger
npx playwright test login.spec   # specific file

WRONG vs CORRECT: Selector Strategy

WRONG -- brittle CSS selectors

# WRONG: tightly coupled to DOM structure
page.click("div.header > ul.nav > li:nth-child(3) > a")
page.fill("input#email-field-v2", "[email protected]")

CORRECT -- user-facing locators

# CORRECT: resilient to DOM changes
page.get_by_role("link", name="Settings").click()
page.get_by_label("Email").fill("[email protected]")

WRONG vs CORRECT: Waiting

WRONG -- manual sleep

// WRONG: arbitrary delay, still flaky
await page.click('#submit');
await page.waitForTimeout(3000);
expect(await page.textContent('.result')).toBe('Done');

CORRECT -- auto-retrying assertion

// CORRECT: retries until condition met or timeout
await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' }).click();
await expect(page.getByText('Done')).toBeVisible();

Sub-files

File	Topic
testing-patterns.md	Test structure, fixtures, assertions, parallel execution
selectors-and-waiting.md	Locator strategies, auto-waiting, explicit waits, anti-patterns
automation-recipes.md	Screenshots, PDF gen, network interception, auth, file uploads
accessibility.md	axe-core integration, ARIA, keyboard navigation testing

What You Get

Reference documentation for Playwright browser automation covering both Python (pytest-playwright) and TypeScript (@playwright/test).
Selector strategies, auto-waiting patterns, and assertion best practices with WRONG vs CORRECT examples.
Recipes for common automation tasks: screenshots, PDF generation, network interception, auth flows, file uploads, and accessibility testing.

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