Browser Automation with playwright-cli

Quick start

bash
1# open new browser
2playwright-cli open
3# navigate to a page
4playwright-cli goto https://playwright.dev
5# interact with the page using refs from the snapshot
6playwright-cli click e15
7playwright-cli type "page.click"
8playwright-cli press Enter
9# take a screenshot
10playwright-cli screenshot
11# close the browser
12playwright-cli close

Commands

Core

bash
1playwright-cli open
2# open and navigate right away
3playwright-cli open https://example.com/
4playwright-cli goto https://playwright.dev
5playwright-cli type "search query"
6playwright-cli click e3
7playwright-cli dblclick e7
8playwright-cli fill e5 "user@example.com"
9playwright-cli drag e2 e8
10playwright-cli hover e4
11playwright-cli select e9 "option-value"
12playwright-cli upload ./document.pdf
13playwright-cli check e12
14playwright-cli uncheck e12
15playwright-cli snapshot
16playwright-cli snapshot --filename=after-click.yaml
17playwright-cli eval "document.title"
18playwright-cli eval "el => el.textContent" e5
19playwright-cli dialog-accept
20playwright-cli dialog-accept "confirmation text"
21playwright-cli dialog-dismiss
22playwright-cli resize 1920 1080
23playwright-cli close

Navigation

bash
1playwright-cli go-back
2playwright-cli go-forward
3playwright-cli reload

Keyboard

bash
1playwright-cli press Enter
2playwright-cli press ArrowDown
3playwright-cli keydown Shift
4playwright-cli keyup Shift

Mouse

bash
1playwright-cli mousemove 150 300
2playwright-cli mousedown
3playwright-cli mousedown right
4playwright-cli mouseup
5playwright-cli mouseup right
6playwright-cli mousewheel 0 100

Save as

bash
1playwright-cli screenshot
2playwright-cli screenshot e5
3playwright-cli screenshot --filename=page.png
4playwright-cli pdf --filename=page.pdf

Tabs

bash
1playwright-cli tab-list
2playwright-cli tab-new
3playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/page
4playwright-cli tab-close
5playwright-cli tab-close 2
6playwright-cli tab-select 0

Storage

bash
1playwright-cli state-save
2playwright-cli state-save auth.json
3playwright-cli state-load auth.json
4
5# Cookies
6playwright-cli cookie-list
7playwright-cli cookie-list --domain=example.com
8playwright-cli cookie-get session_id
9playwright-cli cookie-set session_id abc123
10playwright-cli cookie-set session_id abc123 --domain=example.com --httpOnly --secure
11playwright-cli cookie-delete session_id
12playwright-cli cookie-clear
13
14# LocalStorage
15playwright-cli localstorage-list
16playwright-cli localstorage-get theme
17playwright-cli localstorage-set theme dark
18playwright-cli localstorage-delete theme
19playwright-cli localstorage-clear
20
21# SessionStorage
22playwright-cli sessionstorage-list
23playwright-cli sessionstorage-get step
24playwright-cli sessionstorage-set step 3
25playwright-cli sessionstorage-delete step
26playwright-cli sessionstorage-clear

Network

bash
1playwright-cli route "**/*.jpg" --status=404
2playwright-cli route "https://api.example.com/**" --body='{"mock": true}'
3playwright-cli route-list
4playwright-cli unroute "**/*.jpg"
5playwright-cli unroute

DevTools

bash
1playwright-cli console
2playwright-cli console warning
3playwright-cli network
4playwright-cli run-code "async page => await page.context().grantPermissions(['geolocation'])"
5playwright-cli tracing-start
6playwright-cli tracing-stop
7playwright-cli video-start
8playwright-cli video-stop video.webm

Install

bash
1playwright-cli install --skills
2playwright-cli install-browser

Configuration

bash
1# Use specific browser when creating session
2playwright-cli open --browser=chrome
3playwright-cli open --browser=firefox
4playwright-cli open --browser=webkit
5playwright-cli open --browser=msedge
6# Connect to browser via extension
7playwright-cli open --extension
8
9# Use persistent profile (by default profile is in-memory)
10playwright-cli open --persistent
11# Use persistent profile with custom directory
12playwright-cli open --profile=/path/to/profile
13
14# Start with config file
15playwright-cli open --config=my-config.json
16
17# Close the browser
18playwright-cli close
19# Delete user data for the default session
20playwright-cli delete-data

Browser Sessions

bash
1# create new browser session named "mysession" with persistent profile
2playwright-cli -s=mysession open example.com --persistent
3# same with manually specified profile directory (use when requested explicitly)
4playwright-cli -s=mysession open example.com --profile=/path/to/profile
5playwright-cli -s=mysession click e6
6playwright-cli -s=mysession close  # stop a named browser
7playwright-cli -s=mysession delete-data  # delete user data for persistent session
8
9playwright-cli list
10# Close all browsers
11playwright-cli close-all
12# Forcefully kill all browser processes
13playwright-cli kill-all

Example: Form submission

bash
1playwright-cli open https://example.com/form
2playwright-cli snapshot
3
4playwright-cli fill e1 "user@example.com"
5playwright-cli fill e2 "password123"
6playwright-cli click e3
7playwright-cli snapshot
8playwright-cli close

Example: Multi-tab workflow

bash
1playwright-cli open https://example.com
2playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/other
3playwright-cli tab-list
4playwright-cli tab-select 0
5playwright-cli snapshot
6playwright-cli close

Example: Debugging with DevTools

bash
1playwright-cli open https://example.com
2playwright-cli click e4
3playwright-cli fill e7 "test"
4playwright-cli console
5playwright-cli network
6playwright-cli close

bash
1playwright-cli open https://example.com
2playwright-cli tracing-start
3playwright-cli click e4
4playwright-cli fill e7 "test"
5playwright-cli tracing-stop
6playwright-cli close

Specific tasks

• Request mocking references/request-mocking.md
• Running Playwright code references/running-code.md
• Browser session management references/session-management.md
• Storage state (cookies, localStorage) references/storage-state.md
• Test generation references/test-generation.md
• Tracing references/tracing.md
• Video recording references/video-recording.md