Playwright

Skill Anras573/AIchemist/skills/playwright

Use this skill for browser automation, web testing, and UI interaction tasks. Prefer this over Playwright MCP — it uses the token-efficient playwright-cli instead of loading large MCP tool schemas and accessibility trees into context. Trigger phrases: "test this page", "automate the browser", "take a screenshot of", "check this UI", "fill out this form", "test the flow on", "click through", "scrape this page", "use playwright", "browser test", "open a browser", "navigate to".From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add Anras573/AIchemist --skill playwright

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

1 stars1 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

7.8 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Playwright Skill

Browser automation and web testing using playwright-cli — a token-efficient alternative to Playwright MCP. CLI invocations avoid loading large tool schemas and verbose accessibility trees into the model context.

Why CLI over MCP

	playwright-cli (this skill)	Playwright MCP
Token cost	Low — concise CLI commands	High — full tool schemas + a11y trees in context
Best for	Coding agents, test automation, high-throughput workflows	Exploratory automation, persistent state, long-running loops

Prerequisites

npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest
playwright-cli --help  # verify installation

Installation

This plugin ships the skill. No per-repo installation needed — the skill is available in all sessions where this plugin is loaded.

For local skill installation (optional, adds task-specific guides):

playwright-cli install --skills

Sessions

playwright-cli keeps the browser in memory by default. Cookies and storage persist between CLI calls within a session, but are lost when the browser closes.

# Default session (in-memory)
playwright-cli open https://example.com

# Named session (useful for parallel automation or project isolation)
playwright-cli -s=myapp open https://example.com

# Persistent session (profile saved to disk across restarts)
playwright-cli open https://example.com --persistent

# Set default session via env var
PLAYWRIGHT_CLI_SESSION=myapp playwright-cli open https://example.com

Manage sessions:

playwright-cli list        # list all active sessions
playwright-cli close-all   # close all browsers
playwright-cli kill-all    # forcefully kill all browser processes

Snapshots

After most commands, playwright-cli outputs a snapshot of the current page state. Use element refs (e.g. e21, e35) from snapshots for subsequent interactions.

playwright-cli snapshot              # capture snapshot on demand
playwright-cli snapshot --filename=f # save to specific file

Command Reference

Core Navigation

playwright-cli open [url]            # open browser, optionally navigate
playwright-cli goto <url>            # navigate to a url
playwright-cli go-back               # go back
playwright-cli go-forward            # go forward
playwright-cli reload                # reload the page
playwright-cli close                 # close the page

Interaction

playwright-cli click <ref> [button]  # click an element (ref from snapshot)
playwright-cli dblclick <ref>        # double click
playwright-cli type <text>           # type into focused element
playwright-cli fill <ref> <text>     # fill an input field
playwright-cli hover <ref>           # hover over element
playwright-cli select <ref> <val>    # select dropdown option
playwright-cli check <ref>           # check checkbox/radio
playwright-cli uncheck <ref>         # uncheck checkbox/radio
playwright-cli drag <from> <to>      # drag and drop
playwright-cli press <key>           # press a key (e.g. Enter, ArrowLeft)
playwright-cli upload <file>         # upload a file
playwright-cli resize <w> <h>        # resize the browser window

Dialogs

playwright-cli dialog-accept [text]  # accept a dialog (optional prompt text)
playwright-cli dialog-dismiss        # dismiss a dialog

Tabs

playwright-cli tab-list              # list all open tabs
playwright-cli tab-new [url]         # open a new tab
playwright-cli tab-select <index>    # switch to tab
playwright-cli tab-close [index]     # close a tab (default: current)

Capture

playwright-cli screenshot [ref]             # screenshot of page or element
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=f.png  # save with specific filename
playwright-cli pdf                          # save page as PDF
playwright-cli pdf --filename=page.pdf

DevTools / Debugging

playwright-cli console [min-level]   # list console messages (error/warn/info/debug)
playwright-cli network               # list network requests since page load
playwright-cli eval <func> [ref]     # evaluate JavaScript on page or element
playwright-cli run-code <code>       # run a Playwright code snippet
playwright-cli tracing-start         # start trace recording
playwright-cli tracing-stop          # stop trace recording
playwright-cli video-start           # start video recording
playwright-cli video-stop [filename] # stop video recording

Storage

# State
playwright-cli state-save [filename]   # save storage state
playwright-cli state-load <filename>   # load storage state

# Cookies
playwright-cli cookie-list [--domain]
playwright-cli cookie-get <name>
playwright-cli cookie-set <name> <val>
playwright-cli cookie-delete <name>
playwright-cli cookie-clear

# LocalStorage
playwright-cli localstorage-list
playwright-cli localstorage-get <key>
playwright-cli localstorage-set <k> <v>
playwright-cli localstorage-delete <k>
playwright-cli localstorage-clear

# SessionStorage
playwright-cli sessionstorage-list
playwright-cli sessionstorage-get <k>
playwright-cli sessionstorage-set <k> <v>
playwright-cli sessionstorage-delete <k>
playwright-cli sessionstorage-clear

Network Mocking

playwright-cli route <pattern> [opts]  # mock network requests matching pattern
playwright-cli route-list              # list active routes
playwright-cli unroute [pattern]       # remove route(s)

Typical Workflow

# 1. Open a page and take a snapshot to get element refs
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli snapshot

# 2. Interact using refs from the snapshot
playwright-cli fill e12 "search term"
playwright-cli press Enter

# 3. Capture result
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=result.png

Open Parameters

playwright-cli open --browser=chrome     # use specific browser (chromium/firefox/webkit)
playwright-cli open --headed             # show the browser window
playwright-cli open --persistent         # persist profile to disk
playwright-cli open --profile=<path>     # use custom profile directory
playwright-cli open --extension          # connect via browser extension
playwright-cli open --config=file.json   # use config file

Configuration File

playwright-cli loads .playwright/cli.config.json automatically if present. Override with:

playwright-cli --config path/to/config.json open example.com

Monitoring

Use the visual dashboard to observe running sessions:

playwright-cli show   # opens a live dashboard with all active sessions

Read vs Write Operations

Type	Operation	Behavior	Confirmation Prompt
Read	snapshot, screenshot, console, network, tab-list, cookie-list, localstorage-list	Automatic — no confirmation needed	—
Write	open, goto, click, fill, type, upload, state-save	Automatic for test/automation flows	—
Destructive	close-all	Requires explicit user confirmation	"Close all browser sessions? This discards all in-memory state."
Destructive	cookie-clear	Requires explicit user confirmation	"Clear all cookies for the current session?"
Destructive	localstorage-clear	Requires explicit user confirmation	"Clear all localStorage for the current session?"
Destructive	kill-all	Requires explicit user confirmation	"Kill all browser processes?"