Browsing with playwright

Skill sheikh-mohammad/agent-factory-claude-skills/.claude/skills/browsing-with-playwright

Browser automation using Playwright MCP. Navigate websites, fill forms, click elements, take screenshots, and extract data. Use for web browsing, form submission, web scraping, or UI testing. NOT for static content (use curl/wget).From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add sheikh-mohammad/agent-factory-claude-skills --skill browsing-with-playwright

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

2 things to look at

no licenseNo license file was found in the repository. Code published without one is not open source by default, so using it at work is a question for whoever answers licensing questions where you are.
6 stars6 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

4.6 KB, ~1.1k tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Browser Automation

Automate browser interactions via Playwright MCP server.

Server Lifecycle

Start Server

# Using helper script (recommended)
bash scripts/start-server.sh

# Or manually
npx @playwright/mcp@latest --port 8808 --shared-browser-context &

Stop Server

# Using helper script (closes browser first)
bash scripts/stop-server.sh

# Or manually
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_close -p '{}'
pkill -f "@playwright/mcp"

When to Stop

End of task: Stop when browser work is complete
Long sessions: Keep running if doing multiple browser tasks
Errors: Stop and restart if browser becomes unresponsive

Important: The --shared-browser-context flag is required to maintain browser state across multiple mcp-client.py calls. Without it, each call gets a fresh browser context.

Quick Reference

Navigation

# Go to URL
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_navigate \
  -p '{"url": "https://example.com"}'

# Go back
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_navigate_back -p '{}'

Get Page State

# Accessibility snapshot (returns element refs for clicking/typing)
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_snapshot -p '{}'

# Screenshot
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_take_screenshot \
  -p '{"type": "png", "fullPage": true}'

Interact with Elements

Use ref from snapshot output to target elements:

# Click element
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_click \
  -p '{"element": "Submit button", "ref": "e42"}'

# Type text
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_type \
  -p '{"element": "Search input", "ref": "e15", "text": "hello world", "submit": true}'

# Fill form (multiple fields)
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_fill_form \
  -p '{"fields": [{"ref": "e10", "value": "[email protected]"}, {"ref": "e12", "value": "password123"}]}'

# Select dropdown
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_select_option \
  -p '{"element": "Country dropdown", "ref": "e20", "values": ["US"]}'

Wait for Conditions

# Wait for text to appear
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_wait_for \
  -p '{"text": "Success"}'

# Wait for time (ms)
python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_wait_for \
  -p '{"time": 2000}'

Execute JavaScript

python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_evaluate \
  -p '{"function": "return document.title"}'

Multi-Step Playwright Code

For complex workflows, use browser_run_code to run multiple actions in one call:

python3 scripts/mcp-client.py call -u http://localhost:8808 -t browser_run_code \
  -p '{"code": "async (page) => { await page.goto(\"https://example.com\"); await page.click(\"text=Learn more\"); return await page.title(); }"}'

Tip: Use browser_run_code for complex multi-step operations that should be atomic (all-or-nothing).

Workflow: Form Submission

Navigate to page
Get snapshot to find element refs
Fill form fields using refs
Click submit
Wait for confirmation
Screenshot result

Workflow: Data Extraction

Navigate to page
Get snapshot (contains text content)
Use browser_evaluate for complex extraction
Process results

Verification

Run: python3 scripts/verify.py

Expected: ✓ Playwright MCP server running

If Verification Fails

Run diagnostic: pgrep -f "@playwright/mcp"
Check: Server process running on port 8808
Try: bash scripts/start-server.sh
Stop and report if still failing - do not proceed with downstream steps

Tool Reference

See references/playwright-tools.md for complete tool documentation.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Element not found	Run browser_snapshot first to get current refs
Click fails	Try browser_hover first, then click
Form not submitting	Use `"submit": true` with browser_type
Page not loading	Increase wait time or use browser_wait_for
Server not responding	Stop and restart: `bash scripts/stop-server.sh && bash scripts/start-server.sh`

What ships with it: 5 files

38.3 KB alongside SKILL.md, 4 of them executable

references/

playwright-tools.md19.8 KB

scripts/

mcp-client.pyruns16.4 KB
start-server.shruns683 B
stop-server.shruns898 B
verify.pyruns533 B

Gives 1 of the 12 instructions most e2e browser skills give in ~1.1k tokens

Counted across 499 of the 513 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06

Capture screenshots, videos, and traces on failurein 32 of 499, across 23 files
Close the browser when donein 22 of 499
Interact with elements using snapshot refshere, and in 21 of 499, across 20 files
Wait for specific network responses instead of fixed timeoutsin 20 of 499, across 10 files
Keep tests independent with no shared statein 19 of 499, across 17 files
Use Page Object Model classes to encapsulate page interactionsin 19 of 499, across 9 files
Locate elements with data-testid attributesin 19 of 499, across 10 files
Quarantine flaky tests with fixme or skipin 17 of 499, across 7 files
Upload test artifacts after every CI runin 17 of 499, across 8 files
Wait on conditions instead of using fixed sleepsin 17 of 499, across 13 files
Clean up test data after each testin 17 of 499, across 16 files
Test user-visible behavior, not implementation detailsin 16 of 499, across 10 files

Said here and by no other author read

Include the shared browser context flag
Keep the server running during long sessions
Stop the server when browser work completes
Restart the server if the browser is unresponsive
Use browser_run_code for complex multi-step operations
Wait for confirmation after submitting forms

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.