Browser Automation with playwright-cli

When to Use

• •Navigate and interact with web pages (click, type, fill forms)
• •Take screenshots for UI debugging or to verify UI features
• •Test web application behavior end-to-end
• •Extract data from rendered pages
• •Manage browser sessions and storage state

Core Workflow

1. •Open a URL: playwright-cli open https://example.com
2. •Snapshot to get element refs: playwright-cli snapshot
3. •Interact using refs: playwright-cli click e3, playwright-cli fill e5 "text"
4. •Verify with screenshot or re-snapshot: playwright-cli screenshot

Essential Commands

playwright-cli open [url]             # Navigate to URL
playwright-cli snapshot               # Get element refs (eN identifiers)
playwright-cli click <ref>            # Click element
playwright-cli fill <ref> <text>      # Fill input field
playwright-cli type <text>            # Type into focused element
playwright-cli screenshot [ref]       # Capture page or element screenshot
playwright-cli select <ref> <value>   # Select dropdown option
playwright-cli press <key>            # Press keyboard key
playwright-cli eval <js> [ref]        # Run JS on page or element (expression only, no IIFEs)

eval Gotchas

The eval command wraps your code in () => (YOUR_CODE), so:

• •Expressions work: "document.title", "JSON.stringify(someObj)"
• •Chained promises work: "fetch('/api').then(function(r) { return r.json(); }).then(function(d) { return JSON.stringify(d); })"
• •IIFEs fail: "(() => { ... })()" — already wrapped in a function
• •Statements fail: "const x = 1; return x" — not valid as an expression

Screenshots for UI Debugging

Use playwright-cli screenshot after interactions to visually verify the page state. Target specific elements with playwright-cli screenshot e5. Screenshots save to the output directory as PNG files.

Sessions

Use the default session — just omit --session entirely. The --session=name flag is only for the initial open command that creates the session. Subsequent commands (fill, click, snapshot, etc.) automatically target the running session without any flag.

# Recommended: use the default session
playwright-cli open https://app.com       # Creates default session
playwright-cli snapshot                    # Targets the running session
playwright-cli fill e3 "text"             # No --session flag needed
playwright-cli click e5

# Session management
playwright-cli session-list               # List active sessions
playwright-cli session-stop               # Stop default session
playwright-cli session-stop myapp         # Stop named session

Gotcha: Do NOT pass --session=name on follow-up commands — it errors with "The session is already configured." Only use it on the initial open if you need a named session.

Sessions persist browser state (cookies, storage, login) across commands.

Options

References

• •Installation & setup
• •Advanced usage & full command reference