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terminal skill

/packages/playwright/src/mcp/terminal

This skill automates web tasks with playwright-cli, enabling navigation, form filling, interactions, and data extraction for testing and automation.

npx playbooks add skill microsoft/playwright --skill terminal

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SKILL.md
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---
name: playwright-cli
description: Automates browser interactions for web testing, form filling, screenshots, and data extraction. Use when the user needs to navigate websites, interact with web pages, fill forms, take screenshots, test web applications, or extract information from web pages.
allowed-tools: Bash(playwright-cli:*)
---

# Browser Automation with playwright-cli

## Quick start

```bash
playwright-cli open https://playwright.dev
playwright-cli click e15
playwright-cli type "page.click"
playwright-cli press Enter
```

## Core workflow

1. Navigate: `playwright-cli open https://example.com`
2. Interact using refs from the snapshot
3. Re-snapshot after significant changes

## Commands

### Core

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com/
playwright-cli close
playwright-cli type "search query"
playwright-cli click e3
playwright-cli dblclick e7
playwright-cli fill e5 "[email protected]"
playwright-cli drag e2 e8
playwright-cli hover e4
playwright-cli select e9 "option-value"
playwright-cli upload ./document.pdf
playwright-cli check e12
playwright-cli uncheck e12
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli eval "document.title"
playwright-cli eval "el => el.textContent" e5
playwright-cli dialog-accept
playwright-cli dialog-accept "confirmation text"
playwright-cli dialog-dismiss
playwright-cli resize 1920 1080
```

### Navigation

```bash
playwright-cli go-back
playwright-cli go-forward
playwright-cli reload
```

### Keyboard

```bash
playwright-cli press Enter
playwright-cli press ArrowDown
playwright-cli keydown Shift
playwright-cli keyup Shift
```

### Mouse

```bash
playwright-cli mousemove 150 300
playwright-cli mousedown
playwright-cli mousedown right
playwright-cli mouseup
playwright-cli mouseup right
playwright-cli mousewheel 0 100
```

### Save as

```bash
playwright-cli screenshot
playwright-cli screenshot e5
playwright-cli pdf
```

### Tabs

```bash
playwright-cli tab-list
playwright-cli tab-new
playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/page
playwright-cli tab-close
playwright-cli tab-close 2
playwright-cli tab-select 0
```

### DevTools

```bash
playwright-cli console
playwright-cli console warning
playwright-cli network
playwright-cli run-code "async page => await page.context().grantPermissions(['geolocation'])"
playwright-cli tracing-start
playwright-cli tracing-stop
```

### Sessions

```bash
playwright-cli --session=mysession open example.com
playwright-cli --session=mysession click e6
playwright-cli session-list
playwright-cli session-stop mysession
playwright-cli session-stop-all
playwright-cli session-delete
playwright-cli session-delete mysession
```

## Example: Form submission

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com/form
playwright-cli snapshot

playwright-cli fill e1 "[email protected]"
playwright-cli fill e2 "password123"
playwright-cli click e3
playwright-cli snapshot
```

## Example: Multi-tab workflow

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli tab-new https://example.com/other
playwright-cli tab-list
playwright-cli tab-select 0
playwright-cli snapshot
```

## Example: Debugging with DevTools

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli click e4
playwright-cli fill e7 "test"
playwright-cli console
playwright-cli network
```

```bash
playwright-cli open https://example.com
playwright-cli tracing-start
playwright-cli click e4
playwright-cli fill e7 "test"
playwright-cli tracing-stop
```

Overview

This skill automates browser interactions from the command line using Playwright. It provides streamlined commands to navigate pages, interact with elements, take screenshots, run multi-tab workflows, and capture traces for debugging. Use it to script end-to-end tasks without writing full test suites.

How this skill works

playwright-cli controls Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a simple CLI command set. You open URLs, reference page elements from snapshots, and execute actions like click, fill, upload, and keyboard/mouse events. Sessions, tracing, and DevTools commands let you persist state, record diagnostics, and inspect network/console output.

When to use it

  • Quickly prototype or reproduce browser flows from the terminal
  • Automate form filling, uploads, and data extraction without code-heavy scripts
  • Capture screenshots or PDFs of pages and specific elements
  • Debug UI issues with tracing, network inspection, and console logs
  • Run multi-tab scenarios and preserve browser sessions for repeatable workflows

Best practices

  • Start by running snapshot to reference stable element ids before interacting
  • Use sessions to store cookies and authentication state for repeated runs
  • Prefer explicit waits or re-snapshot after significant page changes to avoid flakiness
  • Capture traces and network logs when investigating intermittent failures
  • Limit viewport/resolution with resize to reproduce layout-specific bugs

Example use cases

  • End-to-end smoke test: open an app, fill login form, click submit, snapshot the result
  • Data extraction: navigate pages, eval element text, and save screenshots or PDFs
  • Form automation: upload files, fill inputs, select options, and verify results with snapshot
  • Multi-tab flow: open multiple pages, switch between tabs, and perform coordinated actions
  • Debugging: start tracing, reproduce the issue, stop tracing and inspect network/console logs

FAQ

How do I reference page elements from the CLI?

Run playwright-cli snapshot to generate element refs, then use the provided ids (e.g., e5) with commands like click, fill, or screenshot.

Can I preserve authentication across runs?

Yes — use --session to create or reuse sessions that save cookies and local storage between commands.

Which browsers are supported?

playwright-cli supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit via Playwright, allowing you to run the same commands across browsers.