Headless browser automation using Playwright CLI. Use when you need headless browsing, parallel browser sessions, UI testing, screenshots, web scraping, or browser automation that can run in the background. Keywords - playwright, headless, browser, test, screenshot, scrape, parallel.
Automate browsers using playwright-cli — a token-efficient CLI for Playwright. Runs headless by default, supports parallel sessions via named sessions (-s=), and doesn't load tool schemas into context.
--headed to open to see the browser-s=<name> to run multiple independent browser instancesPLAYWRIGHT_MCP_CAPS=vision to receive screenshots as image responses in context instead of just saving to diskAlways use a named session. Derive a short, descriptive kebab-case name from the user's prompt. This gives each task a persistent browser profile (cookies, localStorage, history) that accumulates across calls.
# Derive session name from prompt context:
# "test the checkout flow on mystore.com" → -s=mystore-checkout
# "scrape pricing from competitor.com" → -s=competitor-pricing
# "UI test the login page" → -s=login-ui-test
playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout open https://mystore.com --persistent
playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout snapshot
playwright-cli -s=mystore-checkout click e12
Managing sessions:
playwright-cli list # list all sessions
playwright-cli close-all # close all sessions
playwright-cli -s=<name> close # close specific session
playwright-cli -s=<name> delete-data # wipe session profile
Core: open [url], goto <url>, click <ref>, fill <ref> <text>, type <text>, snapshot, screenshot [ref], close
Navigate: go-back, go-forward, reload
Keyboard: press <key>, keydown <key>, keyup <key>
Mouse: mousemove <x> <y>, mousedown, mouseup, mousewheel <dx> <dy>
Tabs: tab-list, tab-new [url], tab-close [index], tab-select <index>
Save: screenshot [ref], pdf, screenshot --filename=f
Storage: state-save, state-load, cookie-*, localstorage-*, sessionstorage-*
Network: route <pattern>, route-list, unroute, network
DevTools: console, run-code <code>, tracing-start/stop, video-start/stop
Sessions: -s=<name> <cmd>, list, close-all, kill-all
Config: open --headed, open --browser=chrome, resize <w> <h>
--persistent to preserve cookies/state. Always set the viewport via env var at launch:PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent
# or headed:
PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent --headed
# or with vision (screenshots returned as image responses in context):
PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE=1440x900 PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_CAPS=vision playwright-cli -s=<session-name> open <url> --persistent
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli click <ref>
playwright-cli fill <ref> "text"
playwright-cli type "text"
playwright-cli press Enter
playwright-cli screenshot
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=output.png
playwright-cli -s=<session-name> close
If a playwright-cli.json exists in the working directory, use it automatically. If the user provides a path to a config file, use --config path/to/config.json. Otherwise, skip configuration — the env var and CLI defaults are sufficient.
{
"browser": {
"browserName": "chromium",
"launchOptions": { "headless": true },
"contextOptions": { "viewport": { "width": 1440, "height": 900 } }
},
"outputDir": "./screenshots"
}
Run playwright-cli --help or playwright-cli --help <command> for detailed command usage.
See docs/playwright-cli.md for full documentation.