Playwright Browser Automation Skill

Use playwright-server for browser automation via curl commands. The server maintains a stateful browser session.

Prerequisites

The server is installed at ~/.claude/bin/playwright-server.js. If not present:

cd ~/.claude/bin
npm init -y
npm install playwright
npx playwright install chromium

Server Lifecycle

# Start server (if not running)
curl -sf localhost:3210/health || (node ~/.claude/bin/playwright-server.js &>/dev/null & sleep 1)

# Check health
curl -sf localhost:3210/health

# Stop server
pkill -f playwright-server

Quick Reference

Task	Command
Start browser	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"start"}'
Navigate	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"navigate","url":"URL"}'
Get snapshot	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"snapshot"}'
Click	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"click","selector":"SEL"}'
Fill input	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"fill","selector":"SEL","value":"VAL"}'
Screenshot	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"screenshot"}'
Stop browser	curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"stop"}'

Core Commands

Browser Lifecycle

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"start"}'              # Headless
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"start","headless":false}'  # Headed
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"stop"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"status"}'

Navigation

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"navigate","url":"http://localhost:3000"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"back"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"reload"}'

Page Inspection

snapshot - Get accessibility tree (use to understand page structure):

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"snapshot"}'

Example output:

- heading "Page Title" [level=1]
- navigation:
  - link "Home"
  - link "About"
- main:
  - textbox "Email"
  - textbox "Password"
  - button "Sign In"

screenshot - Capture page:

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"screenshot"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"screenshot","path":"/tmp/shot.png"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"screenshot","fullPage":true}'

Basic Interactions

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"click","selector":"button[type=submit]"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"fill","selector":"input[name=email]","value":"test@example.com"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"type","selector":"input","text":"query"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"press","key":"Enter"}'

Waiting

curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"wait","selector":".loaded"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"wait","selector":".spinner","state":"hidden"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"waitUrl","pattern":"**/dashboard"}'
curl -s localhost:3210 -d '{"cmd":"waitLoad","state":"networkidle"}'

Selector Basics

# CSS selectors
"button[type=submit]"
"#login-form input[name=email]"

# Text selectors
"text=Sign In"

# Role selectors
"role=button[name='Sign In']"

# Combining
"#form >> input[name=email]"

For complete selector strategies: See references/selectors.md

Additional References

• All commands: See references/commands.md for interaction, inspection, wait, tab, and dialog commands
• Selectors: See references/selectors.md for selector strategies
• Workflows: See references/workflows.md for common workflows and troubleshooting