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Configuration

Playwright Test provides options to configure the default browser, context and page fixtures. For example there are options for headless, viewport and ignoreHTTPSErrors. You can also record a video or a trace for the test or capture a screenshot at the end.

There are plenty of testing options like timeout or testDir that configure how your tests are collected and executed.

You can specify any options globally in the configuration file, and most of them locally in a test file.

See the full list of test options and all configuration properties.

Global configuration​

Create a playwright.config.js (or playwright.config.ts) and specify options in the testConfig.use section.

import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    headless: false,
    viewport: { width: 1280, height: 720 },
    ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
    video: 'on-first-retry',
  },
};
export default config;

Now run tests as usual, Playwright Test will pick up the configuration file automatically.

npx playwright test

If you put your configuration file in a different place, pass it with --config option.

npx playwright test --config=tests/my.config.js

Local configuration​

You can override some options for a file or describe block.

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
// Run tests in this file with portrait-like viewport.
test.use({ viewport: { width: 600, height: 900 } });
test('my portrait test', async ({ page }) => {
  // ...
});

The same works inside describe.

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
test.describe('locale block', () => {
  // Run tests in this describe block with portrait-like viewport.
  test.use({ viewport: { width: 600, height: 900 } });
  test('my portrait test', async ({ page }) => {
    // ...
  });
});

Basic options​

Normally you would start with emulating a device, for example Desktop Chromium. See our Emulation guide to learn more.

Here are some of the commonly used options for various scenarios. You usually set them globally in the configuration file.

  • actionTimeout - Timeout for each Playwright action in milliseconds. Defaults to 0 (no timeout). Learn more about various timeouts.
  • baseURL - Base URL used for all pages in the context. Allows navigating by using just the path, for example page.goto('/settings').
  • browserName - Name of the browser that will run the tests, one of chromium, firefox, or webkit.
  • bypassCSP - Toggles bypassing Content-Security-Policy. Useful when CSP includes the production origin.
  • channel - Browser channel to use. Learn more about different browsers and channels.
  • headless - Whether to run the browser in headless mode.
  • viewport - Viewport used for all pages in the context.
  • storageState - Populates context with given storage state. Useful for easy authentication, learn more.
  • colorScheme - Emulates 'prefers-colors-scheme' media feature, supported values are 'light', 'dark', 'no-preference'.
  • geolocation - Context geolocation.
  • locale - Emulates the user locale, for example en-GB, de-DE, etc.
  • permissions - A list of permissions to grant to all pages in the context.
  • timezoneId - Changes the timezone of the context.
import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    baseURL: 'http://localhost:3000',
    browserName: 'firefox',
    headless: true,
  },
};
export default config;

Multiple browsers​

Playwright Test supports multiple "projects" that can run your tests in multiple browsers and configurations. Here is an example that runs every test in Chromium, Firefox and WebKit, by creating a project for each.

// playwright.config.ts
import { type PlaywrightTestConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test';

const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  projects: [
    {
      name: 'chromium',
      use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] },
    },
    {
      name: 'firefox',
      use: { ...devices['Desktop Firefox'] },
    },
    {
      name: 'webkit',
      use: { ...devices['Desktop Safari'] },
    },
  ],
};
export default config;

You can specify different options for each project, for example set specific command-line arguments for Chromium.

Playwright Test will run all projects by default.

npx playwright test

Running 5 tests using 5 workers

  ✓ [chromium] › example.spec.ts:3:1 › basic test (2s)
  ✓ [firefox] › example.spec.ts:3:1 › basic test (2s)
  ✓ [webkit] › example.spec.ts:3:1 › basic test (2s)

Use --project command line option to run a single project.

npx playwright test --project=firefox

Running 1 test using 1 worker

  ✓ [firefox] › example.spec.ts:3:1 › basic test (2s)

Network​

Available options to configure networking:

  • acceptDownloads - Whether to automatically download all the attachments, defaults to true. Learn more about working with downloads.
  • extraHTTPHeaders - An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request. All header values must be strings.
  • httpCredentials - Credentials for HTTP authentication.
  • ignoreHTTPSErrors - Whether to ignore HTTPS errors during navigation.
  • offline - Whether to emulate network being offline.
  • proxy - Proxy settings used for all pages in the test.

Network mocking​

You don't have to configure anything to mock network requests. Just define a custom Route that mocks network for a browser context.

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test.beforeEach(async ({ context }) => {
  // Block any css requests for each test in this file.
  await context.route(/.css/, route => route.abort());
});

test('loads page without css', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  // ... test goes here
});

Alternatively, you can use page.route(url, handler[, options]) to mock network in a single test.

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('loads page without images', async ({ page }) => {
  // Block png and jpeg images.
  await page.route(/(png|jpeg)$/, route => route.abort());

  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  // ... test goes here
});

Automatic screenshots​

You can make Playwright Test capture screenshots for you - control it with the screenshot option. By default screenshots are off.

  • 'off' - Do not capture screenshots.
  • 'on' - Capture screenshot after each test.
  • 'only-on-failure' - Capture screenshot after each test failure.

Screenshots will appear in the test output directory, typically test-results.

import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
  },
};
export default config;

Record video​

Playwright Test can record videos for your tests, controlled by the video option. By default videos are off.

  • 'off' - Do not record video.
  • 'on' - Record video for each test.
  • 'retain-on-failure' - Record video for each test, but remove all videos from successful test runs.
  • 'on-first-retry' - Record video only when retrying a test for the first time.

Video files will appear in the test output directory, typically test-results. See testOptions.video for advanced video configuration.

import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    video: 'on-first-retry',
  },
};
export default config;

Record test trace​

Playwright Test can produce test traces while running the tests. Later on, you can view the trace and get detailed information about Playwright execution by opening Trace Viewer. By default tracing is off, controlled by the trace option.

  • 'off' - Do not record trace.
  • 'on' - Record trace for each test.
  • 'retain-on-failure' - Record trace for each test, but remove it from successful test runs.
  • 'on-first-retry' - Record trace only when retrying a test for the first time.

Trace files will appear in the test output directory, typically test-results. See testOptions.trace for advanced configuration.

import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    trace: 'retain-on-failure',
  },
};
export default config;

More browser and context options​

Any options accepted by browserType.launch([options]) or browser.newContext([options]) can be put into launchOptions or contextOptions respectively in the use section. Take a look at the full list of available options.

import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    launchOptions: {
      slowMo: 50,
    },
  },
};
export default config;

However, most common ones like headless or viewport are available directly in the use section - see basic options, emulation or network.

Explicit Context Creation and Option Inheritance​

If using the built-in browser fixture, calling browser.newContext([options]) will create a context with options inherted from the config:

// playwright.config.ts
import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from "@playwright/test";

const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  use: {
    userAgent: 'some custom ua',
    viewport: { width: 100, height: 100 },
  },
};

export default config;

An example test illustrating the initial context options are set:

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from "@playwright/test";

test('should inherit use options on context when using built-in browser fixture', async ({
  browser,
}) => {
  const context = await browser.newContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();
  expect(await page.evaluate(() => navigator.userAgent)).toBe('some custom ua');
  expect(await page.evaluate(() => window.innerWidth)).toBe(100);
  await context.close();
});

Testing options​

In addition to configuring Browser or BrowserContext, videos or screenshots, Playwright Test has many options to configure how your tests are run. Below are the most common ones, see TestConfig for the full list.

  • forbidOnly: Whether to exit with an error if any tests are marked as test.only. Useful on CI.
  • globalSetup: Path to the global setup file. This file will be required and run before all the tests. It must export a single function.
  • globalTeardown: Path to the global teardown file. This file will be required and run after all the tests. It must export a single function.
  • retries: The maximum number of retry attempts per test.
  • testDir: Directory with the test files.
  • testIgnore: Glob patterns or regular expressions that should be ignored when looking for the test files. For example, '**/test-assets'.
  • testMatch: Glob patterns or regular expressions that match test files. For example, '**/todo-tests/*.spec.ts'. By default, Playwright Test runs .*(test|spec)\.(js|ts|mjs) files.
  • timeout: Time in milliseconds given to each test. Learn more about various timeouts.
  • webServer: { command: string, port?: number, url?: string, ignoreHTTPSErrors?: boolean, timeout?: number, reuseExistingServer?: boolean, cwd?: string, env?: object } - Launch a process and wait that it's ready before the tests will start. See launch web server configuration for examples.
  • workers: The maximum number of concurrent worker processes to use for parallelizing tests. Can also be set as percentage of logical CPU cores, e.g. '50%'.

You can specify these options in the configuration file. Note that testing options are top-level, do not put them into the use section.

// playwright.config.ts
import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';

const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
  // Look for test files in the "tests" directory, relative to this configuration file
  testDir: 'tests',

  // Each test is given 30 seconds
  timeout: 30000,

  // Forbid test.only on CI
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,

  // Two retries for each test
  retries: 2,

  // Limit the number of workers on CI, use default locally
  workers: process.env.CI ? 2 : undefined,

  use: {
    // Configure browser and context here
  },
};
export default config;