Playwright Regression Testing

Playwright Regression Testing (TypeScript)

Strategy and best practices for automated regression testing of web applications using Playwright with TypeScript.

> Activation: This skill is triggered when working with regression test strategy, test suite selection, test prioritization, CI/CD pipeline testing, flaky test management, test sharding, or optimizing test execution for web applications using Playwright.

When to Use This Skill

• Plan regression suites with risk-based and change-based test selection
• Organize tests into tiers (smoke, sanity, selective, full regression)
• Optimize execution with parallelization, sharding, and time-budget strategies
• Integrate with CI/CD using GitHub Actions pipelines
• Manage flaky tests with quarantine, retry policies, and root cause tracking
• Monitor suite health with execution time, flake rate, and detection metrics
• Select tests after changes using git diff analysis and impact mapping

Prerequisites

| Requirement | Details | | -------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | Node.js | v18+ recommended | | Playwright | @playwright/test package | | TypeScript | typescript configured in project | | Browsers | Installed via npx playwright install | | Git | Required for change-based test selection | | GitHub Actions | Recommended CI/CD platform |

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Quick Reference

Tier Model

Tier 0 — Smoke       ( Common shortcuts and "good enough" excuses that erode test quality — and the reality behind each.

| Rationalization                                    | Reality                                                                                                 |
| -------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| "Run all tests every time"                         | Change-based test selection reduces CI time 60-80%. Run the full suite nightly, not every commit.       |
| "Flaky tests are normal"                           | Flaky tests erode trust in the entire suite. Quarantine, investigate, and fix them.                     |
| "Regression testing is just re-running everything" | Strategic selection (risk-based, change-based) catches more defects in less time than brute-force runs. |
| "Test sharding is premature optimization"          | Parallel sharding cuts CI time linearly with workers. Start with 4 shards from day one.                 |
| "Smoke tests cover regression"                     | Smoke tests verify health; regression tests verify behavior. They serve different purposes.             |
| "Tagging tests is busywork"                        | Tags enable selective execution, prioritization, and suite analysis. Untagged suites are unmanageable.  |

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## References

| Document                                                   | Content                                                                                                                                                                      |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Regression Strategy](./references/regression-strategy.md) | Tier definitions, test selection (change-based, risk-based, historical, time-budget), directory layout, tagging, naming conventions, Playwright best practices, example test |
| [CI/CD Integration](./references/ci-cd-integration.md)     | GitHub Actions tiered pipeline, sharding, merge reports, Playwright config, performance optimization, CLI reference                                                          |
| [Flaky Management](./references/flaky-management.md)       | Retry policies, quarantine strategies, detection checklist, suite health metrics, troubleshooting                                                                            |

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## Verification

After completing this skill's workflow, confirm:

- [ ] **Regression suite covers critical paths** — All priority-1 user flows have regression tests
- [ ] **Smoke test subset identified** — Tagged `@smoke` tests run in under 2 minutes
- [ ] **No test duplication** — Each scenario tested exactly once at the appropriate level
- [ ] **Test isolation verified** — Running tests in random order produces same results as sequential
- [ ] **Flaky test baseline established** — All tests pass 5/5 consecutive runs
- [ ] **CI pipeline configured** — GitHub Actions workflow runs regression on schedule
- [ ] **Allure or HTML report generated** — Test results available in human-readable format

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [fugazi](https://github.com/fugazi)
- **Source:** [fugazi/test-automation-skills-agents](https://github.com/fugazi/test-automation-skills-agents)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.