Playwright Trace

Playwright Trace CLI

Inspect .zip trace files produced by Playwright tests without opening a browser.

Workflow

1. Start with trace open to extract the trace and see its metadata.
2. Use trace actions to see all actions with their action IDs.
3. Use trace action to drill into a specific action — see parameters, logs, source location, and available snapshots.
4. Use trace requests, trace console, or trace errors for cross-cutting views.
5. Use trace snapshot to get the DOM snapshot, or run a browser command against it.
6. Use trace close to remove the extracted trace data when done.

All commands after open operate on the currently opened trace — no need to pass the trace file again. Opening a new trace replaces the previous one.

Commands

Open a trace

# Extract trace and show metadata: browser, viewport, duration, action/error counts
npx playwright trace open 

Close a trace

# Remove extracted trace data
npx playwright trace close

Actions

# List all actions as a tree with action IDs and timing
npx playwright trace actions

# Filter by action title (regex, case-insensitive)
npx playwright trace actions --grep "click"

# Only failed actions
npx playwright trace actions --errors-only

Action details

# Show full details for one action: params, result, logs, source, snapshots
npx playwright trace action 

The action command displays available snapshot phases (before, input, after) and the exact command to extract them.

Requests

# All network requests: method, status, URL, duration, size
npx playwright trace requests

# Filter by URL pattern
npx playwright trace requests --grep "api"

# Filter by HTTP method
npx playwright trace requests --method POST

# Only failed requests (status >= 400)
npx playwright trace requests --failed

Request details

# Show full details for one request: headers, body, security
npx playwright trace request 

Console

# All console messages and stdout/stderr
npx playwright trace console

# Only errors
npx playwright trace console --errors-only

# Only browser console (no stdout/stderr)
npx playwright trace console --browser

# Only stdout/stderr (no browser console)
npx playwright trace console --stdio

Errors

# All errors with stack traces and associated actions
npx playwright trace errors

Snapshots

The snapshot command loads the DOM snapshot for an action into a headless browser and runs a single browser command against it. Without a browser command, it returns the accessibility snapshot.

# Get the accessibility snapshot (default)
npx playwright trace snapshot 

# Use a specific phase
npx playwright trace snapshot  --name before

# Run eval to query the DOM
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- eval "document.title"
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- eval "document.querySelector('#error').textContent"

# Eval on a specific element ref (from the snapshot)
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- eval "el => el.getAttribute('data-testid')" e5

# Take a screenshot of the snapshot
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- screenshot

# Redirect output to a file
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- eval "document.body.outerHTML" --filename=page.html
npx playwright trace snapshot  -- screenshot --filename=screenshot.png

Only three browser commands are useful on a frozen snapshot: snapshot, eval, and screenshot.

Attachments

# List all trace attachments
npx playwright trace attachments

# Extract an attachment by its number
npx playwright trace attachment 1
npx playwright trace attachment 1 -o out.png

Typical investigation

# 1. Open the trace and see what's inside
npx playwright trace open test-results/my-test/trace.zip

# 2. What actions ran?
npx playwright trace actions

# 3. Which action failed?
npx playwright trace actions --errors-only

# 4. What went wrong?
npx playwright trace action 12

# 5. What did the page look like at that moment?
npx playwright trace snapshot 12

# 6. Query the DOM for more detail
npx playwright trace snapshot 12 -- eval "document.querySelector('.error-message').textContent"

# 7. Any relevant network failures?
npx playwright trace requests --failed

# 8. Any console errors?
npx playwright trace console --errors-only

Source & license

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

• Author: laborany
• Source: laborany/laborany
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://laborany.github.io

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